Palazzo Ducale, Loggia degli Abati

Palazzo Ducale, Comune di Genova and Regione Liguria presents a tribute to Italo Calvino, as part of the cultural initiatives of Genoa Italian Book Capital 2023 and of the Celebrations for the centenary of his birth, coordinated by the Committee set up for the occasion by the Italian Ministry of Culture and chaired by Giovanna Calvino.
In Italo Calvino’s universe, the fairy tale is a constant poetic reference an the place par excellence of fantasy. The exhibition allows a visual geography of Calvino’s world to be constructed faithfully following the author’s works.
His fascination for the fairy tale derives on the one hand from his encounter with the Ligurian landscape, which he loved since childhood, and on the other from illustratious, comics, cartoons, films, both Italian and English. These are inspirations that Calvino would bring to the surface through his work as editorial director for Einaudi.
Within the exhibition, the fairy tale is explored both through the illustrations of Lele Luzzati,
who was a long-rime collaborator of Calvino, and through the magical world of the Tarot, of which Calvino was strongly fond precisely because of their visionary potential.
Alongside the map of the many artists Calvino wrote about, alllinked to the fantastic – from de
Chirico to Bona de Pisis, from Domenico Gnoli to Luigi Serafini – the exhibition presents an
itinerary on the fairy tale declined in its relations with music, television and theatre analysed through the productions co-written with Tori Scialoja and Donatella Ziliotto and with fellow countryman Luciano Berlo, but also in the works for theatre and television by Giulio Paolini.
The set design, which makes the tree the centrai element, is conceived by Emanuele Conte and Paolo Bonfiglio, and realised by Fondazione Luzzati Teatro della Tosse. The stage design director is Andrea Morini. Alongside the exhibition in the Loggia degli Abati, Casa Luzzati presents Lele Luzzati’s work for Calvino. Over one hundred originai works are on display, from the materials of the Quartetto Cetra to the record covers of Calvino’s fairy tales, from set designs for the theatre to the work of nursery rhymes, for RAI1’s Barone rampante, for Voltaire’s Candide.

Opening Times

Tuesday – Sunday 10 am – 7 pm
last entry one hour before closing
Closed on Mondays

Tickets

full 11€

reduced 9€, read more

Children 6-13 years old 5€

Young people under 27 years 5€, only on tuesdays, on public holidays excluded

open ticket 12€

open ticket reduced 10€

Groups 10,50 € booking is mandatory, maximum 25 partecipants, for information and booking prenotazioni@palazzoducale.genova.it

School groups 5€, booking is mandatory. For information: didattica@palazzoducale.genova.it ; for booking: prenotazioniscuole@palazzoducale.genova.it