Italian Excellence: Illustrations for Italo Calvino

On the occasion of the 23rd edition of the Week of Italian Language in the World, the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago presents the exhibition "Italian Excellence: Illustrations for Italo Calvino" curated by Giannino Stoppani, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the writer’s birth. In response to the theme "Italian language and sustainability" the exhibition provides an insight into the Calvinian world and nature, through the contemporary interpretation of young illustrators from around the world.

This exhibition offers a valuable opportunity to engage with writings conceived by Italo Calvino for young readers, and fairy tales that provide an opportunity for shared adult/children reading time. It is also a significant medium for presenting children’s publishing to the world, a research-led space full of high-quality offerings, vital to the education of future generations.

This edition offers visitors a new and international survey on one of the greatest interpreters of Italian literature, a man who turned words into images. The exhibition showcases a selection of international illustrators, who were selected among the five hundred plus participants to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair Contest dedicated to the theme "Illustrated Calvino."

The titles of the presented artworks were conceived to underline the link between the written texts and their illustrations, and form a visual itinerary through fairy tales, novels, adaptations, school texts, and new worlds.

Open hours

Monday through Friday, 11:00am - 4:00pm

For group visits, email segr.iicchicago@esteri.it

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