One, five, twelve. Eighty years of Premio Strega is an exhibition curated by Maria Luisa Frisa and Mario Lupano, conceived and produced by the Bellonci Foundation and Strega, promoted by the Assessorato alla Cultura di Roma Capitale and Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, and organised in collaboration with BPER Banca, Persol and the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana.

The exhibition traces the history of the renowned award from 1947 to the present day, exploring the role of the literary prize as a seismograph and promoter of the country’s cultural and linguistic changes.

The exhibition design by the architectural studio Supervoid, together with the graphic design by the studio Caneva-Nishimoto, showcases the various layers of reading that the long history of the Strega Prize offers to visitors, presenting the ‘ideal library’ composed of over a thousand volumes selected from 1947 to the present day, organised in a chronological sequence that recounts, in parallel, the events, protagonists, debates and media narratives that have accompanied the seventy-nine editions held to date. The prize’s timeline displays, for each year, the shortlisted books, the final five and the winner in their first editions, in line with a contemporary sensibility that recognises publishing as an art form.