From Munari to Rodari is an event devised by the Committee for the Promotion of the Rodari Year Celebrations set up by the Biblioteche di Roma. The project, in collaboration with Corraini Edizioni (with which Bruno Munari always worked on a stable basis over the years), sets out to pay tribute to the two artists and to celebrate their human and intellectual encounter. This is no mere formal tribute but a gift to two masters who, as Biblioteche di Roma President Paolo Fallai explained, "dug a needle into our arrogant certainties, leaving incurable wounds. They liberated the image and the word that our cultural tradition was so laboriously bent on caging in and reducing to inflexible and reassuring patterns." Ten panels use poetry and immediacy to tell the story of the points of contact between the two artists, a fantastic couple who unleashed the pleasure of invention, of imagination and of creativity, making them unique figures in the Italian artistic panorama of the 20th century.
Pending the exhibition reopening, we managed to keep an open line with our audience throughout the lockdown period by sharing new content exploring Rodari's and Munari's life and work on our website and social media channels. You can still read that content on this page.
In particular, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni's Art Workshop turned to families and teachers with a project christened Animated Nursery Rhymes, inviting five illustrators – Andrea Antinori, Marianna Coppo, Mariachiara Di Giorgio, Massimiliano Di Lauro and Alessandro Sanna – to share with us their own interpretation of Rodari's nursery rhymes and to advise boys and girls on original techniques and tools for producing their own drawings.
The exhibition has now been expanded to include a special section devoted to these artists' illustrations and video tutorials, and to the dozens of drawings produced by their young "pupils".
Bruno Munari (1907-1998)
was one of the 20th century's leading exponents of art, design and graphic art. He always devoted his creative work to experimentation, paying special attention to the world of children and their games. His creations in the field of painting, sculpture, design, photography and education embrace a myriad styles in pursuit of the thread of his highly personal originality.Gianni Rodari (1920-1980)
was a teacher, journalist, educationalist and writer who began to publish his work for boys and girls in the 1950s, instantly becoming a huge success and attracting praise from public and critics alike. His books, which have been translated into numerous languages, earned him the prestigious "Hans Christian Andersen" award – considered the "Nobel prize" of children's books – in 1970. His Grammar of Fantasy became an immediate focal point for professionals involved in educating children to reading and literature.