2026 Backstage

 

 

 

 

 

With these words we ended the tenth edition of VIW in July 2025. Ten years have passed since Elena Pasoli asked us what we thought about using illustration to recount the 2017 edition of the Children’s Book Fair, an initiative that signified a break with a long iconoclastic tradition. I remember feeling a thrill very similar to the sensation of leaving a safe harbour to set sail on an unknown course. We obviously accepted the challenge but proposed two conditions: firstly, the youth of the participants, and secondly, workshops at Chialab. And this is how we have arrived at the tenth edition of VIW.

 

 

 

Bumi Cha (2004), South Korea; Stefania Serafinescu (1996), Romania; Booali Tooba (1996), Iran; and Lee Hsuan Jung (1994), Taiwan, were chosen from the candidates for the 59th edition of the Illustrators Exhibition. The theme we proposed was ‘faces’, not necessarily human ones, viewed from the front, direct gazes that represent the immersion in, and identification with, the stories they read.

 

 

For us Bumi Cha’s proposals, her drawing and her way of seeing a portrait showed great promise. In her drawing the boundaries that define the shapes play dynamically between what is outside and what is within. This delicate ambiguity fascinated us and seemed to be the most suitable way to convey the diversity of the faces that attend BCBF.

 

 

Bumi Cha arrived from South Korea and joined us on the morning of the 15th. The Chialab studio was all set to welcome her and put her in the best possible position to understand what the Bologna Children’s Book Fair is, its atmosphere, and its story that can be told through thousands of objects.

 

The theme for 2026 will be permeated by faces, features and portraits. From the forehead to the chin, A space in which to build a dense and intense relationship between gazes.

 

 

We were to work together on 6 visual exercises. Small practical workshops to better understand the theme and to culminate in designing a matrix. We try not to fall into the “labile fantasizing” that Italo Calvino spoke of, rather we aim to cultivate the imagination methodically, persevering to seek out the image-pattern best suited to BCBF 2026.

 

Exercise 1. All Kinds of Characters / Observe and group the portraits according to common criteria. Exercise 2. Pareidolia / Divide each portrait into 6 parts. Do not crop the feature you are interested in. You are free to divide the sheet as you prefer. Look at the 144 cut-outs and decide whether and how to group them. Exercise 3. Fiṡionomic machine / Construct 2 portraits each (one good and one bad) using 6 of the 144 parts cut out in exercise 2. Each portrait must contain six pieces of paper. Exercise 4. Who’s That Face? / Choose one of these jobs or places: florist, shoemaker, grocery store, bakery. Construct a portrait using only objects related to the jobs/places. Exercise 5. Selfie / Pose, take 3 photos: front, ¾ view and profile. Cut the selfie into 6 parts as in Exercise 1. Construct the portraits using parts of the three poses. Exercise 6. The Matrix / Construct a pattern by dividing the square into 6 parts. Draw 4 very different faces using the same matrix.

 

 

The matrix or generative pattern is the system that enables us to produce multiple, adaptable combinations of faces, each of which is recognisable as BCBF 26 and, at the same time, representative of the many unique differences. Finally, we must say goodbye, leaving Cha Bumi with a suitcase full of insights and ideas and just one task: to design 6 faces-portraits-characters that can be deconstructed, reproduced and multiplied.

 

 

Bumi sends her first ideas. We immediately understand that she is on the right track. Her approach, her design and her technique embrace and develop the inputs from VIW, resulting in a strong, dynamic, decisive, multifaceted and unique proposal. The image for BCBF 26 can be seen to be clearly taking shape.

 

 

 

One of the aims of VIW, perhaps the most complex to explain and the hardest to achieve, is to ask not for a single image, but a generative system that makes it possible to produce multiple combinations from a small number of elements.

 

 

Taking part in VIW were Bumi Cha, Alex Weste, Michele Tomasini, Clara Rizzolino.

The workshops were coordinated by Beppe Chia and Jessica Cantoni.

 

If you are interested in previous editions of the VIW, you can find further information here.