The new Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari opens to the public on 10 March 2012

The story of a legend, the life of a great man

Modena’s new Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari opens to the public on 10 March. It is a museum dedicated to one of Italy’s most celebrated legends, unquestionably one of the leading lights of the Twentieth Century,Enzo Ferrari, man, driver and carmaker: the history of car racing.

After the opening ceremony on Saturday 10 March at 11 am in the presence of personalities and authorities, in the afternoon the museum will open its doors to the city from 5 pm to 11.30 pm, admission free.

“If you can dream it, you can do it” is one of Enzo Ferrari’s best known sayings and certainly the one that best represents his philosophy, a life marked by passion and creativity, research and innovation, courage and challenge. A legend that hasmade Modena and Maranello the capitals of a dream come true.

“Le origini del Mito” covers the story and development of a quite unique area which gave birth to inspired technical ideas of universal importance through symbolic personalities, places and races (from the Modena Circuit to the Aerautodromo and the Mille Miglia; from Scaglietti, Fantuzzi, and Stanguellini to Maserati and Pagani, from De Tomaso to Alfa Romeo).

The new museum, built with an investment of some 18 million euros, stands on the ruins of the old house where Enzo Ferrari was born in 1898. The original dwelling has been preserved together with the workshop and it has been merged with the futuristic new gallery: a “bonnet” in yellow aluminium, the colour of the city of Modena, the colour chosen by Enzo Ferrari as the background for the Prancing Horse, the trademark of the company that bears his name.

The logo identifying the Museum combines in a single graphic sign the characteristic penstroke of Enzo Ferrari’s signature and the profile of the new Gallery whose design is inspired by the most classical of past racing cars. It goes without saying that the yellow of the pictogram is the same as the aluminium roof of the new building.

The competition for the design of the Museum began on 8 July 2004 and was contested by the most important international architecture studios. The “Open Hand” project, so called because like an open hand, the bonnet-shaped futuristic Gallery embraces the birthplace in a perfect union of tradition and modernity, was won by the Future Systems studio of London. The work to prepare the area involved in the project began in November 2007, the first stone, a sculpture by architect Jan Kaplicky, was laid on 20 April 2009.

The new Gallery combines the historical context with the most recent energy-saving technologies and the view recalls the aesthetic language and shapes of racing cars. The restoration and transformation of the birthplace into a Museum completes the cultural offering of the adjacent Gallery. The contemporary architecture which characterises the Museum carries the signature of architect Jan Kaplicky up to 2009. The interior design and artistic direction were the work of architect Andrea Morgante of Shiro Studio,
co-designer of  the Museum itself. Engineering, project management and works management were handled by Società Politecnica.

In the birthplace a permanent, high impact multimedia path covers the most significant events in Ferrari’s life, in the words of Leo Turrini who wrote the texts.

In the new Gallery, the protagonists of “Le origini del mito”, staged by Giovanni Perfetti, are the cars which are exhibited like works of art. The cars are all products of the great Italian brands and held in internationalcollections and museums of great prestige, some of them symbols of the life of Enzo Ferrari: the Alfa Romeo 40-60 of 1914, the Alfa Romeo RL Super Sport Mille Miglia of 1927 and the Alfa Romeo Bimotore of 1935. The history and glorious achievements of Modena carmaking are celebrated in historical documents andobjects selected by Adolfo Orsi, complete with previously unpublished audiovisuals.

Heading up the Museum areHonorary President Piero Ferrari, President Mauro Tedeschini and the Director Adriana Zini.

"This tribute to my father, who loved Modena profoundly, gives me immense pleasure”, Piero Ferrari says. “It provides an opportunity for anyone who wants to find out more about the man, his story and the link between the city and the world of engines. This new structure is perfectly complementary to the Ferrari Museum at Maranello, the other fundamental location in the life of my father”.

“The Museum is dedicated to the life of a character who contributed to making Italian culture famous all over the world, a path that tells the story of sports car racingthrough symbolic individuals, places and races”, says  Mauro Tedeschini. “It is an importantinvestment for the city of Modena and for Emilia too, confirmed once again as the focal point of the life and passion of Italian motoring. With the MuseoCasa Enzo Ferrari we try to portray the imaginary bridge existing between past and future”. Tedeschini concludes:  “The past as told by the old house where Enzo Ferrari was born in 1898, restored and preserved in its original structure, the future represented by the innovative architecture of the yellow aluminium “bonnet”, the city’s new emblem”.

“The Museum has all it takes to become a dynamic cultural container able to arouse interest not only among engine enthusiasts but more generally among the younger generations”, Adriana Zini points out. “Our hope is that it will become a new symbol of Modenese modernity and identity in Italy and the world,  capable of becoming a centre of tourist attraction at international level. “

The total surface area of the Museum of about 5000 sq.m., comprises, in addition to the exhibition area, a lecture room with a digital documentation centre, a conference room, a film projection room, a store and a cafeteria. The museum will stay open 363 days a year. The documentation centre is named after Sergio Scaglietti, Enzo Ferrari’s coachbuilder, one of the characters whose creative flair contributed to thedevelopment of some of the most beautiful and world famous Ferraris. He passed away a few months ago.

The Founder Members and financial backers of the Fondazione Casa di Enzo Ferrari  are the Municipality of Modena, the Province of Modena, the Modena Chamber of Commerce, Ferrari S.p.A. and the Automobile Club d’Italia.

Partners and supporters are the Ministry for the Cultural Heritage and Cultural Activities, the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, the Regione Emilia Romagna, the European Union (POR FESR 2007 -2013 of Regione Emilia- Romagna) in addition to the Banco S. Geminiano e S. Prospero, UniCredit Banca, Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna. Martini Illuminazione and Mapei are respectively sponsors of the light engineering and the resin flooring of the museum complex.