Photo credit: Cité de l’Automobile, Amaury Lapara, Franck Sikorski
The desire to get out of the house after so many months now has a destination in the form of the world’s largest Automobile Museum at Mulhouse, in Alsace. Spread over 25,000 square metres, it is no coincidence that they call this exhibition the Citè de l’Automobile of exhibition, with well over 100 road and racing carsfrom different brands on display. Many of the top automotive brands are there, including Ferrari, Maserati, Mercedes, Porsche, in addition to the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of Bugattis.
The Museum, now run by the French Cultural Heritage, was originally conceived from the crazy passion of the Schlumpf brothers who ruined their company by buying 87 Bugattis, including two of the six Royals ever produced, and building what is now this Museum.
As of yesterday, 9th July at the reopening and running until 10th January, the Cité de l’Automobile also hosts a very contemporary exhibition that pairs the Lamborghini brand with the Pop Art artistic movement. This concept of art, which has its roots in shapes, colours, music and cinematography, is the perfect partner for Lamborghini: consider if you will, the car that symbolizes the entire exhibition, placed on stage as the highlight of the show: the Miura #3586, in its dazzling orange red, with the surprisingly innovative shapes devised by Marcello Gandini – what could possibly be more pop than those eyelashes that surround the headlights? The car that raised heartbeats the world across in the unforgettable opening scenes of the all-time pop film classic: The Italian Job.
The inauguration of the event once more demonstrated the magnetic charm of this car as the opening scenes were screened on large monitors next to Gandini’s masterpiece. The Miura, the very same car as the one on show, climbs with athletic elegance towards the Great St. Bernard Pass in a magically surreal atmosphere. A scene which, for Ferruccio Lamborghini, was an extraordinary publicity opportunity for his latest creation.
This is also a message that is part of the pop culture of the 60s. The car, perfectly preserved in its original state, is now part of the Kaiser Collection owned by Fritz Kaiser, who is also the animator of The Classic Car Trust, created to preserve and safeguard the future of the immense heritage of classic cars. A heritage that must be proposed to the younger generations using the right languages, such as those applied here, which seamlessly unite exciting cars with the enchanted universe of Pop art.
