Founded in 1884, Edison P.l.c. – part of group EDF (Electricité de France) – is Europe’s oldest energy company. On the occasion of their 130-year anniversary, we curated for them Pioneers. 130 Years Young, a traveling exhibition with archival and newly commissioned photographs telling the history of the company. Fantom also designed and published the exhibition catalogue.

The curatorial idea behind the exhibition was the association of archive photographs with new pictures produced for the occasion. In the latter, 18 employees were portrayed alongside an illustrious ex-worker of the company, movie director Ermanno Olmi, with a simple purpose: to represent them all. The goal was to trigger a visual counterpoint between the faces of those who keep on carrying the company’s heritage and the historical photographs, displayed in chronological order with the purpose of retracing Edison’s history.

The archive photographs were selected from Fondo Edison at Centro per la cultura di impresa in Milan, Edison Media Center, Fondo Edison at Archivio Storico Enel in Naples and Civico Archivio Fotografico in Milan. The employees’ portraits were taken by Giulio Sarchiola and Andrea Botto.

The exhibition and the catalogue were curated by Selva Barni, with the assistance of Ilaria Speri. Francesco Zanot contributed to the catalogue with a text on time in photography.

The exhibition Pioneers. 130 Years Young was inaugurated on 11th November 2013 in Edison’s historical headquarters at 31 Foro Buonaparte and in the heart of Milan, with installations in Piazza della Scala and in via Dante. The show is now travelling in different sites in Italy.