“Illustrations for Italo Calvino” in the 23rd Week of the Italian Language in the World
Italian Excellence. Illustrations for Italo Calvino has been organized by Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), and Emilia-Romagna Region on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the great Italian writer.
As the previous edition of the project on illustration for children, this fourth exhibition is curated by Accademia Drosselmeier/Cooperativa Giannino Stoppani and pays homage to Italo Calvino with 121 illustrations inspired by his literary production.
The exhibition comprises two parts. The first includes contributions by thirty-one established artists who in the past dealt with Calvino’s works such as the Italian Folktales or the novels of the “heraldic trilogy” Our Ancestors or Marcovaldo. The second presents the works by the thirty winners of an international competition promoted by the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, shared by more than 500 illustrators from all over the world who offered their personal vision of the characters, places and themes of Calvino’s novels.
After the debut abroad at the Festival du Livre de Paris in April, the exhibition started a long international tour. Thanks to the co-operation of the MAECI network of diplomatic and cultural Representations, it has already been on display in important locations and international events in Villahermosa, Bucharest, Beijing, Lyon, Montréal, Chongqing.
Many venues of the network are proposing it on the occasion of the 23rd Week of the Italian Language in the World (October 16-22), which includes the figure of Italo Calvino and the anniversary celebrations as a significant part of the events.
The exhibition, translated for the occasion into 11 languages (Arabic, Albanian, English, French, German, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Turkish) and presented in different versions (entire / established artists / contest winners), is under way in Alexandria, Ankara, Beirut, Belgrade, Bratislava, Canberra, Caracas, Chicago, Cluj-Napoca, Istanbul, Kinshasa, Melbourne, Pristina, Sao Paulo, Tirana, Washington, and has just closed in Nairobi and Taipei.
Moreover, Illustrations for Italo Calvino is presented by the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Frankfurt, at the 75th Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 18-22), and in New York, in a programme organized in collaboration with the Society of Illustrators starting from October 15, on occasion of the Week of the Italian Language, and running through December 31.
After the Week of the Italian Language in the World, the international tour of the exhibition will go on in Madrid (from mid-November to March 2024), Cairo (in November), London (in December and in January), Cologne (mid-January to April 2024), and further locations are being defined.
It will be also presented at other prestigious international book fairs: Shanghai International Children's Book Fair (November 17-19), Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara (November 25 – December 3).