Motus: Prehistory of the Automobile, the exhibition at MAUTO

From the Sumerian wheel of 2500 BC to the first automobile in history, the Benz Patent Motorwagen of 1886: these are the first and last stages, between centuries and continents, of the journey between the thirteen models on displayworking vehicles and multimedia installations, which will relive in “MOTUS. Prehistory of the automobile” to the MAUTO – National Automobile Museum from Turin, from 8 April to 25 September.

The exhibition was born from an idea of Galileo Museum of Florence he was born in Cingoli Sidecar Museum (Macerata) and is edited by Giovanni Di Pasqualehistorian of ancient science and technology and deputy scientific director of the Galileo Museum, and by Costantino Frontalini, director of the Sidecar Museum. It is co-produced by Galileo Museum And Civita Exhibitions and Museums in collaboration with the MAUTO. The reconstructions are made by the Sidecar Museum, while the production of the 3D animations is due to the Multimedia Laboratory of the Galileo Museum and the interactive exhibits to the camerAnebbia creative studio in Milan. The thirteen objects on display, of which eleven made by the Sidecar Museum and two original specimens one from the collections of the Marche museum and the other from a private collection, they are all workingmade with attention to the smallest details, with the method used in experimental archeologywhich makes use of the techniques and materials available in the historical period in which the vehicles were designed.

The exhibition proposes the main projects that represented a novelty in the search for autonomous movement by man. The prototypes on display all share the fact that they do not need external forces to move, such as, for example, the towing of animals. The objects on display are divided into three groups: the vehicles automobiles properly compi, with a mechanism inside that allows its movement; the means that could be considered cars in the eyes of the beholder: they do not move thanks to external forces, but need constant human assistance; in the end, there are hybrid vehicles, that is, those that can move both with the motive energy supplied by man and thanks to a mechanism of the machine. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalog, published in Italian and English by Silvana Editoriale.