The Instituto Italiano de Cultura de Buenos Aires (IIC) and the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo present the exhibition "Journey to Italy.
The golden age of the Italian tourist afiche (1920-1950)", a museum that invites us to retrace the evolution of Italian advertising graphics dedicated to tourism through an extraordinary selection of original afiches coming from the collection of Alessandro Bellenda.
Made between the 1920s and 1920s 1950, the exhibited documents were produced by ENIT (Italian National Tourist Board) and the State Railways (Summer Railways), organizations that promoted a new visual aesthetic to make Italy known to the world.
The works bore the signature of the great masters of Italian cartelism such as Marcello Dudovich, Mario. Borgoni, Gino Boccasile, Aurelio Craffonara y Franz Lenhart, among others.
Through the use of vibrant colors, idealized figures and iconic scenes, these artists created a true aesthetic canon of tourist travel in Italy, consolidating an image of the country that today continues to inspire designers and creatives, resembling a communication from the IIC.
Besides its artistic value, the exhibition offers a historical and sociological reading: the documents not only narrate the evolution of Italian graphic design, but also the construction of the imaginary of the "beautiful country" and the ways in which Italy presented itself to the international public during a period de intense social and cultural transformations.
"Viaggio in Italia" was inaugurated on the occasion of the Week of Italian Language in the World, an important annual event that unfolds globally across the red of the Italian Cultural Institutes and Embajadas of Italy, and which celebrates the Italian language and creativity in its multiple expressions.
The museum is presented in two locations: the National Museum of Decorative Art, where the main center is exhibited, and the Sala Roma of the Italian Cultural Institute, which will house a complementary selection of graphic pieces.
With the care of Studio Archeo900 and the coordination of Alberto Squarcia, the journey constitutes an invitation to travel between art and memory, from Rome, Venice and Florence to the Alpine landscapes or the Mediterranean coasts, evoking an Italy suspended between tradition and modernity.
Inauguration: Monday 20 October 2025, at 6pm (Buenos Aires time) at the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo (Avenida del Libertador 1902). The exhibition can be visited until December 15th 2026. Free and free entry.