Deep roots and strong wings for flying high: these are the themes of an exhibition opening at Casa Zegna in September that will look at welfare and the safeguarding and development of new generations.
The Maternity Clinic in the Centro Zegna is the point of departure for the exhibition’s exploration of past, present and future, in Trivero but also the rest of the world. The “Maternity and Infancy Clinic”, one of the most important services offered to the community, was opened in the Zegna Welfare Center in 1940. On 3 February the Centro Zegna had its first baby: the parents were Alessandro and Margherita Pasciutti, employees at the Zegna Wool Mill, and they called their son Ermenegildo.
Next up, spouses Lampo and Baroni, who christened their little boy Mario and little girl Nina Prassede (after Ermenegildo Zegna’s brother and wife). When the Centro Zegna Maternity Clinic was transferred to the hospital in Biella in 1965, around 6,500 babies had been born in Trivero. When that obstetrical department was last used in 1971, births since 1940 numbered around 8,000. The most interesting statistic is the infantile mortality rate, which fell from 2.5% in the first decade to 1.5% in the mid Sixties. The figures also showed that the possibility of survival in Trivero was more than double that of the national average in the same period.
The exhibition at Casa Zegna starts with maternity and then moves on to training, from the professional school opened in Trivero in the second half of the Fifties to the activities of the Foundation and Zegna Group today. It will be a discovery of memories but also, above all, prospects. As in a previous exhibition at Casa Zegna, “Good Mountain Air, from Alpine Camps to Summer Camps”, Fondazione Zegna counts on the people of Trivero and Biella to enrich the content concerning the Centro Zegna. Those who were born in the Centro Zegna maternity clinic and frequented the Centro Zegna when young can tell us about their experiences and share photos: they’ll become part of the “Roots and Wings” exhibition.
ROOTS AND WINGS
Building the future, from Centro Zegna to the World.
From 10 September to 29 October
Information
Via Marconi 23 – Trivero
tel. 015 7591463
