- THE EXHIBITION
ULTRALEGGERA. A design journey with Marcello Gandini between Italy and Qatar
20/06/2025 – 31/08/2025
Marcello Gandini’s legacy of thought in an exhibition one year after his death. A lively and contemporary reflection on his legacy, which becomes a living matter of intergenerational dialogue between the past, present and future of design.
The exhibition – born out of a collaboration with Qatar Auto Museum (QAM) and Virginia Commonwealth School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts) – is curated by Marzia Gandini and Simone Carena, a lecturer at VCUarts Qatar and the project’s creator. Hosted in the Museum’s Project Room from 19 June to 31 August 2025, the exhibition connects Marcello Gandini’s drawings and prototypes with the projects of VCUarts Qatar students who have been inspired by his always innovative and contemporary work.
Gandini is universally recognised as one of the most daring innovators in automotive design: legendary dream cars such as the Lamborghini Miura, Marzal, Lancia Stratos, Alfa Romeo Carabo and Montreal were born from his pencil. Revolutionary projects not only for their aesthetic impact, but also for their engineering and technological vision.
ULTRALEGGERA offers a selection of drawings, sketches and original models by Gandini, flanked by works realised by the students involved in the project in order to explore the theme of movement, not only physical but also cultural and creative, opening up new perspectives and fostering connections between tradition and innovation.
Before arriving in Turin, the exhibition was presented at the Qatar Auto Museum, where it will remain open until 2 June 2025. The project takes the form of an itinerant experience, capable of narrating Gandini’s design thinking and its relevance for new generations of creatives.
The project is completed by four previously unreleased video lectures recorded in 2023, resulting from conversations between Marcello Gandini and Simone Carena. Today they represent a precious educational heritage, aimed at the new generations, to reflect on the power of the original idea and the value of the creative gesture.
As Gandini himself said: “Use technology for what it is, i.e. a means of putting ideas into practice. But do not stop writing, drawing, making calculations, creating sketches on paper. If there is no original idea, no technological prodigy can create it for you”.
- SUMMER SCHOOL
The design of ideas
From 18 to 21 June 2025, the exhibition will be accompanied by the ULTRALEGGERA Summer School – entitled The Design of Ideas – organised in collaboration with the Turin Polytechnic, Studio Marcello Gandini and Pinacoteca Agnelli. The programme proposes four days of theoretical meetings and practical workshops, aimed at designers, architects, engineers, planners – but also to all those who are interested in various ways in the connections between aesthetics, innovation and mobility. A unique opportunity to meet Marcello Gandini’s thinking through the voices of lecturers, designers and professionals who worked with him.
The meetings – which will take place between the Museum’s headquarters, the Turin Polytechnic and the Marcello Gandini Studio in Almese (TO) – aim to explore the challenges associated with today’s creative professions, from designers to architects, engineers and planners. Starting from the creative and thought process that has characterised Gandini’s research, participants will be able to experiment the ways of conceiving an idea, starting from the use of a pencil and a blank sheet of paper, in an experience that favours analogical tools, such as paper, origami, plastic modelling. The artefacts produced will find a place in the ULTRALEGGERA exhibition.
The project is completed by four unpublished videolectures recorded in 2023, resulting from conversations between Marcello Gandini and Simone Carena. Today they represent a precious educational heritage, aimed at the new generations, to reflect on the power of the original idea and the value of the creative gesture.
- 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.
