PRESS RELEASE
Exhibition
of photographs
FERRARI
BY MAILANDER
The origins of a myth
13
May - 4 September 2005
Turin
– Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
“I reported on rallies, Formula 1 racing and car shows. I visited
manufacturers, met with the managers and interviewed them. It was a great
period, stimulating, exciting and a bit of an adventure. I always used
my Leica… it’s a camera many professional photographers would
still like to have (…) Taking photos on circuits and in rallies
in the 1950s and ‘60s was a great adventure. As there weren’t
many officials around you could go almost anywhere you liked, in the most
spectacular and dangerous positions or in the pits, where there were all
the ingredients for good shots. This isn’t possible in today’s
Formula 1: no more sweat, oil-splashed overalls and t-shirts, dog-tired
drivers with faces blackened by exhaust fumes, wives and girlfriends taking
times with stopwatches hanging round their necks, people who lived each
race in a permanent state of tension and anxiety and at the end of each
lap peered out nervously to check if their car was still in the race.
With no computers, telemetry and television everything was much simpler,
more human and perhaps – for those of us who remember the experience
– more enthralling”
(Rodolfo Mailander)
What would the car scene in post-war Europe be like without Ferrari? What
would Formula 1 be like without Ferrari?
It is impossible to think of racing cars without thinking of Ferrari,
a true glamour icon, symbolising excitement and emotion. The origins of
its success today derive from years of hard work and experimentation,
especially between 1950 and 1955, which marked the first glorious years
of extraordinary creativity. Exciting years during which Ferrari, initially
the exuberant new arrival, gradually became the dominant force in the
Grand Prix circuit and in the world of sports cars.
One hundred photographs
taken by a person with privileged access to the world of racing and Ferrari
document those early years of success, the racing circuit and its protagonists
– Enzo Ferrari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari, Nino Farina,
Luigi Villoresi – as well as the Maranello factory and its products,
and amusing episodes that have become history(“One of the most memorable
episodes in the history of racing happened in the 1952 edition of the
Mille Miglia. Giovanni Bracco’s Ferrari was a few minutes behind
Kling’s Mercedes. While the officials were stamping his race docket
in Florence, Bracco asked for a flask of Chianti. Thanks to the additional
“fuel” he managed to get past the German racing up and down
the Appennines”).
This is the exhibition
dedicated to Ferrari by the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli. One
hundred photographs drawn from the volume, “Ferrari by Mailander.
The dramatic early years of spectacular creativity and intoxicating success”
written by Karl Ludvigsen (prize-winning journalist and current owner
of the Mailander archive in his world-famous Ludvigsen Library), published
by Dalton Watson Fine Books in the United States.
The photographs, some of them hitherto unpublished, are by Rodolfo Mailander,
at the time a young reporter dazzled by the world of racing cars. He was
correspondent for the prestigious magazine, “Automobile Revue”,
the bible of motor car journalism, and also contributed to other periodicals,
such as Sport Illustrierte, Motorwelt, Auto Italiana, Automobile Year,
Autocourse, The Autocar, Auto speed & Sport and L’Equipe.
Rodolfo Mailander
had the opportunity to work on a number of articles covering Ferraris
in the Grand Prix races, rallies, road races and hill climbs. Thanks to
his friendship with the drivers, and in particular with Stirling Moss,
he managed to use his Leica to best effect, taking spectacular and sometimes
dangerous shots (“Stirling Moss was the man I’d ask for advice
when I had to decide the best spot on a circuit to take good photos. But
then he stopped giving me advice after he’d gone off the circuit
two or three times at the very point he’d suggested!”).
The exhibition will
also include some fine portraits of Enzo Ferrari and drivers of the period,
such as Juan Manuel Fangio and Alberto Ascari. The photographs will be
accompanied by some objects and memorabilia from the 1950s: drivers’
helmets and outfits, engines and models.
Two historic cars lent for the occasion by the “Carlo Biscaretti
di Ruffia” Motor Car Museum will be on show alongside the Lingotto
race track: the Lancia D 50, which marked the transition between Lancia
and Ferrari and bore both marques, and the Ferrari 246 F1, with which
Mike Hawthorn won the World Championship in 1958.
The section dedicated to Ferrari today will display the F1 2003 GA, exceptionally
lent by Ferrari for the first two weeks of the exhibition, as well as
a private collection of helmets from the 1970s to today, a collection
of Ferrari models and some modern F1 engines.
The “Ferrari
by Mailander” catalogue edited by Skira will be available to journalists
during the inauguration. The book “Ferrari by Mailander. The dramatic
early years of spectacular creativity and intoxicating success”
written by Karl Ludvigsen will be available at the bookshop.
“I followed
a world I loved and was paid to do it. The intense memories and photos
you’ll find in this book, together with my passion for superb, fast
cars, date from that period. If you want to phone me at home, please don’t
while there’s a Gran Prix on TV.”
(Rodolfo Mailander)
Press Office - Italy:
Studio Mailander – Barbara Papuzzi
tel. +39 011 5527312 – fax: +39 011 5624048 – cell. +39 333
6535410
b.papuzzi@mailander.it
Press Office –
International:
Fiat International Corporate Communication – Raffaello Porro
tel. +39 011 0062743 – fax: +39 011 0062381 – cell. +39 335
1015456
raffaello.porro@fiatgroup.com
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