ART AND TECHNOLOGY COME TOGETHER IN ‘TIFONE’: THE TROPHY FOR THE FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAN PREMIO D’ITALIA 2023
‘Tifone’ – or ‘Typhon’, in English – is the name of the trophy that will be awarded at the end of the Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio d’Italia 2023 to the top three drivers and the winning constructor. The trophy is a unique piece of sculpture created by Italian artist Ruth Beraha, inspired both by Greek mythology as well as the shape of the exhaust pipes on a Formula 1 car. Typhon is a mythological figure – the Giant son of Gaia – who is traditionally characterised by his extraordinary strength and the 100 snakes wrapped around his head, symbolising a shocking personification of nature.
The Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio d’Italia 2023 trophy was commissioned by Pirelli and contemporary art space Pirelli HangarBicocca. It represents a fusion between an idea from the artist and a production process that unites cutting-edge technology and robotics such as 3D cutting and production, as well as the work of craftsmen specialised in welding, polishing, assembly, and gilding. The end result is reminiscent of the art from the finest goldsmiths.
Ruth Beraha said: «When I began to study Formula 1, I immediately realised that technology formed a fundamental part of the sport. I wanted to pay homage to that, and so I found within the car a visual element I could use as a starting point. I picked out the exhaust pipes, which had an extremely organic form. From those pipes, I was able to imagine the snakes. The trophy is like a creature tamed in the moment that the race winner holds it, but still threatening and always able to turn everything on its head».
This is the third year in which Pirelli and Pirelli HangarBicocca have chosen a modern Italian artist to create the trophy for a Grand Prix held in Italy of which Pirelli is title sponsor, reinforcing the tangible links between modern creativity and the perennial innovation in Formula 1.
In 2021, the commission was awarded to Alice Ronchi for the Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio del Made in Italy e dell’Emilia-Romagna, while in 2022 Patrick Tuttofuoco created the trophy for the Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio d’Italia.
‘Tifone’ will be revealed during the ‘Pirelli Tyre Talks’: a media event held in the Pirelli Hot Laps garage (box 7-8) during the first free practice session for the Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio d’Italia 2023, from 13:30 to 14:30 CET on Friday 1 September. Ruth Beraha will be present at the event along with Enrico Gualtieri: Scuderia Ferrari’s Power Unit area director.
FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAN PREMIO D’ITALIA 2023 trophy designed by Ruth Beraha: Tifone, 2023. 1st, 2nd, 3rd Place Driver. Commissioned by Pirelli in collaboration with Pirelli HangarBicocca. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simone Fico and Filippo Candotti.
About Pirelli Motorsport
Founded in 1872, Pirelli is a company with deep Italian roots now recognised all over the world for its cutting-edge technology, capacity for innovation, and the quality of its products. Motorsport has always played an important part in Pirelli’s strategy, following the ‘race to road’ philosophy. The company has been engaged in motorsport for 116 years and today supplies tyres to more than 350 championships on both two and four wheels. Pirelli pays constant attention to the most efficient use of natural resources and energy, aiming to reach carbon neutrality by 2030. Pirelli has been Global Tyre Partner of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship since 2011. The company also supplies championships including FIA Formula 2, FIA Formula 3, Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine, FIA World Rally Championship and GT World Challenge, alongside numerous national series.
About Pirelli HangarBicocca
Pirelli HangarBicocca is a non-profit foundation, established in 2004, which has converted a former industrial plant in Milan into an institution for producing and promoting contemporary art. This dynamic center for experimentation and discovery covers 15,000 square meters, making it one of the largest contiguous exhibition spaces in Europe. It presents major solo shows every year by Italian and international artists, with each project conceived to work in close relation to the architecture of the complex, and explored in depth through a calendar of parallel events. Since 2012, Vicente Todolí has been the foundation’s Artistic Director. The complex, which once housed a locomotive factory, includes an area for public services and educational activities, and three exhibition spaces whose original twentieth-century architectural features have been left clearly visible: Shed, Navate, and Cubo. As well as its exhibitions program and cultural events, Pirelli HangarBicocca also permanently houses one of Anselm Kiefer’s most important site-specific works, The Seven Heavenly Palaces 2004-2015, commissioned for the opening of Pirelli HangarBicocca.
About Ruth Beraha
Ruth Beraha’s artistic research explores the vulnerability and violence of relationships, and our perception of the self and the other. Her work has been shown at MAXXI in Rome, GAMeC in Bergamo, MACRO in Rome, TRAFO in Szczecin, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Mimosa House in London, MUFOCO in Cinisello Balsamo, Museo della Città in Livorno, Arte in Memoria Biennale d’Arte Contemporanea in Rome, MAMbo in Bologna, Museo Ca’ Rezzonico in Venice, and at Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan. In 2023 she won the Premio Conai, and in 2022 she was awarded the Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant. In 2020 she won the Premio New York and was an Associate Research Scholar at Columbia University, New York (2020-2). She was artist in residence at ISCP, Brooklyn, New York (2020-2), at Nuovo Forno del Pane, MAMbo, Bologna (2020-1), and at Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation, Venice (2017-18).