HISTORY LESSON: Prada Group has helped celebrate the centennial of the first flight expedition over the North Pole helmed by General Umberto Nobile in 1926.
As part of its ocean literacy and education project Sea Beyond, launched in partnership with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, or UNESCO-IOC, the Italian luxury group has teamed with the Italian Air Force, the Aeronautica Militare, and the country’s research institute Consiglio Nazionale delle Research, or CNR, for a two-day agenda of initiatives on Monday and Tuesday in Rome.
“The shared goal is to enhance the legacy of General Nobile and to shed light on the history of polar explorations in which Italy has played a leading role over the past 100 years, intertwining memory and the present through the dialogue between historical documentation, personal accounts and contemporary narratives. Moreover, this initiative represents a significant opportunity to raise public awareness about the importance of preserving fragile ecosystems,” the three organizing entities, including Prada Group, said a in a joint statement.
An image taken by climate artist, photographer and Sea Beyond Goodwill Ambassador Enzo Barracco during his expedition to Alaska and the Arctic Polar Circle.
Enzo Barracco/Courtesy of Prada Group
In particular, the luxury group supported the 2025 photographic expedition of Sea Beyond’s Goodwill Ambassador Enzo Barracco to Alaska and the Arctic Polar Circle for the “Two Perspectives on the Arctic in Comparison” exhibition mounted at the Italian Air Force Museum in Vigna di Valle, outside Rome.
The presentation of the photography book “The Fight of the Forest: Alaska” at the Palazzo dell’Aeronautica in Rome.
Courtesy of Prada
Curated by Barracco, the exhibit features the climate artist’s photographs juxtaposed to 1926 black-and-white pictures of the seminal expedition to the North Pole by General Nobile. The latter kicked off from Rome’s Ciampino airport aboard the N-1 dirigible, which traversed more than 8,000 miles across continental Europe, the Arctic Sea and the Svalbard Islands to fly over the pole. The mission also included explorers Roald Amundsen from Norway and Lincoln Ellsworth, from the U.S.
As part of the event’s programming, Barracco on Tuesday presented the accompanying photography book “The Fight of the Forest: Alaska” at the Palazzo dell’Aeronautica in Rome, the headquarters of the Italian Air Force, in conversation with Prada Group’s head of corporate social responsibility Lorenzo Bertelli and Francesca Santoro, senior program officer at the UNESCO-IOC.
The two-day agenda kicked off with the unveiling of a new integrated digital documentary platform dedicated to the archives of Nobile.
Sea Beyond has grown its scope and reach since its launch in 2019, reflecting Prada Group’s commitment to culture at large, in addition to environmental sustainability.
An image taken by climate artist, photographer and Sea Beyond Goodwill Ambassador Enzo Barracco during his expedition to Alaska and the Arctic Polar Circle.
Enzo Barracco/Courtesy of Prada Group
As reported, last year the Prada Group created the Multi-Partner Trust Fund for Connecting People and Ocean in collaboration with UNESCO, in a first-of-its-kind initiative furthering the activities of the Sea Beyond project.
