ITALIA IN FUMO.
In Defence of the Italian Constitution, Participatory Installation, Milano, Italy.

Italia in Fumo (in Italian, Italy up in Smoke) is a project developed in collaboration with graphic designer Peppe Clemente for the promotion and cultural defence of the Italian Constitution.

The project reframes the Constitution’s fundamental articles, as well as the rights and duties of citizens, through the graphic device of the European Union’s non-smoking policy. By appropriating a familiar and widely disseminated visual language, constitutional content is displaced from institutional documents into everyday civic space.

At the core of the project is the design of a DIY graphic device intended to be reproduced, carried, and displayed by citizens themselves. Through this strategy, individuals become the medium through which constitutional principles circulate, shifting communication from centralized institutions to collective participation.

The Constitution of the Italian Republic was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947 and came into force on 1 January 1948. Drafted following the referendum on the abolition of the monarchy and approved by universal suffrage, it represents a foundational document of Italian democratic life.
Italia in Fumo was produced by Art for the World and presented at Assab One, Milan, on 1 June 2004, in celebration of the Italian Republic.

Expose - The project exposes the distance that often separates constitutional principles from everyday civic awareness. By translating legal content into a recognizable graphic code, Italia in Fumo makes constitutional rights and duties visible in public and informal contexts.

Mediate - Italia in Fumo mediates constitutional knowledge through graphic translation.
Legal language is transformed into an accessible visual system that enables citizens to engage with the Constitution without institutional mediation.

Activate - The project activates citizens as active carriers of constitutional content.
Through DIY reproduction and participation, individuals become both audience and medium, contributing directly to the dissemination of constitutional values.