“Illustrators for Gianni Rodari” for the Week of the Italian Language in the World
“Italian Between Word and Image: Graffiti, Illustrations, Comic Books” is the theme for the XX Week of the Italian Language in the World, taking place from October 19 to 25.
By a fortunate coincidence, the theme is perfectly in connection with the centenary of the birth of Gianni Rodari (on October 23, 1920), one of the most beloved and innovative children’s authors, extraordinary figure of writer and pedagogue.
To celebrate this anniversary, Bologna Children’s Book Fair and Emilia-Romagna Region, which for many years have been promoting Italian illustration the world over, have conceived the exhibition Illustrators for Gianni Rodari. Italian Excellence, curated by Giannino Stoppani Cooperativa Culturale / Accademia Drosselmeier. It displays the works by twenty-one Italian illustrators who have illustrated and re-interpreted Rodari’s stories in the last fifty years, ranging from historic figures and famous contemporary artists to the younger generation: Bruno Munari, Emanuele Luzzati, Altan, Beatrice Alemagna, Alessandro Sanna, Manuel Fior, just to name a few, great artists who, together with the author, have been “inciters of phantasy”.
The exhibition is presented in many international venues among the on-site or virtual events celebrating Rodari in the frame of the Week of the Italian Language in the World, and in particular: Auckland, Beirut, Bratislava, Chicago, Geneva, London, Madrid, Tampa, Miami, Atlanta, Pilsen, Sao Paulo, Taipei, Zagreb.
The exhibition goes with the numerous and diverse opportunities organized for deepening Rodari’s figure and his influence as a writer and pedagogue, such as webinars, meetings with experts and authors, laboratories of illustration, didactic and ludic activities for students and children.
To name but a few examples, in Madrid you can call the Italian Cultural Institute and listen to one of Rodari’s Cuentos por teléfono, and vote your favourite - an initiative promoted with 50 primary schools of the city, while in London you can listen to 15 Audio Telephone Tales for free on many platforms (and till the end of the year), by kind permission of the respective publishers. Favole al telefono also in Bratislava, where the exhibition, set in the University Library, has a multimedia section linked to the audiobook, besides others presenting Rodari in the Slovakian context. In Geneva, Auckland, Miami, Madrid, Sao Paulo you can listen to experts and scholars, like Daniela Marcheschi, Eva Furnari, Pino Boero, Grazia Gotti, and Elena Pasoli.
Countries as the United States and New Zealand have given great prominence to the exhibition Illustrators for Gianni Rodari. This is also due to the fact that, except for a partial English translation in the 1960s, Rodari has never been published in the United States until last September, when Enchanted Lion finally released Rodari’s masterpiece Telephone Tales, with translation by Antony Shugaar and illustrations by Valerio Vidali (one of the illustrators on display), and also plans to release his seminal essay The Grammar of Fantasy next year.
In Tampa, Florida, the ribbon-cutting ceremony is attended by the Mayor Jane Castor, the Consul General of Italy in Miami, Cristiano Masullo, the City of Tampa Council Chairman Guido Maniscalco. Representatives of the Italian-American Community also attend, together with Bologna Children’s Book Fair Manager Elena Pasoli via video-link from Italy. In parallel, the exhibition is set in Miami and Atlanta.
Also New Zealand ‘discovers’ Rodari with this exhibition. The Country has a strong tradition of children literature, and a writer, Margaret Mahy, who like Rodari, received the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award. But - as noticed by the organizer in Auckland Alessandra Zecchini, member of the Dante Alighieri Society Committee - Rodari is virtually unknown there. The exhibit opens on the occasion of the Artweek Auckland, and here too it goes with meetings, radio, TV, and social media specials, side activities for all the ‘curious’ interested in.
The tribute to Rodari in the Week of the Italian Language in the World is the highlight of celebrations that took place and will take place throughout 2020 and beyond.
The exhibition debuted in the United States in September 2019, set in the Portland Art Museum and later in San Francisco until February 2020, and over the past months it has already been, both on-site and virtual, in: Vantaa, Berlin, Cologne, Tokyo, Moscow, Prague. In November and December it is scheduled in: Athens, Lyon, Pula, Rijeka, Paris.
Moreover, it was and will be hosted in important international fairs, like the Feria Infantil y Juvenil of Buenos Aires, last July, and the CCBF- China Shanghai International Children's Book Fair, in November. The TIBE- Taipei International Book Exhibition will host it in January 2021 next edition, and, in collaboration with the Italian Diplomatic Representative Office in Taiwan, is presenting it even now - online preview on the occasion of the Week of the Italian Language in the World.
To celebrate Gianni Rodari’s birthday on October 23 at 06:00 p.m., everybody can share a live stream event of “Ad Alta voce 2020” (Aloud) (adaltavoce.it/streaming/): from the courtyard of historic City Hall Palazzo d’Accursio of Bologna, Enrico Salimbeni reads the text A un pittore bambino and Aterballetto dance company transforms into a performance Rodari’s art of storytelling.
The theme of the 2020 edition of the cultural event promoted by Coop Alleanza 3.0 is “Words to overcome distances”, and just Rodari’s words have been symbolically chosen for the opening event Voci per un non compleanno. Ad alta voce con Gianni Rodari (Voices for a(n) (un)birthday. Aloud with Gianni Rodari), with great interpreters of Italian theatre and cinema.
