Studio Alchimia was founded in 1976. It is the first major retrospective of this movement, which was so important for the 20th century and brought together the most important Italian designers of the 1970s and 80s, including Alessandro Guerriero, Alessandro Mendini, Ettore Sottsass, Andrea Branzi, Lapo Binazzi, Cinzia Ruggieri, Ana Gili, and others.

The 1968 movement in Italy was affected by design. A whole series of designer groups such as Archizoom and Superstudio developed in rapid succession in the second half of the 1960s. The Alchimia group, founded in Milan in 1976, brought the different approaches of the 1960s to perfection and to great international success.

Alchimia dared to take the logical step by exploring design beyond industrial production; the life itself was to become a Gesamtkunstwerk. With its designs, Alchimia propagated a counter-reality, another vision for the world. It is a world full of cheerfulness, color, and aesthetics, that is intended to make clear that another reality is conceivable.

The exhibition is held under the joint patronage of German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella and will further be shown at the ADI Design Museum, Milan.