THREE EXHINITIONS FOR THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY

To celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Kingdom of Italy and present Italy as a unified nation, three Expositions were organized in the three historical Capitals of the kingdom in 1911: a floral exposition in Florence, an exposition of arts and history in Rome, and the Exposition of Industry and Labor in Turin.

The very first idea of an Exposition in Turin came from the Press: a meeting of the Journalists' Association of Turin promoted an exhibition devoted to the “Newspaper”. This idea was so well received that  on the 14^th of February 1907 (Touring Club Italiano, 1911) the Exposition's General Committee was created at the Camera di Commercio in Turin, and Senator Secondo Frola was appointed president of the Committee. The vice-presidents were the former majors of Turin, Senator Felice Rignon, Count Ernesto Balbo Bertone di Sambuy, Count Severino Casana and lawyer Alfonso Badini Confalonieri. King Vittorio named deputy Tommaso Villa [1] as the Executive Committee's president. A private fund was established based on a fundraising campaign that established a minimal donation of at least 100 Italian lire. The final amount of funds raised for the exposition exceeded 6.5 million lire [2] (Buscioni, 1990). The Turinese Exposition was organized into 26 groups including; education; industry; agriculture and commerce; road, construction, and railway matters; sporting events, etc. (De Luca, 1911).

THE PROTAGONISTS OF THE EXPOSITION

The Executive Committee appointed the technical committee formed by Pietro Fenoglio, Stefano Molli, and Giacomo Salvadori di Wiesenhof (Touring Club Italiano, 1911). The three engineers were charged to design some of the structures (Arts applied to Industry, Music, Fashion, thematic structures, and restaurants) and to monitor compliance to regulations and style. They designed a general plan inspired by the various expositions held in Paris, which had exemplified an expositive city planned on the banks of an iconic river (Buscioni, 1990). Other architects and engineers were appointed to design other structures, including engineers Giovanni Chevalley, Alfonso Morelli di Popolo, Guglielmo Calderini, Orsino Bongi, Rolando Le Wacher, Annibale Rigotti, Mario Tamagno, Eugenio Ballatore di Rosana, Ludovico Gonella, and Jayme Figueroa, among others. Fifteen construction companies were selected to build the exposition's structures and more than 5000 workers were hired (Moriondo, 1981). The main construction companies were: the Carpenteria Milanese ing. Cavani e C.ia, Giovanni Gioia, Fornaroli e Borrini, Viotti brothers, Quadri e Colombo, Officine Savigliano, Societa' Porcheddu, Paolo Cittera, and Pasqualin e Vienna (Touring Club Italiano, 1911).

Snow, strong wind – during tw Winter of 1910 and the Spring 1911 (Ferrettini, 1911; Moriondo, 1981) – and a strike that lasted two weeks between February and March 1911 (Moriondo, 1981) - slowed the construction down, nevertheless by January 1911 most of the pavilions were reaching completion.

STEFANO MOLLI'S RELEVANCE AND THE 'STYLE' OF THE EXPOSITION

The role played by Stefano Molli is particularly relevant, and we are fortunate that almost 600 of his architectural drawings are preserved at the Fondazione Marazza. The architectural language of Molli’s structures - and most of the architectures of the Exposition - was inspired by the Turinese Baroque. The long sequence of buildings on the right bank of the river Po originated a white city that mirrored itself in the water, originating reflections that broke the Exposition's stylistic uniformity and harmony (“Motivi ornamentali,” 1911). Contemporary reporters and architects typically praised the Fair's design in the pages of newspapers and magazines, though there were also negative evaluations, including those of Architect Fenoglio who declared that the neo-monumentalism inspired by the Piedmontese style of the XVIII century, was a "disappointing test."  For its supporters, the Turinese Baroque was intended to become the new national architectural style. Ultimately, however, the Turinese Baroque remained a symbol of regional rather than national identity, as the Northwestern portion of the Italian peninsula strove to identify itself with the European centers of industry, commerce, innovation and progress and distanced itself from the underdeveloped regions of the Italian South, the Meridione.

Only a few structures, such as the Pavilions of Hungary, Turkey, Russia, Serbia, and Siam differed from the Baroque norm of the Exposition. These pavilions were exceptional and sometimes colorful architectures that contrasted with the rigor of the "white city."

We have been unable to locate additional architectural documents that may have been initially stored in the Exposition's technical office. Similarly, the private archives of Fenoglio and Salvadori di Wiesenhof are currently missing, so these architects' roles in the general design of the 1911 Turin Fair remain unclear.  

THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT OBJECTS AND THEIR MATERIALS

The Valentino Park, the stage of many expositions, enlarged its boundaries to host the ‘White Exposition’ on the two banks of the river Po. Except for a few structures already existing at that time and still standing, almost 200 structures were built for the 1911 event and later dismantled, leaving no physical traces in the Valentino Park today [3]. Currently, 188 structures are geometrically identified in the selected map, but the name of 98 of them is unknown, while 8 built environment objects are retrieved, but their location is unidentified.  Besides national Pavilions, four new bridges were erected and colonial sections included many different geographical areas (Arabia, Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, Madagascar, Senegal, Congo, Red Indians, Japan, India, China, and Indochina) where exotic elements were on show as camels, soothsayers, and belly dancers moving between a mosque, a harem, and a Muslim school. Thematic structures were constructed to exhibit specific items - such as machines related to electricity and work - allowing different nations to display the greatest advancements in technology and compete in the same place (Touring Club Italiano, 1911). The built environment objects include even the smallest structures as the numerous kiosks. These kiosks were so small that only a few lines describe them in some magazines’ articles, such as for the kiosk of cremation. 

Most of the pavilions, such as the Pavilion of Fashion, the Alpine Village, and the Monumental Complex were built with wood, canvas, and plaster (Touring Club Italiano, 1911). Red iron structures (Ferrettini, 1910a) were used in the Gallery of Electricity where pillars stood on plinths in bricks and mortar. The Pavilion of England was also built with a metal structure (Touring Club Italiano, 1911). The Newspaper Pavilion and the Stadium were the only structures built with reinforced concrete and destined to survive after the Fair's closing [4]. The structure of the Newspaper Pavilion was covered in bricks, and the Stadium was decorated with natural stones (Ballatore & Gonella, 1910; “Il cemento armato all’Esposizione. Il Palazzo del Giornale,” 1910; “Lo Stadium,” 1910; Massaia, 1989; Touring Club Italiano, 1911). 

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AT THE EXPOSITION

A regular entrance ticket to the fairground cost 0.50[5] or 1 Italian lira[6]. Automobiles and other vehicles had to pay an admission ticket as well. Pocket-size photographic cameras were also allowed upon payment of 1 lira, while bicycles were not allowed (Touring Club Italiano, 1911).

Transportation services included two lines of aerial tramways, and two ferry boats named Rome and Turin (Moriondo, 1981). An electric omnibus offered privileged points of view as it moved people from one point to another (Touring Club Italiano, 1911). An ‘aerial train’ was designed to transport people from the Fair to the church of Superga in 6-7 minutes, but it was never realized (Moriondo, 1981). For the 1911 Fair, a train led from the main railway station of Porta Nuova station to the fairground[7], and a public transportation service was established for visitors using electric cars[8].

THE SUCCESS OF TURIN 1911 EXPOSITION

The ability of the city of Turin to succeed in the organization of a major international exposition comparable to those of Paris, London, and Vienna was praised by many international newspapers, such as the Illustration of Paris, the Morning Post of London (“Il glorioso autunno dell’Esposizione di Torino,” 1911). The success of the Fair can also be measured by comparing the Turin 1911 Fair with the 2015 Milan Expo, the first World’s Fair held in Italy after 1911. 21 million people visited the 2015 Expo (Expo Milano 2015. Report Ufficiale, 2018), 16 times the population of Milan population at that time[9]. Turin 1911 saw 7.4 million visitors [10], which is 18 times the population of Turin in that year.

Besides the large attendance, the size of the ‘Fabulous Exposition’ (Balocco, 2011) offers a useful term of comparison. Expo 2015 occupied 1 million m^2.  In 1911 the fairgrounds occupied 1.2 million m². The 1911 Fair can also be compared to previous fairs held in Turin (1884, 1898, and 1902). These were all smaller in the area covered by their structures, and all saw fewer visitors (less than half)[11]. The number of structures specifically built in 1911 - or already existing and used for the event - are also an indication of the large interest of many nations and private companies to be part of the Exposition. 

THE RELEVANCE OF TURIN 1911 IN HISTORY

 Displaying national identities was typical of the World’s Fairs, and Turin 1911 was no exception. The Turin Fair welcomed many participating nations and interesting political and socioeconomic dynamics can be gleaned from the pavilions’ dimensions, their location in the fairground, and their architectural languages. Italy's shifting political alliances and the move from the Austro-Hungarian-German Triple Alliance to the French-English Triple Entente was anticipated in Turin 1911, especially if one observes the massive presence of France, with many structures strategically located on the fairground.

Electricity was one of the main protagonists of the Exposition (Buscioni, 1990). At the Paris 1900 Fair, electricity was also introduced but only under special conditions and without using direct electric current. In Turin 1911 the production of electricity was displayed and the advancements of the last decade in the applications electricity to machinery exhibited  in the two largest structures, the Gallery of Electricity (20000 m²) and the Gallery of Machines (30000 m²) (Ferrettini, 1910b; Soleri, 1910)).

The Exposition featured many attractions: new bridges, ferryboats, aerial transportations (“Un’occhiata preventiva all’Esposizione di Torino,” 1910), and also the Stadium - the largest stadium in the world at that time (Lavini, 1911) capable of hosting 40000 spectators (Ballatore & Gonella, 1910) and built in only 10 months (Massaia, 1989).  The Machinery Hall– also named Palace of Wonders – showed innovations such as the wireless telephone, magnetic telephone, loudspeaker telephone, the remote transmission of photographs, and the magnetic field by Galileo Ferraris, among many others (“In Giro per Le Mostre Torinesi,” 1911).

Many historical happenings and events accompanied the Fair, such as the closing of the Pavilion of Turkey after Italy declared war on Turkey on the 29^th September 1911 (Moriondo, 1981; “Torino. La Chiusura Del Padiglione Turco,” 1911), international regattas, the Turin-Rome-Turin "aerial races," sporting competitions in the Stadium, award ceremonies, and several concerts conducted in the Palace of Festivals and Concerts (Ferrettini, 1912; “L’ora del compenso,” 1911; Touring Club Italiano, 1911).

THE CLOSING OF THE EXPOSITION

After the official closing of the Exposition on the 20th of November 1911, the white city was gradually dismantled. The great part of the wood was sold, even if some portions of pavilions remained exposed to vandalism and bad weather, also due to the break out of World War I (Massaia, 1989; Moriondo, 1981; “Quella Che Fu,” 1912). Nevertheless, the Fair left its mark as the largest exposition ever held in Italy (Massaia, 1989; Moriondo, 1981), before Expo 2015.

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