CLIL CLIL HISTORY AND GRAPHIC ARTS DESIGN AS A SOCIAL AND POLITICAL COMMITMENT: ALBE STEINER It is difficult to deal with this outstanding figure in Italian visual design, as you never know whether to stress the cultural-political level or the design-didactic one. Through observation of his cross-disciplinary design activity it is possible to reconstruct the socio-cultural context and the area of design studies and practice of his time. Albe Steiner was born in 1913 in Milan. He was the nephew of Giacomo Matteotti, an anti-fascist hero kidnapped and then murdered after he had made a passionate speech in Rome condemning Mussolini s leadership of Italy on May 30th, 1924. Albe was only 11 years old when he drew his first poster: the face of the dictator and just one word: Assassino . He began his work as a graphic artist in 1939 when it didn t yet exist as a profession. He fought as a partisan in Valdossola. After the Italian Liberation, he worked with Elio Vittorini for the Politecnico , the most influential review of the period. From 1946 to 1948 he was in Mexico where he met Hannes Meyer (ex Bauhaus chairman) with whom he worked on a literacy campaign and at the Taller de grafica popular (People s Graphic Workshop). He came back to Italy in 1948 where he taught, with some brief interruptions, until 1971. He was a founder member of the art guilds such as the Centre for graphic studies, AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale), ADI (Associazione per il Disegno Industriale) and ICTA (International Centre for Typographic Arts). He worked for a lot of photography, design and modern architecture reviews including Note fotografiche , Radiofoto , Cantieri , Stile Industria , Interiors (U.S.A.), Metron , Costruzioni Casabella , Domus and Edilizia Moderna . He also worked for some of the most important Italian companies like Pirelli and Olivetti. He took part in various commercial and cultural exhibitions. He designed a considerable number of political and cultural propaganda posters for the Communist Party, national associations of partisans and political deportees in Nazi camps. One of his best known works is the poster for the exhibition Mostra della ricostruzione , held in Milan in 1954. It is also very important to mention his role as an art director for La Rinascente in Milan from 1950, where he organized the exhibition called Estetica del prodotto leading to the creation of the Compasso d Oro award. His last works were concerned with posters for the 1974 referendum on divorce. CLIL (Adapted from http://www.aboutitaliandesign.info/history-of-industrial-design.html) GLOSSARY art guilds: professional associations. award: prize. chairman: president. cross-disciplinary: interdisciplinary. to deal with: (here) to talk about. exhibition: showing works of art. to kidnap: to take someone away by force (usually in order to demand money in exchange for releasing them). literacy: being able to read and write. outstanding: notable. to stress: to emphasise. whether: if. Albe and Lica Steiner 220