We went to the Art Biennale 2022 and visited the Italian Pavilion. We gathered some useful insights for the future of manufacturing
Visiting the Italian Pavilion at the Art Biennale 2022 is an unmissable opportunity to reflect on Italian manufacturing, its past and especially its future. I don't know if this was the explicit intention of the artist, Gian Maria Tosatti, and the curator, Eugenio Viola, but the work is like a punch in the stomach for those who, like us at Upskill, by study and by passion deal with made in Italy.
The pavilion is, in fact, composed essentially of two large rooms in which are contained vestiges of industrial archaeology. The first room contains machinery taken from a former cement factory. The second presents an entire garment factory (benches with sewing machines) including the house of the entrepreneur who from the second floor of the shed oversees his factory. This second room caused much discussion because the artist stated that all the machinery in the factory had been taken from arecently failed company during the covid period.
Seen this way, it seems to be a representation of manufacturing desertification, almost a flash back to an outdated past. A sensation that is amplified by a deliberate search for a "Chernobyl" effect that one experiences upon entering alone and in silence what appears to be a sequence of abandoned factories.
However, if we look through the lens of economic data, Italian manufacturing is far from being in a slump. Not that there has been a lack of difficulties in the past decade, but our companies have responded with surprising vitality, as the export results show.
From this apparent contrast between the reality of our manufacturing and the work of art comes that gut-punch feeling you get when you enter. At this point, it becomes clear that it is not the past that is the happiest interpretive key to understanding the Italian pavilion. It is the future or rather the projection of a possible future. In this flash forward, we are presented with what Italian manufacturing could become if we are unable to meet the challenges that are on the horizon.
What are these challenges? The first is people.Istat says that 2 million workers will be missing from the roll call in2030 due to population decline. Without people, skilled people, there can be no manufacturing. The ability to train new professional profiles is therefore crucial to avoid a future of neglect and decay. The second concerns new digital technologies. Without technological evolution, one ends up in a kind of time capsule and is no longer able to respond to the new demands posed by the market, such as tailor-made and waste-free products. The best way to defend know-how is to make it evolve.
Both of these challenges are at the heart of what we try to do in Upskill 4.0. Combining education and digital technologies to power the future of Italian manufacturing.