Founded in 1993 by a group of Roman authors, scriptwriters and cartoonists with very different professional backgrounds, the comics school Scuola Romana dei Fumetti has been playing an outstanding role in the field of education as well as in cultural promotion and publishing production over the years.

Over time the early founders group was joined by former school students who had established themselves as cartoonists or in animation, film and videogame industries. Many of them became, in turn, teachers and sometimes members of SRF. This allowed to create a mix of generations, styles and professions, giving birth to important projects, such as the comic series on Greek mythology I Grandi Miti Greci A Fumetti di Luciano De Crescenzo (published by Mondadori/De Agostini) or the animated film series on Odyssey’s Ulysses Ulisse – Il Mio Nome È Nessuno, produced by TV-broadcaster RAI2 and winner of Kinéo/Diamanti Award at the Venice Film Festival in 2012. The result of this peculiar experience – possibly something unique in the Italian publishing scene – is the exhibition presented by Palazzo delle Esposizioni, which is intended to be much more than a simple celebration. First of all on account of its theme: Rome.

The Eternal City not only plays host to the sole address of SRF – unique headquarters because of the uniqueness of its way of schooling – in its own historical and downtown center close to Piazza del Popolo: Rome has been above all a breeding ground for the school, deeply influencing SRF’s artistic path with its great beauty and its many contradictions. A Rome – more than ever Capital City – that attracts teachers and students from all over Italy in the name of cartoons, to find a common home in SRF. A Rome seen through the eyes of artists who chose to express themselves through comics, illustration and even movie storyboarding, looking at the city in a way that is now loving now ironic, melancholic or sometimes debunking. All this in a mixture of styles that reflect the different souls of SRF.

The artworks displayed in this exhibition will be all by SRF artists – teachers and former students that will convey their personal view on the Eternal City. Artists such as Massimo Rotundo, cartoonist of Tex; Stefano Caselli, cartoonist for Marvel; Marco Gervasio, with his character “PaperTotti”; Eugenio Sicomoro, who collaborates with the biggest publishers in France; Arianna Rea, author for Disney USA; Simone Gabrielli, cartoonist for Bonelli and Glénat; Maurizio Di Vincenzo, cartoonist of Dylan Dog; Lorenzo “LRNZ” Ceccotti, author for BAO Publishing; Riccardo Federici, cartoonist for DC Comics; Carlo Labieni and Marco Valerio Gallo, storyboard artists; Claudio Bruni, director of animated films; Greg, Lillo and Max Paiella, actors with a past as cartoonists and teachers at SRF. And many, many others.
 

Every work, every artist will be then a piece of the mosaic that depicts the storytelling of a dream, of a path, of a city.