KraftMeister: German Icons at FuoriConcorso 2026

After dedicating its 2025 edition to speed as a symbol of Italian brilliance, FuoriConcorso returns to Lake Como with a new perspective on automotive culture — one shaped by engineering precision, technical rigor and uncompromising functionality.

The 2026 theme, KraftMeister, explores the world of the German automobile and the philosophy that made it iconic: a design language where engineering, efficiency and aesthetics exist in perfect balance. From motorsport legends to experimental prototypes, from timeless production models to radical tuner interpretations, the exhibition will present some of the most influential expressions of German automotive excellence.

Set between Villa del Grumello and Villa Sucota, FuoriConcorso once again transforms Lake Como into an international gathering place for collectors, designers, engineers and enthusiasts, celebrating the automobile as both an industrial achievement and a cultural object.

At the same time, Villa Olmo will host Helmut Newton Cars from 15 May to 30 June, a photographic exhibition exploring the automobile through Newton’s unmistakable visual language — sensual, cinematic and charged with tension.

More than an exhibition, FuoriConcorso continues to establish itself as an international cultural platform where heritage, contemporary design and innovation meet through installations, premieres and public events.

The Identity of KraftMeister

The visual and conceptual identity of KraftMeister revolves around the idea of sharp edges — a metaphor for the German approach to design, where every line has intention and every form serves performance. Rooted in the Bauhaus tradition and developed through the automotive and industrial culture of the 1970s to 1990s, this philosophy transformed functionality into a recognisable aesthetic language.

A central visual element is the sequence of four heads, illustrating the evolution of man and driver across time: from instinctive ingenuity to the progressive integration of body, machine and protection. It becomes a symbolic reflection on the relationship between human beings and technology, instinct and speed.

The project’s vibrant orange palette references the energy of machinery, engineering workshops and industrial environments, while the typography — inspired by early digital interfaces and 1980s computing — creates a dialogue between retro-futurism and technological heritage.

Guglielmo Miani on KraftMeister

“KraftMeister was born from the desire to explore an automotive culture that transformed engineering into a form of identity. Where Italy interpreted speed through emotion and beauty, Germany built its legacy through precision, discipline and the relentless pursuit of performance. They are different but complementary visions, and FuoriConcorso exists to celebrate both.

This edition is also a reflection on the automobile as a keeper of memory — an object carrying within it the thinking and ambition of generations of engineers, designers and drivers. In many ways, it recalls the exchange that emerged in the 1930s, when the Bauhaus vision of form serving function resonated with the rationalist architects of Como. Along these shores, German rigor and Mediterranean sensitivity met and generated a new visual language for modernity.

Every automobile displayed at Villa del Grumello and Villa Sucota represents a chapter of this story: not simply an object to admire, but an idea to interpret. And once again, Lake Como provides the perfect setting — a place where beauty is immediate, and mastery reveals itself naturally.”