The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) has launched the project: “Hugo Pratt. L’eredità, l’opera e la biografia” (“Hugo Pratt. Legacy, Work, and Biography”) to promote the Italian language and culture in the world through one of Italy’s most important cartoon artists.
Promoted by the Directorate General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy in partnership with Cong Sa (the company that holds the copyright of Pratt’s work), the project targets the students of the 49 Italian schools in the world and of the 85 Italian Sections in foreign schools, inviting them to participate in a contest to write a brand-new adventure of Corto Maltese, Pratt’s best-known character, in the form of a short story or a storyboard which will then be drawn by cartoon artists selected by Cong Sa. The stories that classify in second or third place will have their comic cover page published. The classes entered in the contest will attend three briefings with writer Marco Steiner and designer Giuseppe Camuncoli.
The winning stories of the contest will be exhibited among the contemporary artworks of the “Farnesina Collection” at the MAECI and will later be included in a travelling exhibition on Corto Maltese with Pratt’s panels and the illustrations by subsequent designers over the years, to be hosted by Italian Cultural Institutes between 2023 and 2024.
“Hugo Pratt is ideal for a project that aims to explore and promote Italian culture and history and to relaunch a dialogue between generations. For me, as for many others, the passion for this artist starts from a gift in childhood: Una ballata del mare salato (The Ballad of the Salty Sea), in which the principal character Corto Maltese appears for the first time” says Alessandro De Pedys, Deputy Director General/Principal Director for the Promotion of the Italian Culture and Language, in the podcast dedicated to the project to be published on the channel Spreaker Voci dalla Farnesina.
The bond between Hugo Pratt and Italian schools abroad has its roots in the remote past dating back to when he attended the Italian school in Addis Ababa in his childhood. This is why, as part of the project, research is now underway at the Farnesina’s Historical Diplomatic Archive which contains unpublished documents on the artist’s biography, with a view to organizing an archival exhibition dedicated to him.
Read the Call for Applications (application deadline expires on 15 November 2022)
Info: dgdp-05.comunicazione@esteri.it
