Emotions…exhibited! Visitors' accounts at Webuild's exhibits
The pages of books have always secret emotions inside: the emotions of those who write the words in them, but also the emotions of the people reading these words. Some books also narrate the emotions of those watching, observing, of those living the actual experience.
This visitors' book at the entrance of the "Costruire il Futuro" (Building the Future) exhibit, organized by Webuild, in collaboration with Triennale Milano, allows us to perceive the emotions of those visiting an unknown site, a place where large infrastructures are built. Construction sites open on a river's banks, or those hundreds of metres underground, at the feet of a mountain, or two steps away from the foundations of a building in the city centre.
«Congratulations for this enthralling exhibition - wrote a visitor - which is such a difficult moment, gives us hope that humanity, with its commitment, has not yet reached its final days»
«What an unexpected exhibit! – said another visitor – Let's hope that all your dreams can be built!».
Dedications that are messages in a bottle handed to the world, because the stories that are and have been told in this exhibit, which is open to the public until March 26, and dedicated to Webuild's large infrastructure projects, tell of the most ambitious challenges that have been won in every part of the world. The construction of the , the new , the excavations of the (what will become the new Genoa-Milan high speed railway line), and those carried out under Milan's city centre to build the .
«Man has built incredible things. Well done!», wrote a visitor, observing the engineering wonders.
«It is marvellous to see how Italy is very much still a great nation.
Culture walks along the confines of the works built by the construction sector. Webuild, just like "Costruire il Futuro", also supported another cultural exhibit: "" (Rome Silent Beauty), organized this time in Italy's capital, at the Vittoriano, to tell the photo-story, through exclusive images, of the empty Eternal City during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. An exhibit that was visited by tens of thousands of visitors, who were attracted to it, due to its positive message: exploiting the dramatic pandemic moment as an opportunity for rethinking our life models.
It was successful, both from the amount of people visiting it, and from the positive reactions it received: 2.4 million impressions were collected on social media channels, 719 thousand interactions, of which 488 thousand promoted by social media influencers. A physical event with videos, spots, ads, which have increased visitors' will to be there and comment.
Desert Rome is also a potential construction site, the one of the or of other works that could change the way Italy's capital looks. Courage and a vision are needed to succeed. Words that accompany each exhibit room of the "Costruire il Futuro" Milanese exhibit, which was purposely created to show-off the best of Made in Italy products, and to provide us all with the courage to imagine how we will be on the forthcoming years.
«Building is something profoundly political. – said another visitor. – A big thank you to all those who just like you take on full responsibility for what they do (and the related risks)».
And then again:
«Italian pride in the world!», «marvellous», «thrilling», «impressive to see».
Thousands of words written with the ink of a pen. And the comments on the web, hundreds of posts on social channels that since February 27, when the exhibit was inaugurated, accompanied the exhibit's journey on social media channels. The first of these («Stefania is wonderful!») is a salute to that excavated some of the tunnels of the new Milan metro, the M4. The cutting-head of the TBM, with a courageous and complex operation, was brought to the entrance of the Triennale, where it is now reigning as if it were a contemporary art sculpture.
«Just like one of Pomodoro's sculptures» adds another comment that seizes the value of these large works and of the machines used to build them, tools of modern times that exceed limits in construction sites and add new life forms and ways of interacting in people's lives.