The legacy of the Osaka Expo will also speak Italian. The Italian of the Bracco Group. The video installation on the diagnostic investigation of Tintoretto’s portrait of Ito Mancho has been chosen by the Osaka Museum in an exhibition on the Legacy of Expo 2025. In the little theatre of Palazzo Visconti in Milan, the Bracco Group’s journey through diagnostics, art and cutting-edge technology at the Japanese event was brought to life in a conference also attended by Ambassador Mario Vattani. Many of the works of art in the Italian Pavilion remain on display at the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts until 12 January 2026.
The Centrality of Universal Expositions
As Diana Bracco, president and CEO of the Group of the same name, explains, ‘being a protagonist at Expo 2025 in Osaka represented a moment of great pride and responsibility for Bracco. We wanted to give continuity to our history of commitment to Universal Expositions by offering our contribution in the face of global challenges such as the advancement of scientific technologies, starting with artificial intelligence, environmental sustainability and longevity, the latter being a theme that unites Italy and Japan and on which prevention and predictive medicine have a lot to say’. For Bracco, adds the president, this ‘is a consolidated and precise strategy of cultural diplomacy: we are a global Group present in 100 countries around the world and we have always focused on Italian culture as a business card and driver of our internationalisation process’.
The collaboration
At the meeting in Palazzo Visconti, Ambassador Mario Vattani, Commissioner General for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka, emphasised that “the partnership with the Bracco Group was strategic for the success of Italy’s participation in Expo 2025 Osaka. Art, science and high technology have been central elements through which we have declined the theme “Art regenerates life”. Thanks to Bracco, we were able to enhance key sectors of the bilateral Italy-Japan relationship, fully consistent with the Italy-Japan Action Plan, starting with life sciences and the dialogue between art and health, areas in which the Group boasts an experience of excellence”. The collaboration has also benefited from Diana Bracco’s experience with Expo Milano 2015 and, recalls Vattani, “has extended to symbolic moments such as National Day, with the contribution of the Accademia Teatro alla Scala. The exhibition of Domenico Tintoretto’s portrait of Itō Mancho at the Italian Pavilion, together with an evocative and beautifully realised video, finally represented a very strong sign of the historic dialogue between our two countries, now projected towards the celebration of 160 years of bilateral relations in 2026′.
The Milan conference
Also speaking at the event at the Teatrino di Palazzo Visconti were Fulvio Renoldi Bracco, Vice President & CEO Bracco Imaging, Lorenzo Galanti, Director General Italian Trade Agency, Fabio Tedoldi, Head of Global R&D Bracco, Viviana Crescitelli, Senior Researcher Hitachi, Gian Giacomo Attolico Trivulzio, President of the Trivulzio Foundation, Isabella Castiglioni, Scientific Director CDI, Maria Vittoria Bandini and Gabriele Calcagno, students of the Scuola di Ballo dell’Accademia del Teatro alla Scala, Fabrizio Grillo, Director of General Affairs and International Relations Bracco and Rossella Menegazzo, Head of Culture, Science, Education of Padiglione Italia at Expo 2025 Osaka.
Japanese events and the La Scala dancers
During the six months of the Universal Exposition, Bracco promoted a wide range of initiatives in the name of science and culture, including several conferences that fostered new synergies between the European and Japanese scientific communities (thus strengthening some partnerships, for example with Osaka University, the Japanese Society of Radiology and Bracco Japan) and the photographic exhibition ‘Milan through Leonardo’s eyes’ by the Bracco Foundation, hosted at the splendid premises of the Italian Embassy in Tokyo.
AloJapan.com