FontanaArte Archive

On the occasion of its 90th anniversary, FontanaArte unveils its historic archive in the dedicated exhibition “FontanaArte, 90 Years of Light and Art”, open to the public during Milan Design Week from June 6 to 12, 2022.

Photographs, documents, projects, drawings, registers, product miniatures, objects, and ideas: the FontanaArte Archive is, for the first time, brought to light through a thorough process of recovery, cataloging, and enhancement of materials that have made the brand a leading excellence of Made in Italy worldwide for 90 years.

The digitization and valorization process was carried out by FontanaArte in collaboration with Promemoria Group, Italy’s leading company specialized in revitalizing the historic heritage of iconic brands and companies, cultural institutions, and private collections.

The Digital Vault®: The Archive Always Connected
Thanks to the mapping of existing materials, the cataloging method, and the creation of interconnected records, FontanaArte’s Digital Vault® becomes a fundamental tool for consultation and inspiration for internal and external collaborators, designers, and the media: a journey through Gio Ponti’s original drawings, Max Ingrand’s 1953 signed contract, and Luigi Fontana’s colored miniatures.

“The Digital Vault of FontanaArte is not just a collection of original pieces,” comments Francesco Librizzi, the brand’s Artistic Director. “It contains drawings, fragments, and prototypes of what the company has envisioned over the years: a tool that can be accessed simultaneously by multiple users worldwide to cross-reference data, create pathways, and open itself to the outside.”

“As Gio Ponti used to say, ‘For life to be great and full, it must contain both the past and the future.’ For us, the archive is a place of discovery,” recalls Andrea Montorio, CEO of Promemoria Group. “A place to search for clues from a past that speaks and constantly dialogues with the present, surpassing it.”

ARCHIVE. The Secret Light
From FontanaArte’s Digital Vault® comes a valorization project centered on the world of archives and open to the wider public.

During Milan Design Week, FontanaArte, Promemoria Group, and Altopiano Studio present ARCHIVE. The Secret Light, a format aimed at telling the story of archives through the voices of those who are constantly searching for the unseen: the archivists, true discoverers and interpreters of signs. In this teaser, light becomes the driver of the narrative, and Max Ingrand’s Fontana lamp — an icon since 1954 — transforms into a gateway to the brand’s archival treasures.