Philip Rolla left California in 1962 to realize his dream of building propellers for fast boats, and he knew that only in Turin could he learn all the secrets of the trade. That would be his first destination. When he left, he was 24 years old and had just graduated from the University of Santa Clara with a degree in Economics and Industrial Engineering, but he had already shown that he was able to build a racecar and a raceboat (with which he competed), and to draw and paint. He will never forget his paternal home in Madrone, surrounded by orchards, nor the years he spent with his parents, brother and grandparents. He treasured all his experiences and began his own adventure, retracing in reverse the path taken by his four Piedmontese grandparents around 1910.

The arrival in Switzerland was in the winter of 1964-1965. Philip Rolla lived with Renate first in Pregassona, then in Lugano Besso and later in Vernate, Malcantone. In 1968 they settled on the shores of Lake Ceresio, in Pojana, between Riva San Vitale and Brusino Arsizio, in an old restaurant called “Al San Giorgio”. Phil occupies the garage and turns it into a perfect workshop with all his tools. There, under a parachute canopy, he plunges into the creation of ever more innovative and faster propellers, following his personal instincts of mathematical calculation and manual dexterity. He went so far as to make propellers with eight blades! During this time, he was fortunate enough to make friends with some people from Ticino who helped him understand how to move in an environment that was so new to him: Remo Cattaneo, Carlo Ortelli and Dolf Schnebli, the master architect of reinforced concrete. Philip stayed in Pojana until 1986, when, as a widower, he moved to the old cement factory in the Breggia Valley in Balerna.

Philip Rolla’s entire career is metaphorically represented by the transition from the letterhead with the name Motonautica, the post office box and the stamp of the American Chamber of Commerce in plain view, in 1963, when he had just arrived in Turin, to ROLLA, written in capitals, stenciled, in an unmistakable blue that resembles both water and sky, which is still present today. Rolla SP Propellers is no longer located in the Breggia Valley, but in Novazzano since 2005. Many things have changed, Phil has retired from the current business, but his mind and hands are still in action. In his past are the most imaginative construction sites, his closest collaborators and innovative engineers. In short, there is an awareness of the value of teamwork that complements his staff as they constantly adapt to new means and technologies. These are fundamental experiences that will be indispensable when he later embarks on new projects, such as those in the field of collecting art and photography.

Collecting works of art, especially by American minimalist artists, and photography is an activity that Philip Rolla has cultivated for decades with great satisfaction, both for himself and for his wife Rosella. His proximity to these artists has also always had a great influence on the way he conceives his work. The first two works that he and his wife Rosella bought, after those of his Ticino friends Pierino Selmoni and Flavio Paolucci in the 1970s, were a small rectangular painting with a horizontal parallelepiped by Sol LeWitt and a kind of flip-book by Robert Rauschenberg, a real “bible” for Phil. The interest in photography comes shortly thereafter, in the early 2000s. And the first new entries, a short time apart, were an image of a bathroom in a Mies Van Der Rohe house by the German photographer Thomas Ruff and a sea horizon by the Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto.

The passion for photography grows year by year and so does the archive of the collection. Philip Rolla is interested in the image that portrays the object as it is, without forcing it, but with a special view point capable of returning a deep emotional response to it. This is the lesson he learned from reading John Szarkowski’s The Photographer’s Eye, and it applies to all the subjects he loves: architecture, factories, objects, plants.

Since 2010, this legacy has been made available to those interested. Rosella and Philip Rolla reached an agreement with the Municipality of Bruzella (now Breggia) for the use of the former kindergarten. Here they systematically offer thematic exhibitions. By a single author, collective or in the form of a dialogue between two, each exhibition is accompanied by a small and valuable catalogue. The first appointment was with the Czech photographer Josef Sudek. The title of the exhibition: Cacciatore di magia. Volume cover in yellow. Introductory text signed by the Ticino poet Alberto Nessi.