- THE EXHIBITION
Rainer W. Schlegelmilch
2/4/2026 – 11/10/2026
Rainer W. Schlegelmilch — known in racing circles as “RWS” — is considered one of the greatest photographers in Formula 1, a discipline he has followed since the early 1960s. His images are celebrated for their extraordinary quality and the emotional intensity they convey. His attention to composition, sensitivity to light and ability to capture the decisive moment make Schlegelmilch a true master, capable of transforming the speed, tension and risk of racing into a powerful and timeless visual narrative.
Schlegelmilch attended his first race in 1962, when he produced a series of portraits at the “1000 Kilometres” of Nürburgring as a project for his final examination at the Bavarian State School of Photography in Munich. Eighteen months later he opened his photographic design studio in Frankfurt, but motor racing immediately became a central element of his work. From the very beginning — initially working exclusively in black and white — he photographed for numerous prestigious motorsport magazines and for companies involved in the world of racing. From 1974 onwards he devoted himself exclusively to the Formula 1 World Championship.
“RWS” has curated numerous books dedicated to the automobile and produced more than 500 outdoor photo shoots featuring cars by Ferrari, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Aston Martin and other British manufacturers. With the transition to digital photography in 2004, his archive — comprising 15,000 black-and-white photographs and nearly 600,000 colour slides digitised — became one of the most organised and comprehensive motorsport archives in existence.
In 2011, at Monza, Bernie Ecclestone awarded Rainer W. Schlegelmilch a lifetime permanent photographic pass, recognising the extraordinary value of his contribution to the visual documentation of Formula 1.
With the publication of illustrated books such as The Golden Age of Formula 1, The Roaring 70s, Formula 1 World Champions and 70s Concept Cars for teNeues, as well as the monumental volumes Schlegelmilch – 50 Years of Formula 1 Photography and Schlegelmilch Sports Car Racing 1962–1973 for Könemann, Rainer W. Schlegelmilch concluded his active career on the circuits in 2012. Since then he has devoted himself to organising exhibitions around the world, often centred on his early black-and-white photographs. Today Schlegelmilch still attends several Formula 1 races each year, follows all kinds of motorsport on television and supports new photographic and commercial projects in the sport with his many years of experience.
- DELOREAN
Ritorno al Futuro
Taking centre stage in the exhibition is the iconic 1981 DeLorean DMC-12, designed by Giorgietto Giugiaro, together with a selection of sketches and ink drawings on tracing paper from the Italdesign Archive, chosen to tell the story of the creative process behind the car that has left its mark on the history of cinema and design. The car – characterized by flat surfaces, sharp edges, unpainted stainless-steel bodywork, and spectacular gull-wing doors – embodies the vision of a futuristic sports car, which has become the aesthetic expression of an era, to which today’s car designers continue to refer for its enduring modernity.
In addition to the car and its drawings, the exhibition pays homage to the pop masterpiece with a series of original props from the making of the film, from Bill and Patrick’s extraordinary collection: the TRW numeric keypad and the time circuit breaker, both belonging to the “Time Machine”.
- SUSPENDED
PROTOTYPES OF TIME
In the second part, on display are twelve works from the Suspended series by the artist Anri Sala, one of the most significant voices on today’s contemporary scene. Presented for the first time together in a museum, the works – twelve like the number of hours on a clock face – offer a powerful reflection on the suspension and fluidity of time: digital drawings of extraordinary beauty that meditate on the relationship between eidos and chronos, between time and space, between the visible and the impalpable passage of hours and minutes, which – while not giving certain proof of existence beyond mathematical measurement – nonetheless leave indelible traces on our lives.
- Exhibition
Hot Panda
1 October – 26 October 2025
Alongside the opening of the exhibition inspired by BACK TO THE FUTURE and the iconic DeLorean designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile presents Hot Panda, the project that photographer Bin Jia has dedicated to another masterpiece created by the Piedmontese designer: the Panda.
“In this work by Chinese photographer Bin Jia, the Panda is transformed from a symbol of the very idea of a utilitarian car into a machine for viewing. The subject of this gaze is contemporary Italy. Inevitably placed at the centre of the frame, according to a rigorous and repetitive principle that recalls mass production, the cars photographed by Bin Jia not only reveal the countless variations in model and colour developed over time, but also, and above all, the urban and natural environment that surrounds them: the streets, the architecture, the cities.
The Panda is a telescope, but also a time machine: its angular shapes collide with the signs of the most recent contemporary reality scattered across the landscape, triggering a kind of temporal paradox. Fiat Panda = DeLorean DMC-12. Hot Panda is a tribute to slowness, work, and simplicity (the Panda is an icon of all these values) at a time of fundamental change for the main actors of this project. Automobiles are being transformed, in response to the new challenges of mobility, ecological urgencies, new urban planning models, technological evolution, the availability of materials and components, and geopolitics. At the same time, photography is also radically changing, increasingly devoid of the surplus of objectivity that had guaranteed its success before the advent of digital and AI. Hot Panda is a new journey through Italy. On the other hand, in the original one Goethe wrote: “The purpose of this magnificent journey of mine is not to delude myself, but to know myself in relation to objects.”
(Francesco Zanot)
- SOUND
Sound Reconstruction of the Monaco - Trossi Engine
The installation recreates the sound of the legendary Monaco–Trossi engine, unheard since 1935, through a sophisticated audio reconstruction using cutting-edge neural synthesis techniques. The algorithmic sonification process, conceived and developed by MuseeX, combines a scientific and creative approach that integrates historical sources, engineering data, and generative models. The result is an immersive and realistic sound model that evokes the authentic voice of a car lost to time. Reliving the past through sound lies at the heart of MuseeX’s research: each project resurfaces what has been forgotten, hidden, or lost, transforming it into a soundscape that gives voice to memory.
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Acknowledgements
Carlo Felice Trossi. Unfinished Hero
Curated by Giordano Bruno Guerri
With Francesco Foppiano, Davide Lorenzone, Ilaria Pani
Artistic director Maurizio Cilli
Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile thanks all lenders:Andrea Ghisalberti, Lopresto Collection, Alex von Mòzer, STELLANTIS Europe SPA | HERITAGE (Museo Alfa Romeo), Mercedes-Benz Classic, Maserati Umberto Panini APS Collection, Museo Scooter&Lambretta, GAVS – Gruppo Amici Velivoli Storici – Tourin Section, R.E. San Giorgi, Yacht Club Italiano
Photo credits: Fondazione Sella, Fotografia dall’Archivio, Zagari © The Spitzley Archive, Varagine.it Historical Photographic Archive on the City of Varazze
Videos: Archivio Luce Cinecittà
We express our gratitude to Maurizio Fracassi for his valuable support and generous donation, through which the Carlo Felice Trossi archive has has been incorporated into the collection of the MAUTO Documentation Centre.
Special thanks to Gianluigi Ricuperati.
Project partners: Banca Generali Private, MuseeX
- BEYOND THE EXHIBITION
The catalogue
- PARTNERSHIP
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- PROJECTS AND MEETINGS
Public Program
Some of the scheduled meetings – all free and upon reservation – develop from the themes addressed by the temporary exhibitions and research activities of the Museum’s Conservation and Restoration Centre and Documentation Centre.
