The famous Federico Fellini's film has already more than 55 years but the expression "La Dolce Vita", the sweet life, is more than ever lively in Rome. So many restaurants, bars, night- clubs in Rome and also in other Italian cities are named after it. And, in this moment, two important Roman events are related to it.
The Dolce Vita In Via Veneto. Fellini & Mastroianni
The first one is the inauguration of the renewed "Fontana di Trevi" where Marcello Mastroianni followed the beautiful blond Anita Ekberg, on the 3th of November. The restoration of the famous fountain (Nicola Salvi, 18th century, late baroque) began in June 2014 and was financed (2, 2 millions Euro) by the Fendi sisters. After one and a half year, the Romans and the tourists will be able to admire it again without any scaffolding and imagine having a part in the mythical scene of the film. And also, and this is not irrelevant, it will be again possible to drop some coins into the fountain just to be sure to come back to Rome.
Fontana di Trevi
The famous scene from La Dolce Vita
Fellini's is also present, in a certain way, in another part of Rome. After Paris and the "Musée d'Orsay", the exhibition entitled "Una Dolce Vita? From Liberty to Italian design 1900-1940" is now in Rome, in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, via Nazionale (not far from the railway station Termini), until the 17th of January.The title "Dolce Vita" has a question mark. In fact, in this exhibition we are not at all in the fellinian decadent Rome of the beginning of the sixties, but in a very young Italy, at the beginning of the twentieth century where artists and artisans worked together, full of enthusiasm, united by an optimistic vision of a world based on progress.
Everything started with the First Exhibition of Modern Decorative Art of Torino in 1902. It was the period of floral patterns and interlaced curves of the "Liberty" style, but also the extravagant furniture of Carlo Bugatti, followed very soon (1909, Marinetti' s "Futurism Manifesto") by the even more eccentric Futurists.
After the choc of the WWI, these lovers of progress, movement and speed will be ready to reconstruct the universe with their unlimited fantasy and their faith in the miracles of the contemporary world.
Everything started with the First Exhibition of Modern Decorative Art of Torino in 1902. It was the period of floral patterns and interlaced curves of the "Liberty" style, but also the extravagant furniture of Carlo Bugatti, followed very soon (1909, Marinetti' s "Futurism Manifesto") by the even more eccentric Futurists.
After the choc of the WWI, these lovers of progress, movement and speed will be ready to reconstruct the universe with their unlimited fantasy and their faith in the miracles of the contemporary world.
Palazzo Delle Esposizioni
The Exhibition Poster
Fortunato Depero, Puppazzo Campari 1925
On the top floor of the huge "Palazzo delle Esposizioni" you can admire all that extraordinary creativity through a rich selection of furniture, glasses, lamps, ceramics, cloths, toys.... overflowed of fantasy and joy. The objects made by the futurist Fortunato Depero for his "House of the Magician" are particularly amazing. You'll discover also the incredible modernity of the objects designed much before 1940. As, for instance, the table lamp "Bilia" (1931) of the great architect Gio Ponti, considered as the father of the Italian design.
Carlo Bugatti, Sedia - 1902
As in the 1931 the lamp was considered too much avant-garde, the production of it started many years later. And today, Bilia is still produced under the brand name "Fontana Arte" created by Gio Ponti in the thirties. The Dolce Vita is not over.
Gio Ponti, The Bilia Lamp
