The Still Life campaign tells the story of circular economy according to Stellantis, a holistic approach extended to the entire lifecycle of the car.
In an age when the environment is calling us to account for our choices, the automotive industry is rewriting the rules of the game. Designing and building a car is a complex undertaking. Even more so when the intention is to give that car — or the parts that make it up — a second life. When the aim is to embed the process within the circular economy, a system that enshrines the prefix "re" as its guiding principle: regenerate, repair, reuse, recycle. Yet research into materials has always been a constant in the history of the car: today, alongside the traditional goals of lightness and strength, new criteria have emerged that are decisive in shaping that research — sustainability in resource use, reduced consumption, durability, recyclability and renewability.
Alternating scenario analyses of major trends with case studies, this was already well explained back in 2018 by the volume in the Neomateriali nell'economia circolare – Automotive series, with the express aim of guiding the reader through the densest threads of a radical revolution — proposing itself, as Roberto Giolito wrote in his preface — a designer who made automotive history in Italy, from whose pen came models such as the Multipla and the current Fiat 500, and today head of Heritage at Stellantis — as "a notebook of operational tools for anyone approaching the design of the automobile within its broader context".
2018–2025: within just a few years the automotive world appears to have changed radically. Any hesitation about the technological shifts that will allow the sector to complete its ecological transition seems to have vanished, while concepts such as regeneration, deconstructability, recoverability and recyclability are taking on ever greater importance.
To understand the complex and delicate transition that the automotive industry is undergoing, to grasp the future of a product that stands as a symbol of human ingenuity, we need the ability to lay bare those cabins in which the comfort of materials is increasingly linked to their resistance and repairability. We need to understand the meaning of durability and renewability of materials.
Let us be clear: this is neither an easy nor a painless transformation. One thing, however, is certain. Nature teaches us its own paradigm based on circularity, and business is adopting its principles for an economy that can no longer do without sustainability. Research into new materials will help us. Because new performance standards are needed. Strength linked to sustainability is needed. Resource use that cuts consumption and increases durability is needed. Recyclability and renewability will increasingly be built into our cars.
This is the new face of the car, the invisible force that transforms matter. A concept that Stellantis interpreted well in 2022 with the creation of SUSTAINERA, a business unit entirely dedicated to circular economy activities, and with the inauguration in 2023 of the first SUSTAINERA Circular Economy Hub — 73,000 square metres born from a converted facility within the Mirafiori complex in Turin, "a model plant in the automotive sector that combines environmental respect with economic development", as John Elkann, President of Stellantis, has described it on numerous occasions.
A facility that today hosts activities such as the regeneration of engines, gearboxes and batteries for electric vehicles, the reconditioning and dismantling of vehicles — where used, worn or defective components are disassembled, cleaned and regenerated without compromising their quality, or alternatively reused or recycled. Components, as well as entire vehicles, that once reintroduced to the market through dedicated sales and service channels, return to a new life.
The SUSTAINERA initiative by Stellantis aims to extend the useful life of components and vehicles, reduce demand for new raw materials, limit the production of waste and contain emissions across the entire vehicle lifecycle, from design to end of use. At the heart of the strategy are the 4Rs, representing the key actions for a more sustainable model of production and consumption — Reman (regeneration), Repair, Reuse and Recycle — a paradigm shift away from the linear "produce-use-discard" consumption model. This vision is aimed not only at motorists, but also at aftersales and maintenance sector operators, building an offering that aspires to be the responsible choice for every player in the supply chain.
But to better understand the value of the SUSTAINERA initiative, we need to take a step back. Because, while it is true that today the green transformation trend is now permeating every aspect of the automotive sector, much of that transformation — though long under way — remains invisible to most people. And what better medium than art to recount, with fresh and creative eyes, the most recent and fascinating developments in what remains one of the most extraordinary technologies ever devised by humankind?
Art has always told the story of ongoing transformations better than most — art that not only reflects our sociocultural reality, but can also promote greater awareness and concrete action. For this reason, artists can play a key role in advancing the circular economy, creating works of art that stimulate reflection on environmental issues and inspire a cultural shift towards sustainability.
And it is precisely with this objective — to raise public awareness of these concepts — that SUSTAINERA commissioned photographer Roberto Savio, a specialist in still life — the artistic and photographic technique used to portray objects — to create the visual campaign Still Life, comprising four artistic shots to illustrate each of the four Rs of the strategy in a manner as concrete as it is conceptual. "The goal was not merely to describe, but to move people", Savio explained on the set, created at the Turin headquarters of the SUSTAINERA hub.
I chose a representation that is concrete yet conceptual, to visually convey the deeper meaning of the 4Rs.
Roberto Savio
Still Life thus goes beyond interpreting the four circular economy practices, translating their principles into an accessible visual language — engaging yet at the same time grounded in precise technical realities. Each image distils an industrial process currently under way in the regeneration, repair, reuse and recycling centres, showing how the ecological transition can take on forms that are comprehensible, communicable and even aesthetic.
Playing on the term Still Life — which refers both to the precise photographic technique used to create the 4 images and to the concept of "there is still life" — Stellantis aims to show how even what seems beyond recovery can still have a destiny, thanks to circular economy activities designed to extend the useful life of components, materials and vehicles. The SUSTAINERA philosophy demonstrates that sustainability in the automotive sector is not only an environmental necessity, as we have seen at length, but also a driver of industrial and cultural innovation, where even car components, when looked at closely, can tell stories of transformation, efficiency and rebirth.
The first shot is dedicated to remanufacturing. Here Roberto Savio adopted a technical and geometric approach using two visual techniques: knolling, which arranges objects with precision, and mirroring, which emphasises their symmetry. The goal? To show the contrast between a worn component and a remanufactured one. This visual representation traces the journey of transformation: on the left, worn, dark and dirty components; on the right, their fully remanufactured counterparts — clean, gleaming with chrome and ready for a new life.
I wanted to show how worn mechanical parts can shine again, instead of being discarded.
Roberto Savio
The image reflects a concrete industrial practice: through remanufacturing — restoration to OEM specifications (an acronym for Original Equipment Manufacturer, in this case referring to the vehicle maker) — a recovered component can function again with the same performance and guarantees as a new one, delivering both economic and environmental benefits.
In the second image, repair is portrayed as a return to the stage. At the centre of the image sits a repaired automatic gearbox framed by a golden drape, inspired by the iconography of Renaissance portraiture. The mechanical component is therefore treated not merely according to its function, but elevated to a symbol. "I wanted to evoke the idea of a return to the stage, just as a component returns to working order," Savio explains. The work underlines how repair is as much a technique-based practice as it is a gesture of value recovery — an act of care, precision and vision for what can still serve a purpose. It is a tribute to sustainability and innovation. Every repaired component carries with it a story of time and respect for materials that still have something to give — earning a new chance, a new reveal.
For the R of reuse, Savio chose to explore the artistic dimension of recovery: inspired by action painting, an end-of-life car was disassembled and its components laid out on a surface, treated as painterly canvases and painted with bold, expressive eco-friendly colours, to represent a work of automotive pop art — a symbol of the art of reusing components that are still 100% functional, recovered and redeployed in other vehicles. Here, reuse is conceived not merely as extending the useful life of an object, but also as a perceptual transformation: an invitation to look at end-of-life vehicle parts with fresh eyes — no longer as waste, but as components that can effectively begin a new life as second-hand spare parts. All of this is conveyed through a technique in which "colour transforms the visual impact of an end-of-life car, stirring new and positive emotions," as Savio highlights.
In the fourth and final shot, the theme of recycling is approached by Roberto Savio through the creation of a spiral composition inspired by the SUSTAINERA logo, the golden ratio and Land art. The components arranged in a spiral evoke the concept of the continuous cycle that is the hallmark of recycling, in harmony with the essence of circularity where every ending is a new beginning. The photograph visually conveys the idea of a potentially infinite process in which materials and resources are not exhausted but transformed and preserved — minimising waste, their possibilities not running dry but re-entering a new production cycle, recovered and reinvented repeatedly, from vehicle to vehicle, contributing to a more sustainable system because it endures over time.
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