Made in Italy icons have earned a place of honor at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, and can be purchased until September 29. The all-Italian creative genius is being celebrated in the Big Apple with a pop-up store with a very apt name: Fattobene (Italian for "well made"). This is an interesting offering and one that has been highly anticipated by connoisseurs of Italian Style. They can visit and find everyday objects that have won recognition for their timeless aesthetics. These are not works of art with shocking price tags, but the tools and products that tell the tale of Italy’s evolution through the daily habits, traditions and desires that have become its cultural symbols. It’s no surprise to find a kitchen apron or a rolling pin for making pasta, because cucina (both kitchen and cuisine) means culture – a sentiment that we have always shared here at La Cucina Italiana.
Fattobene, much more than a pop-up store
This initiative sprang from a partnership with the Fattobene website, a project started in 2015 based on a visionary idea by journalist Anna Lagorio and photographer Alex Carnevali. Together, they decided to identify, collect and store Italian products that have been around for generations and have an intrinsic cultural meaning in addition to a distinctive design. Fattobene is an archive of Italian products used for generations and available for purchase online. More than that, it’s a catalogue of collective memories.
Alex Carnevali and Anna Lagorio, Fattobene
On the site, the project’s creators say, “We traveled from north to south looking for archetypes of tradition that time has not forgotten, that are part of our collective image today. The result is a collection that continually changes, including Art Deco bars of soap and popular fabrics, innkeepers’ carafes or liqueurs with ancient names like rosolio (flavored with roses) or ratafià (in various fruit varieties). Everything is striking for a different reason: perhaps its unique graphics or design, possibly an intriguing story or its apparent simplicity. Here, even a candle is a work of art. Many of them are impossible to find outside the region they originated from; and that’s precisely why we decided to create a place where visitors can learn the history behind them.”
Next to a Zenith stapler, a can of Coccoina almond-scented glue, or a tube of Marvis toothpaste, you’ll find numerous kitchen items – all unwitting guardians of memories, flavors and nostalgia, because of all of us. There are blue and white Amarena Fabbri jars, Tre Spade pepper grinders, Leprotto saffron, and classics like a beech wood rolling pin for making tagliatelle, a striped tea towel, a traditional ravioli mold or a stainless steel egg cup reproduced by the Fattobene Collection.
From the virtual to the real
A perfect blend of archive and e-commerce, the Fattobene site came into being at the prestigious MoMA, which has one of the world’s most impressive collection of 20th-century art. Here, where you can gaze upon modern classics like Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans or Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits. Now you can also visit the design boutique to browse and shop for the 150 selected Made in Italy icons – until September 29. And we’ll be willing to bet that it’s a journey through time (past and future) that Americans will like at least as much as they like Italian cuisine.