Radio & Plastic

The Cannon-Sandretto Plastic Museum of Pont Canavese hosts for the entire 2025 season the temporary exhibition Radio & Plastica fascinating journey through the history of Italian radio and its intertwining with the evolution of plastics.

On display over twenty vintage radio setsevidence of a time when the use of the phenolic resin (Bakelite) revolutionised radio production. At the turn of the 1930s and 1940s, Milanese design by Luigi Caccia Dominioni together with Livio and Piergiacomo Castiglioni for FIMI Phonola in Saronno marked an epoch-making turning point: radios were born with innovative shapes, inspired by the military sector, but designed for domestic use, made from cheap, versatile and highly mouldable materials.

These devices were not just communication tools, but real design objectssymbols of a modernity within everyone's reach, capable of bringing culture, information and entertainment in every home. The exhibition emphasises the role of plastic not only as a means of production, but also as a cultural element, bridge between technology and society.

The temporary exhibition was made possible thanks to the contribution of a private individual, who kindly shared his collection.