Riva del Garda Signs and Posters: From 19th Century to Tourism Boost
“The Sign of the Sign” is the title of the exhibition set up at the Civic Museum. Promoted by the municipal cultural officer, the Union of Commerce and Tourism, and the museum’s Historical Archive itself, it is a “journey to the origins of Riva del Garda’s tourism promotion” through the reading of signs, postcards, and posters created between the late 19th century and the 1930s. The event, which will remain open until October 31, is available Tuesday to Saturday from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm (Sundays and holidays from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm and 1 pm to 5 pm; closed on Mondays). It focuses on words, decoration, and color in the signs, postcards, and posters of Riva. For the first time, from the historical archive, some significant documents of the Municipal Ornamental Commission are displayed, to which merchants turned to obtain permission to apply signs to their businesses. This is an exhibition where, alongside the posters, non-official art plays a leading role.
Art and communication in signs
This is the realm of shopkeepers and artisans, who propose their commercial signs through drawings and sketches. A humble art, yet rich with charm and curiosity for those wishing to read and understand the history and face of a community today, based on the dynamic aspect of everyday life. Unusual shapes, references to eccentricity in decoration, and the extreme use of words. And with them, the opening of the shop to the street for the first time, up until the birth of the modern display window.
The path of a city that beautifies and colors itself to meet the expectations created in tourists. A stage where communication references the myth of the Mediterranean city. A myth strongly promoted through postcard illustrations and powerfully amplified in posters, some of which are rare examples present in the exhibition. Communication through these images is immediate; it aims to persuade the eye before the mind. It is a silent dialogue between the sign and the passerby.
The development of signs and displays
The exhibition documents how, from the late 19th century to the 1930s, shops and signs began to take over the streets. It is the first step towards various new forms of social communication where visual impact becomes decisive. Windows and shop entrances of Riva’s stores and warehouses are expanded. Goods, previously confined to the dark interior, are now visible from outside.
Starting from the last decade of the 19th century, requests from storekeepers to place display windows at their shop entrances increased at the Ornamental Commission. A significant part of the exhibition is dedicated to the spatial development of signs. Overhanging, extending beyond the building, signs become objects in themselves. No longer just aimed at locating and identifying an activity, but designed to capture and draw the gaze from afar, playing with urban perspective, and arousing curiosity with unusual shapes and decorations.
To enhance communicative effectiveness, the use of lighting and color was added, further emphasizing the sign’s detachment from the building and its artifices. Equally important are words, which assert themselves spatially on buildings with evocative, symbolic, and stylized language, often using the Roman font, and decorations, applied to shop entrances and residences.
Finally, posters, which possess great charm, mood, and size, recall some of Depero’s paintings, designed to convince tourists to visit Riva. “Since ours has become a highly popular area with international appeal for holidays,” remarked the president of the Union Bassetti, “we owe this to the insights gained a century ago by tourism and commerce operators. For this reason, I believe that from their signs, even today, we can certainly learn something.”