AlpiTypes

The project is based on the study of the high-quality graphic production of posters, books, magazines and other printed matter from the first half of the 20th century. The authors of these graphic works were not isolated figures, but instead worked in a dynamic, international context, with stimuli coming from various geographical areas and influences from different but communicating cultures, even in those years when certain dictatorships would have preferred otherwise.

From the early 20th century and in the decades that immediately followed, the growth of mountain-related tourism prompted the intense production of guidebooks, magazines, posters and leaflets. Sans-serif fonts – linear characters without “serifs” (ornamental strokes at the foot or head of a character), better suited to the functional requirements of advertising – began to supersede the more graceful fonts.

The ability to penetrate the demands of the modern movement is not always clear from the iconographies, which often include stereotypical views of the region or themes dictated by regime propaganda. Adopting a different point of view, while shifting the focus away from the images and onto the typefaces adopted, there emerges a strong attention to European stylistic currents, ranging from the Viennese Secession to Art Nouveau, from Bauhaus to Rationalism, from the historical avant-gardes to the graphical revolution of the 1930s. It is the characters, far more than the images, that show a widespread and constant presence of international references, which has so far been ignored or underestimated by critical historiography.

Starting from the suggestions made by the lettering (in many cases barely sketched, if not largely incomplete, alphabets), the students have expertly reconstructed the missing characters. Thanks to their “typographical archaeology”, the craftsmanship, aesthetic value and avant-garde expression of local graphic production have all been revealed.

During the course of the exhibition, it is planned to hold in-depth meetings and workshops aimed at a wider audience, all with the aim of stimulating active discussion on typographic design practices. The workshops will offer visitors the opportunity to experiment first-hand in creating fonts, using both digital tools and analogue techniques. They will be able to get closer to the design processes and understand the logics underlying the production of a typeface, from the shape of the letters to their application within the graphic space.

AlpiTypes adopts an innovative method that combines historical research, digital reconstruction and design application, drawing on typographical archaeology that is not limited to the mere recovery of a historical heritage, but further proposes a reactivation of materials from the past and their reinterpretation in a contemporary key.

Simultaneously, Kunst Meran Merano Arte is also hosting "Franz Wanner: Suspended Presences. Images of Exploitation", curated by Kristina Kreutzwald and Martina Oberprantacher.