Illustrators Café

The Sergio Silva Fund presents, among its jewels, the illustrated books of master Mitsumasa Anno, mostly unpublished in our country, in dialogue with Kiyoko Matsuaka, director of the Itabashi Museum in Tokyo and curator of the last exhibition dedicated to him in Japan.

Beatrice Alemagna, the greatest contemporary Italian female illustrator, presents her solo exhibition (opening at Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna during BCBF), which shows her research method through a huge selection of previously unpublished materials. Alemagna recounts her artistic work through the main recurring themes of her picture books - childhood, identity, nature and the city - and her daily confrontation with drawing, a struggle made of discoveries and attempts to overcome artistic limits in search of new stories to tell.

Uno sguardo alla produzione editoriale dell'anno: le scelte della Giuria del "Premio Andersen - il mondo dell'infanzia", aspettando la proclamazione dei vincitori sabato 27 maggio a Genova, momento nel quale sarà assegnato anche il premio alla libreria dell'anno per ragazzi, intitolato a Gianna e Roberto Denti e promosso da AIE-Associazione Italiana Editori e Andersen.

Presentation of the finalists projects of the 2023 Silent Book Contest - Gianni De Conno Award, the first international competition dedicated to the wordless book, this year in its 10th edition.

Expert advice on how to get started in a career in illustration, how to catch an agent’s eye, what sells, and how to maintain a career in children’s book publishing. A question and answer period will be included at the end of the discussion.

The Sergio Silva Fund presents different editions of Tomi Ungerer's books in dialogue with Aria Ungerer, daughter of the artist and creative director of Tomi Ungerer Estate.

Folio Society Art Directors, Sheri Gee and Raquel Leis Allion, discuss what makes artwork suitable for a successful Folio edition, how they work with illustrators and specific challenges that arise when working on iconic texts. Moderated by Steven Guarnaccia, author, illustrator and Professor Emeritus at Parsons School of Design.

A memorial tribute to the art of the Czech illustrator Květa Pacovská. 

Who told, collected, wrote the fairy tales that have nourished our imagination as children? Nicholas Jubber - in dialogue with Loredana Lipperini - tells about the authors of fairy tales which are now classics and traces the life and works of seven of them: from the Neapolitan Giambattista Basile to the Danish Hans Christian Andersen, passing through inventors, thieves, rebels and forgotten geniuses. An adventurous journey to discover the most secret aspects of the stories that have been part of our identity since we were children.

The Sergio Silva Fund presents the work of Maurice Sendak with illustrator Sergio Ruzzier.

Swedish illustrator Sven Nordqvist's decade-long work is presented for the first time in Bologna during BCBF and BOOM! Crescere nei libri. A talk to explore the fantastic worlds he invented: upside-down, bizarre universes filled with details and secrets, as in the many adventures of his most known characters: Pettson the farmer and his cat Findus.

Gusti, Illustrator; Christine Morault, Editions MeMO; Sidney Smith, Illustrator; Eric Telfort, Rhode Island School of Design/illustration Department, USA; Erik Titusson, Lillapiratforlaget.

Perfectly clothed animals, big collective frescoes whose plot is intertwined with History, the art of classic illustrators blending with the fantastic, and a passion for detail - all of this, and much more, is Rébecca Dautremer. In this talk, Dautremer opens the doors to her layered and exciting imagination.

"Miss Dicembre e il clan di luna" di Antonia Murgo (Bompiani) è il vincitore del Premio LiBeR per il miglior libro 2022 secondo il sondaggio annuale degli esperti che collaborano con la rivista. La premiazione sarà accompagnata da una conversazione con l'autrice a cura di Alice Bigli, Matteo Biagi e Ilaria Tagliaferri, direttrice di LiBeR.

Presentazione del nuovo bando 2023 del Concorso Lucca Junior – Premio di Illustrazione Editoriale Livio Sossi finalizzato alla realizzazione di un albo illustrato a partire da un testo inedito di Angelo Mozzillo. Un’opportunità concreta per pubblicare il primo libro o consolidare la propria carriera editoriale. 

Il concorso è organizzato da Lucca Comics & Games insieme ai partner Book on A Tree e Terre di mezzo Editore, con il patrocinio dell'Associazione Autori di Immagini e il supporto di Wacom.

Prosegue la serie dei mestieri del fumetto a cura della Commissione Comics & Graphic Novels di AIE, dedicata a tutti coloro che sognano di lavorare in una casa editrice di fumetti e raccontata da chi ci lavora quotidianamente. Il tema di questo incontro sarà la portfolio review, presentata dai diversi punti di vista dell’editore, del fumettista e della fiera di settore.