The "Italian Excellence" of children’s illustration in the Week of the Italian Language in the World
Many new international stages for the exhibition Italian Excellence. The New Generation of Italian Children’s Illustrators, the project promoted by Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Emilia-Romagna Region and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI).
The exhibition is presented in many international venues among the events organized by Embassies, Consulates and Italian Cultural Institutes in the frame of the 22nd Week of the Italian Language in the World.
In particular, in: Beijing, Bratislava, Bruxelles, Edinburgh, Hong Kong, Lyon, Malindi, Marseille, Mumbai, Tirana.
In Edinburgh, it was inaugurated in early October, presented as a ‘meeting point’ between the Italian Contemporary Art Week (October 8-14) and the Week of Italian Language in the World (October 17-22). In Mumbai, it is among the exhibitions of the ART35 Festival, an event dedicated to young artists under 35 now in its 5th edition. In Beijing and Hong Kong, it is also part of the 2022 Italy-China Year of Culture and Tourism initiatives.
In Lyon, on the occasion of the opening at the Cité Scolaire Internationale de Lyon, illustrator Giulia Tomai proposed an atelier with the young students. Two creative workshops curated by another of the artists on display, Michelangelo Rossato, will also take place in Tirana, organized by the Italian Cultural Institute in co-operation with Europe House and the Delegation of the European Union to Albania.
Lyon also proposes the second edition of the project dedicated to Italian illustration for children, Illustrators for Gianni Rodari. Italian Excellence, which is presented among the initiatives of the 22nd Week of the Italian Language in the World also in Croatia, in Rijeka.
The first edition of the “Italian Excellence” exhibition took internationally renowned illustrators around the world, the second one, Italian illustrators who have re-interpreted the stories by the great children’s author in the last fifty years, while this third edition presents works by twenty of the most promising young Italian illustrators aged between 23 and 35.
The exhibition has already been on display in various international contexts: from mid-2021, when the circulation after the pandemic began, to date, 42 different editions has been produced, in the languages: Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, English, French, German, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Spanish, Swahili.
New international stages are scheduled, and the fourth edition of the project is already in the works: it is dedicated to Italo Calvino on the occasion of the centenary of his birth.