“SAVE OUR PLANET”. THE OLIVETTI COMPANY AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS IN 1971

In September 1970, Arnold Glimcher, the founder of The Pace Gallery in New York City addressed a letter to Gianluigi Gabetti, the Olivetti Corporation of America’s chairperson at that time. Glimcher submitted a peculiar proposal to the Italian manager; he inquired, in fact, about the financial support of the Olivetti Corporation in promoting an atypical auteur advertising campaign, which would have involved six spokespersons for the art-world and would have been focused on a specific topic - the safeguard of Planet Earth. On behalf of the Olivetti Company, Gabetti agreed to cover the costs of the operation, which was finally held in 1971, under the name of Save Our Planet. This campaign was brought to life by the likes of Buckminster Fuller, O'Keeffe, Lichtenstein, Calder, Steichen, and Trova: all of them designed one piece of a six-poster gallery, each one depicting an endangered scenario (the cities, the wildlife, the water, the air, the wilderness, and the people). By the means of their own peculiar artwork, they conveyed an unequivocally clear message: to protect the Earth from the increasing outcome of the climate crisis (which had already arisen in the 1970’s, assuming early traits of a permanent state of emergency) artists had the ethical duty to raise environmental awareness amongst people. As a response to this firm call to action, the Olivetti Corporation donated all the retail revenues to the UN Children’s Fund and to several UN agencies aimed at containing in tangible terms the outburst of the climate crisis – especially in the developing Countries - and at forestalling further damage to the environment. This submission is focused on the topicality of the artists’ warning and on the resoluteness of the Olivetti Corporation in giving shape to a world of objects designed by the community and for the community. These objects were not merely the result of the industrial production, but they embodied a philosophical approach to the industrial design matter, since they were calibrated to fit man’s gestures and movements, to meet his needs, and to fulfil his aspiration and his will, as an aware moral being.