Luzzati Meets Calvino at Palazzo Ducale
An exhibition where the work of Lele Luzzati meets Italo Calvino: illustrations, drawings and workshops until April 7, 2024, at Casa Luzzati, Palazzo Ducale in Genoa.
Fantasy, dream, creativity: when Lele Luzzati meets Italo Calvino, one is left in awe. The Main Courtyard of Palazzo Ducale is dedicated to the work of Lele Luzzati, Until April 7, 2024, an exhibition of illustrations that Luzzati created for the books of Italo Calvino.
The Exhibition
In addition to Calvino Cantafavole, set up for the anniversary of the great writer from Sanremo, another exhibition at Palazzo Ducale celebrates Calvino together with Lele Luzzati. It brings into dialogue two poetics of lightness: the profound and dreamlike experience of Calvino and Luzzati’s lyrical reflection on the inconsistencies of the world. A dialogue between two great creativities, with the illustrations that Emanuele (Lele) Luzzati created for the books of Italo Calvino, such as his peculiar depictions of cities (especially the series of drawings depicting the “old” Genoa, created between 1945 and 1950, never exhibited before), recalling “Invisible Cities” or fairy tales: the original boards of Calvino’s books illustrated by Luzzati in the seventies for Einaudi editions are displayed.
Furthermore, Luzzati’s illustrations for Calvino’s novels, including the famous Calvinian trilogy (“The Cloven Viscount” (1952), “The Baron in the Trees” (1957), and “The Nonexistent Knight” (1959), of which “The Cloven Viscount” is exhibited. There will be lesser-known works, such as booklets for Quartetto Cetra’s records, Luigi Berio’s animated film “Genova Symphony of the City” (2005), inspired by Calvino’s “Invisible Cities,” original watercolours of botany, recalling the encounter with Guglielmo Libereso, and much more.
Luzzati e Calvino
Both Ligurians, eclectic and practically contemporaries (Luzzati born in 1921, Calvino in ’23), they were great experimenters in their respective fields and met on the allegorical-fairytale dimension, one of the souls of Calvino, a composite and visionary storyteller. Set designer and costume designer, illustrator and writer, ceramist and decorator, author of animation and theater, Emanuele (Lele) Luzzati, one of the founders of the Tosse Theater in Genoa along with Tonino Conte and Aldo Trionfo, created scenography for prose, lyric and dance in the main Italian and foreign theaters.
Casa Luzzati
Casa Luzzati is the custodian of the artist’s heritage. Since June 2021, it has been a new cultural centre right in the Main Courtyard of Palazzo Ducale in Genoa. It collaborates with many national and international entities with the aim of disseminating the art and biography of Emanuele Luzzati, rediscovering the creative freedom of his multiple languages with a calendar of temporary exhibitions, publications, meetings, screenings, and conferences on the figure and work of the great Master.
Sundays at Casa Luzzati
A series of meetings, curated by the Lele Luzzati Foundation dedicated to the figure, work, and books of Italo Calvino. Every Sunday, in the morning at 10:30, workshops, fairy tales, and theatre for children; then at 3:30pm, meetings with linguists, scientists, writers, directors, and musicians on the most interesting and curious aspects of the work of Italo Calvino.
