 |
Title: Il Bosco Stregato - Concorso Internazionale Exlibristico
e Brevi Novelle |
Ex libris catalogue showcase
Il Bosco Stregato 2007
(by G.N.)
An article regarding the prize ceremony is
here (in Italian only).
Now, a quick description of the catalogue, curated by Tommaso Lo Russo and Cristiano Beccaletto. We first find a page with the enumeration of the subjects that helped (public and private sponsors). Then, the index.
Preface is by Lina and Tommaso Lo Russo. A text, "Once upon a time", by Cristiano Beccaletto (we publish it below) introduces us to the competition.
Ex libris reproductions follow: winners, selected, and an anthology of participating ex libris.
Later there's room for winning and selected short stories.
Lastly, the list of all participating artists, oredered by nation.
Front cover"Il Bosco Stregato"
2007
Next is the introductory text by Cristiano Beccaletto.
In the early post-war years, when there was no
television let alone computers, children used to be told fairy tales,
usually after tea, before going to bed.
Particularly skilled in the art of storytelling were grandparents, whose stories called fole, or fables in the local dialect where I come from (the plain of the River Po in Veneto), but also, as far as I know, in other places in the 'boot' - drew on popular traditions. So on winter nights sat around a roaring fire, or on summer evenings looking out over a red sunset, grandad would tell his fole: They were not the fairy tales of Perrault, or those of the Brothers Grimm, or even of Andersen.
But they had an age-old, homely flavour, and though they were always the same, every evening some new detail would be added to the detriment of others that would be forgotten. In this way, grandad's fole had the feel of a rustic Commedia dell'arte, the form of theatre in which improvisation and invention prevails over the narrative plot, and unlikely characters enter on stage and exit depending on the whims of the storyteller.
Then we would go off to bed, leaving just a tuft of hair exposed, dreading the arrival of the big bad wolf or the mysterious mago Carigù. Luckily, we were so tired after all the games and running around during the day that after a few seconds we would fall asleep nonetheless.
There were also books of fairy tales in large print, with illustrations for children who were still too young to read. But the most sought-after fairy tale albums (that is what they were called) were those that with each turn of the page unveiled an array of colours, characters, castles, meadows, mountains and fields. These would stand up on the page, becoming three-dimensional with refined fold, overlay and inlay effects, only to go back into hiding when the page was turned again to make room for the next picture: paper architecture,an art known as pop-up today.
What would have become of fables, whether famous or otherwise, if there had been no grandparents passing them on to generation after generation of grandchildren? Would they have continued to have success without the illustrations, the paper architecture, the cinema, dance and theatre, and the multimediality of today? One depends on the other, and they are all inseparably part of the fola.
Could Ex Libris be any different? Certainly not. So repeating an event - in our case, a competition in which the leading roles are played by fairy tales and Ex Libris - gives a new lease of life to the alliance between fables and art, between books and Ex Libris. This gives a sense of meaning to the Premio del Bosco Stregato Prize, which - year after year - presents artists with new fairy tales to interpret through their works. And when we see these works spread out on a table, hanging on a wall, or in a publication, it is like going back to being a child again in front of a roaring fire, enchanted by the paper architecture and grandad's voice telling story ... after story ... after story ...
But don't let me bore you any more, or send you to sleep. What
is important is that - in the end - they all lived happily
ever after.
Cristiano Beccaletto
Catalogo "Il Bosco Stregato"
2007 - retro di copertina (particolare)
To learn more:
http://www.boscostregato.com/
Other news:
|
Abstract:
