Turin, the art of playing with cars with Robert Kuśmirowski's models on display at MAUTO

From Jan. 31 to May 18, the National Automobile Museum of Turin (MAUTO) is hosting in its Project Room the exhibition C/ART. The Art of Playing with Cars, an environmental installation signed by Polish artist Robert Kuśmirowski (Lodz, 1973) and curated by Guido Costa and Davide Lorenzone.

The exhibition unfolds as a journey into the passion for model cars, exploring the boundary between play and collecting, memory and technical culture. Through an installation that recreates the atmosphere of a chaotic workshop crowded with model cars, visitors are invited to reflect on the affective value of objects and their transformation from simple toys to collectibles.

The exhibition’s itinerary

Kuśmirowski, known for his quasi-archaeological approach to artistic creation, has reconstructed an environment that evokes the spirit of the collector, amid wire mesh, improvised shelving and period tools. The exhibition gradually evolves from an initial disorder to a more structured and orderly display, symbolically representing the growth of the collector: from childhood passion to the conscious acquisition of rare specimens.

On display are more than 200 models, some of which represent true historical rarities. These include Piero Patria’s Lucciola, an electric toy car produced in Turin in 1948-1949 in only 200 examples; a scale reproduction of an early 20th-century steam tractor; and the Marshall & Co steam locomobile, a 1:4 scale working model handcrafted after World War II by Pietro Abbà.

“Every toy car, whether pedal-powered, motorized-electric or with a small internal combustion engine-made on a small scale, is a small masterpiece of engineering, with mechanisms that often allow the models to move, play music or activate themselves through mechanical energy,” says Davide Lorenzone. "The value of these objects is not only economic, but also historical, because through them it is possible to rediscover the tastes, trends and technological innovations of a certain era.

Alongside the historical pieces, there is space for iconic model cars, from Toschi’s F1 Ferraris-which included a bottle of liquor in the chassis-to Mercury’s Lancia D24, to Marklin’s model cars, including sedan, coupe, racing car and tank car, which are still highly sought after by collectors today.

Robert Kuśmirowski and the dialogue between art and memory

Robert Kuśmirowski is an internationally renowned artist who has been exploring the relationship between memory and objects through detailed installations and reconstructions for more than two decades. He has exhibited in prestigious museum spaces including the Barbican Centre in London, the New Museum in New York, MAMbo in Bologna, and the Berlin Biennale. His research focuses on the recovery and reinterpretation of objects from the past, transforming them into visual narratives that evoke personal and collective histories.

“His is almost an archaeologist’s work, capable of bringing dead objects back to life, recomposing them in contexts alien to them, recreating them,” says Guido Cosgta. “The raw material on which he works is poor, very poor, but full of life and history: the history of work, of artisan wisdom, of technology and science, of popular creativity and collecting.”

With C/ART, MAUTO continues its path of enhancing car collecting as a cultural phenomenon, emphasizing the role of the car not only as a means of transportation, but as an object of worship, memory and design. The exhibition offers fans of model cars, art and automotive history a unique experience between past and present, play and passion.

The exhibition can be visited until May 18, 2025.

Turin, the art of playing with cars with Robert Kuśmirowski's models on display at MAUTO

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