Ducati marked its 100th anniversary at Madrid’s Estampa contemporary-art fair with six new works by Catalan artist Adriana Oliver and an appearance by the Formula 73. The 34th edition of Estampa took place from 24 to 27 September 2026, bringing together more than 80 contemporary-art galleries and 15,000 visitors across the four-day event.

The exhibition, titled “La historia de la historia”, was created specifically for Ducati’s centenary and was curated by Lucha de Gigantes. Rather than presenting the company’s past as a conventional timeline, the project uses Ducati’s first century as a starting point for imagining the personal stories that can develop around its motorcycles and continue through different generations.

Oliver’s six works connect contemporary art with the experiences that surround motorcycle ownership. Their themes include youth, freedom, love, family, the passing of a passion from one generation to the next, and the close relationship between a rider and a motorcycle. In Oliver’s interpretation, Ducati is not only the subject of the work: the motorcycle accompanies people through different stages of life and can eventually become part of their memories.

A personal view of the Ducati story

Oliver described the project as being about everything that happens around a Ducati, rather than only about the manufacturer itself. That perspective gives the exhibition a distinctly personal focus, shifting attention from machinery alone to the relationships, sensations and recollections built around it.

The artist is also a keen motorcyclist and a regular user of a Ducati Scrambler Nightshift. Her direct relationship with riding and with the brand informed the creative process, helping her bring ideas connected with riding, freedom and the memories formed around a motorcycle into the six works.

Adriana Oliver attended the exhibition opening with Carlos T. López Panisello, General Manager of Ducati Spain. Ducati said the centenary is an opportunity not only to celebrate its history, but also to show how the company understands itself today and how it wants to shape its future. López Panisello also presented the collaboration as a way to reinterpret Ducati through a different perspective and reach an audience interested in design, creativity and beauty.

The Formula 73 links art with industrial design

The six artworks were accompanied by the Ducati Formula 73, a contemporary urban café racer created as a reinterpretation of a 1970s Ducati. The motorcycle pays tribute to the Ducati 750 Super Sport Desmo, identified by Ducati as its first production motorcycle equipped with a desmodromic distribution system.

Its retro inspiration gave the exhibition a physical link between the artistic project and Ducati’s industrial-design heritage. The Formula 73 was not simply an additional motorcycle on display: within the exhibition, it reinforced the idea that a motorcycle can move beyond its technical role and become an object with design, cultural and emotional meaning.

The Madrid project formed part of Ducati’s wider 2026 programme for its 100th anniversary, with initiatives planned in Spain and internationally. By presenting Oliver’s work beside the Formula 73, Ducati extended the centenary beyond the motorcycle itself and explored the connections between its history, contemporary creativity, design, innovation and emotion.