On Monday, June 8th at 6 pm, at the Italian Institute of Culture in New York, Zig Zag – A Visual Bridge Between Italy and the USA opens, a five-day festival dedicated to illustrated book, illustration and cultural dialogue between Italy and the United States. The initiative is promoted by the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, with the care of Hamelin and Steven Guarnaccia, in collaboration with Bologna Children’s Book Fair.
The inaugural evening will feature some of the most important contemporary authors and illustrators: Mac Barnett, Marianna Coppo, Felicita Sala, Riccardo Vecchio and Olimpia Zagnoli, who will dialogue through symbolic images to tell two and a half centuries of relationships, influences and exchanges between Italy and the United States. The meeting will be introduced by Steven Guarnaccia and Leonard Marcus and moderated by Ilaria Tontardini. The exhibition “250 Years of Friendship” will be inaugurated. A Visual Bridge Between Italy and USA”.
The director of the Institute of Italian Culture in New York, Claudio Pagliara declares that “The Italian Institute of Culture in New York is proud to have promoted this new festival, a further opportunity to dialogue between the two shores of the Atlantic through the encounter between Italian and American illustrators. Zig Zag is not only a thread that, spreading through streets and avenues of New York, unites the five offices involved in the initiative. It is also the image of the way ideas move: along paths never straight, always open to comparison, exchange and new synthesis”.
Zig Zag was born of the idea that illustration represents one of the most effective languages to put in dialogue different cultures. The festival wants to tell the excellence of contemporary Italian illustration and the continuous creative exchange between the two sides of the Atlantic, in the sign of great figures that have built this cultural bridge, from Fortunato Depero to Leo Lionni, from Massimo Vignelli to Emiliano Ponzi.
Partner of the initiative are Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Society of Illustrators, Rizzoli Bookstore, Sullaluna NYC, SALOTTO – Casa IED, School of Visual Arts (SVA) and numerous companies active in promoting Italian illustration and culture in New York.
After opening at the Italian Institute of Culture, the festival will continue:
9 giugno – Society of Illustrators: incontro dedicato all’evoluzione del libro illustrato tra Nord America e Italia, con editori, agenti e professionisti del settore.
10 giugno – Rizzoli Bookstore: focus sul visual storytelling nei picture books con Felicita Sala e Mac Barnett.
11 giugno – SALOTTO – Casa IED: esplorazione delle nuove forme dell’illustrazione oltre il libro, con Olimpia Zagnoli ed Emiliano Ponzi.
12 giugno – Sullaluna NYC: chiusura del festival con Marianna Coppo e Cecilia Ruiz, in un dialogo dedicato alla forza narrativa delle immagini.
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