Collateral exhibitions

Fall 2024 | 12 - 20 October

THE SHAPE OF PERFUME: SCENT BOTTLES BETWEEN ART AND HISTORY

in collaboration with Monica Magnani Collection

A selection of perfume bottles designed for small quantities of essences before major fragrance brands took over international markets.

Fall 2024 | 12 - 20 October

SHOOT FOR THE MOON: HOW WE WILL LIVE ON OUR SATELLITE

in collaboration with European Space Agency (ESA)

Mercanteinfiera invites you on a journey to explore the frontiers of space technology and the future of humanity on the Moon, featuring a selection of ``interstellar`` objects from the European Space Agency (ESA).

Fall 2024 | 12 - 20 October

BEATLEMANIA: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE HISTORY OF THE FAB FOUR

in collaboration with the Beatles Museum of Brescia and the Patronage of Beatlesians of Italy Associates

America, 1964. Four young Englishmen with bowl haircut arrive overseas and quickly win over audiences with catchy melodies, love lyrics, and tailored suits: 60 years ago the phenomenon known as Beatlemania was born.

Spring 2024 | 2 - 10 March

WAKE UP! DREAMSIGNERS: DESIGN MATCHMAKING

coordinated by Arturo Dell’Acqua Bellavitis and Eugenia Chiara for Polytechnic University of Milan, School of Design and Giulia Brighenti and Francesca Rossi per Wake Up!

90 students, 36 projects, Wake Up! merges creativity, industry, and sustainability, shaping the future of Italian fashion.

Spring 2024 | 2 - 10 March

REVIVAL: GOODWOOD VS MARANELLO

a cura di Uli Weber

Immerse yourself in the vibrancy of Goodwood Revival and be captivated by the mysterious beauty of Ferraris, thanks to Uli Weber's unique shots.

Spring 2024 | 2 - 10 March

MASCULINE JEWELRY

From 18th-century splendor to gender-fluid glamour. Curated by Mara Cappelletti

From 18th-century to today, men's jewelry tells the story of evolving style and the fluidity of gender boundaries.

Fall 2023 | 30 September - 8 October

IN VINO VERITAS

The infinite shapes of the corkscrew

Multipurpose, pocket, lever, simple mechanism, corkscrews took on a thousand shapes and connotations.

Fall 2023 | 30 September - 8 October

PAOLO BRILLO - STOLEN MOMENTS

Bob Dylan and other music icons

A curated selection of ``stolen`` shots taken during hundreds of concerts will dive you in the fascinating world of Rock.

Fall 2023 | 30 September - 8 October

ITALIAN FASHION

Identity, transformation and gender imaginaries (1960-1980). A journey through CSAC Archives.

A dive into the past which helps to explain contemporary changes new stylistic choices and new fashion trends. In collaboration with Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione of University of Parma.

Spring 2023 | 4 - 12 March

SUPER STRONG

Life as a boxing ring

Created in collaboration with Massimo Cutò, is an exploration of the story of four immigrants with fearless biceps and spirit.

Spring 2023 | 4 - 12 March

WAVE UPON WAVE

At the roots of navigation

Organized by Emanuele Seghetti in collaboration with the Barca Lariana Museum, aims to evoke the history of some of the most interesting boats built on Lake Como.

Spring 2023 | 4 - 12 March

ANIME

Experience (アニメ体験)

A trip back in time to the glamorous golden era of Japanese anime and cartoons of the 80s and 90s; in collaboration with The Bologna Nerd association and the collectors Alessandro Cavazza and Fabio Cavallo.

Spring 2022 | 12 - 20 March

OLIVETTI

#StoriaDiInnovazione

In collaboration with Associazione Archivio Storico Olivetti A distinct path in three stages - typewriters, calculation machines, pc printers and cash registers - which aims to be a reflection on the design concept according to Adriano Olivetti: not just a powder to put on the product to sell more, as a metaphor of responsibility towards the environment, people, towards the destiny of the product and society. The models M40 and Lettera 22 will be on display, the portable typewriter that has won over great journalists and writers from Indro Montanelli to Oriana Fallaci, from Enzo Biagi to Ernest Hemingway.And then the Olivetti Valentine born in 1968 from the project of Ettore Sottsass and Perry A. King, the Divisumma 24 and 18, Summa 19 and Programma 101 computing machines, the desktop computer considered by a part of computer historiography to be the first true personal computer of history.

Spring 2022 | 12 - 20 March

PARTIVANO I BASTIMENTI

Home sweet home America

In collaboration with Massimo Cutò tells the story of Italian migrants journey who, in the early 1900s, embarked for America with large companies - Navigazione Generale Italiana, Lloyd Italiano, Fabre Line, just to name a few. They range from the posters of the elegant fumigating ships sent monthly to the church and municipal offices that advertised the new routes, to the advertisements for Italian products already a symbol of a pioneering “Made in Italy”; from the evocative family photos framed between the two flags to seal integration in the New World, to the ski stool, shoe shine, the humble destiny of many wop (without paper term by which the Italians were called). And then cockades, the dreaded Ellis Island health records that decreed the beginning or the end of the dream and the melancholy music for a distant homeland.

Fall 2021 | 2 - 10 October

A MAN’S BACKBONE

The history of the tie

A collateral show that tells, through the display of relevant items and supporting graphics, the story of the tie, a key accessory of a man’s wardrobe but, above all, an element with a long history and tradition that involves the world of textiles as well as glamour, elegance and everyday life.

Fall 2021 | 2 - 10 October

BACK TO THE GAMES

``Back to the Games``, in collaboration with the Video Game Archive of the Cineteca di Bologna and the Bologna Nerd Association, will take visitors on a journey through the history of consoles and their evolution.

Autumn 2020 | 3 - 11 October

THE GOLDEN TWENTIES

Life and fashion of the decade of Les Années Folles

The Golden Twenties. Life and fashion of the decade of Les Années Folles
At Mercanteinfiera Fall 2020, Fiere di Parma (October, 3-11)

Autumn 2019 | 5 - 13 October

BONANNI DEL RIO COLLECTION

The italian choice

A synergy on the wings of collecting: a passion that becomes a profession, a personal adventure that opens up an opportunity not only for those who do it but also for those who assist it, all this is summarized in the Bonanni del Rio Collection

Autumn 2019 | 5 - 13 October

in her shoes

Two steps in the history of footwear

An excursus into the world of footwear: two steps between some fundamental examples of the history of creativity and fashion but also of Made in Italy, of how the skilled hands of our designers and artisans have been able to make a significant international difference in a sector, that of fashion, which still sees Italy as the market leader.

2 - 10 March 2019 Pavilion 4

STORIES OF THE CITY OF LUNA

Fragments of life in the shadow of Rome

The ancient city of Luni has always been known. Roman colony founded in 177 BC as a military outpost with the name of Luna. Its fortune was linked to the exploitation of marble (the current Carrara marble) which, from the port, was shipped to all destinations in the Mediterranean. The spirit of the exhibition at Mercanteinfiera will be to illustrate the fortune of a Roman colony that has flourished for the trade of Apuan marble.

2-10 March 2019 Pavilion 4

LET’S PLAY

How we played

Dolls, toy soldiers and toy trains. A toy is never just a toy but a living material that brings everyone back to a magical elsewhere. A game is a story, a chapter of our time, there to remind us to remember: how we were and, why not, “what” we became.
The collateral that brings to the stage the remote past of the toy (1900- 1960) thus aims to be a dip into the world of memories, individual but also collective.

29 September - 7 October 2018 Pavilion 4

THE GLASS BEADS ROAD

From Venice to Timbuktu 15th-20th century

“A traveler to this country brings no provisions ... nor ducats or drachmas. He must bring with him pieces of salt and nazhms (strings of glass beads) and some aromatic substance. ``
So wrote, in 1352, Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan traveler, on the road from Oualata, in present-day Mauritania, to Timbuktu.

29 September - 7 October 2018 Pavilion 4

FROM SHEET METAL TO DESIGN

Sergio Scaglietti's maieutics

Sergio Scaglietti is an undisputed icon in the history of the automobile and a masterful expression of Italian creativity in the automotive sector. His innate flair, which he has been able to derive from sheet metal plates bold shapes capable of arousing the emotions of the work of art is represented by prestigious specimens from private collections as a tribute offered to the genius of the Master Carrozzaio author of the design of the most beautiful and elegant cars to the world.

3 - 11 March 2018 Pavilion 4

Illustrator

Special section

First edition of ``ILLUSTRATOR.``: An exhibition curated by Alessandro Canu and Jamais Vu which aims to highlight militant illustrators in the difficult but very rich independent circuit at the Mercanteinfiera.
Among the artists selected for this world premiere, James Kalinda, Notawonderboy, Isabella Bersellini, Johnny Cobalto, Federica Poletti, Centina and many others stand out.

3 - 11 March 2018 Pavilion 4

THE STARS LOOK DOWN

The posters of the films by Anton Giulio Majano, king of TV drama

The exhibition recalls, through posters, playbills and photo envelopes, the film career of Anton Giulio Majano (Chieti, 1909-Marino, 1994), known above all as the author of television dramas that have made history, but presented here in the role of film director.

3 - 11 March 2018 Pavilion 4

BLUE OF GENOA

The origins of blue jeans

The origins of an Italian story that has crossed national borders to become a legend, transforming itself from Genoa blue to blue jeans. How the fabric was produced and colored, how it was used, how many times did it encounter great art and how many times did Italian cultural life go before it became property of the whole world.

30 September - 8 October 2017 Pavilio 4

THE SUBSTANCE OF FORM

Franco Albini, master of Italian architecture, design and urban planning of the twentieth century, is reinterpreted here from different, and partly unpublished, points of view.
The path, curated by Giampiero Bosoni, is aimed at immersing viewers in the creative process and in the work of the master of Italian Rationalism

30 September - 8 October 2017 Pavilion 4

ON THE ROSY WINGS OF LOVE

``On the Rosy Wings of Love`` will present original costumes for the works staged at the Verona Arena: the sophisticated fabrics worn by the Ethiopian princess Aida, the sumptuous embroideries of the gypsy Azucena in the Trovatore, the elegance of Elisabetta di Don's lace. Carlos of Valois.

30 September - 8 October 2017 Pavilion 4

MIA PHOTO FAIR

MIA Photo Fair, born in 2011 from an idea by Fabio Castelli, is the art fair dedicated to photography and the moving image in Italy. MIA Photo Fair offers its visitors an exhaustive path on art photography by presenting Solo Show on the one hand and collective stands with a specific curatorial project on the other.

25 February - 5 March 2017 Pavilion 4

THE SEA SMILES FROM AFAR

Paintings, engravings, posters and objects around the imaginary of the sea

Traveling towards the sea on a journey through stages between tourist guides, period clothes, photographs and advertising posters, we will understand how the languages of art and crafts have made the sea a place of the soul.

25 February - 5 March 2017 Pavilion 4

L’ORO MATTO E IL GIOIELLO

Fantasy in the first half of the twentieth century

It glitters, but it is not gold: it is plated, the material with which the bijoux were made in the factories of Casalmaggiore (CR), now collected in the only Italian museum dedicated to costume jewelery.
A journey into the world of imitation but also of fantasy, to discover small objects that still shine with their own light as if they were gold.

1 - 9 October 2016 Pavilion 4

MUSES ON STAGE

A century of curtains and backdrops of the stage designers from Parma for Maria Luigia’s theatre

The collateral intends to investigate with an artistic cut in which the link with the Teatro Regio and its history can only stand out, the profile not only of a famous female figure but also and above all the face of a city and its development, artistic and cultural.

1 - 9 October 2016 Pavilion 4

SECRETS OF QUEENS, QUEENS OF SECRETS

What were the objects of the hearts of the queens? What are the objects of use that a special life and refined manufacturing made unique?
A journey through the memories of Maria Luisa, Margherita of Savoy and other rulers to discover how art ennobled habits and habitual gestures.

27 February - 6 March 2016 Pavilion 4

Mario Sironi

illustration, painting, great decoration

55 years after his death, Mercanteinfiera hosts the exhibition dedicated to Mario Sironi, an Italian painter of the twentieth century. About ninety works that come largely from the collection of Andrea Sironi Straußwald, grandson of the artist.

27 February - 6 March 2016 Pavilion 4

PARMA 360 ON VIEW

Parma 360 on view expresses contemporary creativity through works, images, videos and performances by international artists such as Michelangelo Pistoletto and Maurizio Galimberti.

27 February - 6 March 2016 Pavilion 4

ALONE OR ACCOMPANIED?

The photographic work as a single work and as a series

With the Sole or Accompanied exhibition we want to offer the public the opportunity to experience at first the fruition of a single work, representative of a more complex project that is found later in its design sequence.

3 - 11 October 2015 Pavilion 4

FOR A FISTFUL OF MILES

Faces and events of a race that crosses history

The combination of car and driver is the inseparable combination that ideally leads us to think about movement, the release of power and speed. This combination has not only transformed society's way of life in the last century, but has been able to convey great emotions through sports competitions.

3 - 11 October 2015 Pavilion 4

WHAT WAS BUBBLING IN THE PAN?

Posters, advertising posters, recipe books and utensils (1900-1945)

Honey, chocolate, perfumes that pervade landings and memories of family tables: Villa Carlotta, under the wise direction of Serena Bertolucci, offers us an interesting journey through the representation of the tools and products that animated the kitchens between 1900 and 1945 .

28 February - 8 March 2015 Pavilion 4

INK BATTLES

The war between advertising and propaganda through the filter of printed paper, in collaboration with the Villa Carlotta Museum: The portrait of the variations of a moment as terrible as it is pregnant for the whole of humanity.

28 February - 8 March 2015 Pavilion 4

CIRCULATING THROUGH TIME

A stroll through design, furniture and everyday life, in collaboration with Berni Studio: The living rooms, the furnishings, the pieces that marked furniture and design in Italy between the fifties and the eighties.