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The invention of the automobile highlighted its forms associated with the notion of speed, adventure and autonomy in the sense of modernity and progress, which of course seduced artists and designers to the point of beco- ming an artistic constant in their creations.
The automobile was created to solve the pollution problems caused by horse- drawn carriages and today we are at the same crossroads to move from the internal combustion engine to the more environmentally friendly electric car. The first such prototypes were invented in the 1830s by Robert Ander- son, Thomas Davenport and Sibrandus Stratingh.
Norman Foster proposes through this exhibition to explore the past and the present to imagine a future in which the automobile can reconcile sustai- nable development and social progress by combining technology, functiona- lity and of course, aesthetics.