Rome: Italo Calvino 1923-2023

Rome, 2 March 2023. Italo Calvino 1923-2023′ presentation event

On Thursday 2 March at the Casa delle Letterature of the Istituzione Biblioteche di Roma, an event was held to present the initiatives for the centenary of Italo Calvino’s birth. The initiative is organised by the Laboratorio Calvino (Sapienza University of Rome, University of Milan and Milan Bicocca, University of Oxford) directed by Laura Di Nicola with Mario Barenghi, Bruno Falcetto, Martin McLaughlin, in collaboration with the Promoting Committee for the Centenary Celebrations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Roma Capitale, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma, Fondazione Arnoldo e Alberto Mondadori.

On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Italo Calvino (Santiago de Las Vegas de La Habana, 15 October 1923 – Siena, 19 September 1985), the MAECI will organise through its diplomatic-consular offices and the network of Italian Cultural Institutes a series of initiatives to celebrate the work and thought of the writer, one of the most widely read and studied Italian authors in the world.

The programme devised by the Farnesina includes initiatives of various formats: exhibitions, theatrical performances, and in-depth meetings on the author’s thought.

In particular, the programme prepared by Office III of the General Direction for Public and Cultural Diplomacy includes the exhibition ‘Eccellenze italiane. Figures for Italo Calvino”, organised by Bologna Children’s Book Fair/BolognaFiere, Regione Emilia-Romagna and curated by the Giannino Stoppani Cooperative/Academia Drosselmeier.  Other important appointments will be the exhibition “Calvino immaginario”, a project curated by COMICON, aimed at presenting original comics and illustrations, classics from the history of comics; the exhibition “Calvino qui e altrove”, realised by the Mondadori Foundation and Laboratorio Calvino, offering a visual itinerary of the covers of Calvino’s most famous books.