Electa

About us

Electa spa, a Gruppo Mondadori company, curates prestigious publishing projects and exhibitions under the Electa and Abscondita brands.
Electa has been well-known for its leading role in the documentation and in-depth analysis of the various visual arts sectors for over 60 years. Its innovative publishing models, superb scientific quality and outstanding graphics have made history in illustrated publishing.
The Electa catalogue includes more than 1500 illustrated titles and catalogues on art, architecture, archaeology, design and photography

Electa has an unparalleled tradition on the Italian and European scene for its rigour and continuity in documenting cultural heritage, including archaeology, contemporary art, design, architecture, and photography.
Since its inception in 1945, under the aegis of art historian Bernard Berenson, Electa has remained true to its historical mission.

For Electa, in today’s global culture books still preserve their extraordinary value as tools of knowledge and critical reflection, albeit alongside and together with new media.

The wealth of material and variety of the Electa catalogue has become a reference due to its completeness and typological variety, the richness of texts and images under a single title, the coherence, originality and effectiveness of graphic concepts, the editorial care and undisputed print quality.
Electa publishing production has significantly expanded over the years, thanks to the privileged relationship with the world of research by essays, collections of studies, conference documents, exhibition catalogues, scientific volumes, guides and visiting tools and educational notebooks dedicated to Italian monuments and arts venues. A selection sorted by type, subject and collections.
In 2020 the Electa catalogue was enriched by the acquisition of a Milanese publisher, Abscondita, which was founded in 1999 and known for its key critical essays for the history of Italian artistic literature.

-> Discover the Electa catalogue
-> Discover the Abscondita catalogue

Electa designs, produces and organises exhibitions at the most prestigious national and international museums. In over 20 years Electa has realized more than two hundred exhibitions, establishing itself as a market reference.

It is a privileged partner for major Italian and international institutions, the Art, Exhibitions and Museums Department is active with two offices in Milan and Rome, dedicated to the Northern, Central and Southern Italy activities, and manages significant exhibitions with an organizational structure composed of highly specialized professionals.

-> Discover the Electa exhibition selection from 1999 to 2016 (pdf)

The exhibition sector distinguished itself since the beginning with essential partnerships and co-productions in publishing and exhibition projects kept alive by the most prestigious Italian and international museums.

The Italian cultural institutions with which Electa has collaborated and still support, in Milan include Triennale Milano, Modern Art Gallery, Sforza Castle, 900 Museum and Royal Palace. In Venice, Academy Galleries and Biennale as well as the historic partnership with  Punta della Dogana - Pinault Foundation and the Civic Museums. In Mantua, Fondazione Palazzo Te and Palazzo Ducale Museum Complex. In Rovereto MART; in Bologna Civic Archaeological Museum and MAST Foundation. In Rome Modern Art Gallery, Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli, Parco Archeologico dell’Appia Antica, National Roman Museum, Parco del Colosseo and the historic collaboration with the Capitoline Superintendencies. In Naples, National Archaeological Museum, Capodimonte Museum and Real Bosco.

Fruitful partnerships for the exhibition circuit and the loan of important masterpieces includes among the most prominent international partners the British Museum and Tate in London, Guggenheim and Metropolitan Museum of New York, Louvre, Musée d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, National Archaeological Museum in Athens, MUCEM in Marseille and MUSEC in Lugano.

Thanks to expert professionals, well-known designers and the most qualified companies specialised in museum fittings and installations, the exhibition organisation team handles every design, organisation aspect and exhibitions and cultural events promotion, directly managing the relationship with clients. The Electa “Art, Exhibitions and Museums” area activities include the management of additional services, such as bookshops at exhibitions and museums and the dedicated merchandising, defining communication and marketing campaigns, digital PR and press office.

-> Discover all exhibitions
Bookshops

Electa publishing house has almost 30 years’ experience in managing museum and exhibition bookshops, acquired in Milan and Venice from the first major exhibitions of the 1980s and consolidated by the opening of the extraordinary Stirling pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale in 1991.
These initial experiments allowed Electa to build an unrivalled network of bookshops in leading Italian exhibition venues and archaeological sites by outsourcing its museum services to private companies.
Specialised Electa bookshops can be housed in the 900 museums, or in the excavations of Roman Forums, furnished by leading contemporary designers or in small spaces next to the ticket offices and visitors can find the tools to accompany their visit. This includes postcards, magnets with reproductions of artworks, artist’s multiples and the latest international publishers’ products.

-> Discover the Electa bookshops

Merchandising

From its entry on the museum bookshops scene, Electa has gained 20 years’ experience in the museum, exhibition and publishing merchandising sector.

Electa's work has always focused on research and quality. Since the first productions of merchandising this was based on close collaboration with museums and host institutions and the desire to offer the public an appealing product able to conveying the cultural content related to the visit experience.
There have been numerous opportunities for experimentation, such as the "Sangue e Arena" exhibition in 2001 for which studio Camuffo designed the first "archaeological" merchandising line, or the T-shirts series designed for the Venice Biennale, which gave rise to various merchandising event-dedicated collections.
Over the years, Electa worked with national and international graphic designers such as Pierluigi Cerri, Paolo Tassinari, Giorgio Camuffo, Massimo Pitis, Leonardo Sonnoli; the Parisian studio de Valence for the Biennale Arte 2017 and Colosseum, and with Studio Norm, in Zurich for the Triennale Milano.

Over the last few months, graphics research has been accompanied by more targeted scouting of materials, products, and production techniques, aimed at the Italian and international museum and lifestyle sectors. The goal has been to find new engaging and attractive objects for the exhibition and museum public. This allowed the creation of complex and heterogeneous merchandising collections of high quality and originality, from stationery, home and vanity products able to gratify different types of public,

In addition to the more classic merchandising such as mugs, tote bags and T-shirts, the product range has been further expanded to environmentally sustainable products. These include the Perpetua pencil, which uses 80 per cent recycled graphite, handcrafted products such as candles from well-known Milanese waxworks or tea towels made with the jacquard technique by an artistic Piedmontese weaving mill. These products have common key words - made in Italy, sustainability, quality, care, culture and research, which have always been part of the Electa's DNA.
The Electa’s communication and press office operates between the Milan and Rome offices and carries out systematic and widespread activities throughout the country "dialoguing" with the press by managing media relations and interacting with the public attending exhibitions and museums using direct promotion.

Supported by more than 20 years’ experience, thanks the contribution of different professionals (art historians, archaeologists, journalists, art education and museum educational service experts and digital content creators) the Electa Communication area develops and promotes campaigns for exhibition projects, museum installations, publishing and events with historical and artistic content. A comprehensive and detailed project, which includes the design and coordination of public programmes and audience and social media engagement promotional campaign planning.

The Electa press office builds its communication strategy starting from a rigorous, structured, "multi-channel" information, for different public "segments" (academics, critics, museum associations, institutions, professional firms, schools and universities, families and libraries...), actively interacting with sponsoring institutions and scientific curators.

-> go to the Electa books and exhibitions press kit page
For years Electa has worked closely with and for companies, cultural institutions and private individuals, offering a wide range of services including design and implementation of publishing projects creating communication projects for exhibitions and museums, with the possibility of buying book copies from the catalogue under advantageous conditions.

-> For information and contacts go to business services page
With Electa, it is possible to organise events for company institutional and public relations needs throughout Italy at prestigious exhibition venues, including conventions, exclusive visits to exhibitions or permanent collections, cocktail events and gala lunches or dinners.
Our personnel provide the necessary support to organise exclusive and customised events in every detail.

-> For information and contacts go to business services page