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The “Book Project” asks participants to present and illustrate a short story, making a creative synthesis that demands a considerable artistic effort.

Lauren Rowling showed great courage in presenting a Little Red Riding Hood different from the traditional version by the Brothers Grimm. In her story the child and her grandmother alone manage to escape from the  wolf’s throat by making him cough, so that the fierce animal is not killed. Indeed, convinced by the woodcutter, the wolf makes friends with the heroines of the story, eats their cakes and drinks their wine, promising to behave nicely with all the people he meets in future. The story is one of the infinite versions of the “original” Little Red Riding Hood and the author has had to compete with famous artists of the past; but, with the recollection of some masters of imagery, she has succeeded, with a good knowledge of her technical mediums, in proposing illustrations that have an undeniable freshness.

The authors who deserved a special mention are also interesting: from Romania, Diana Margareta Cepleanu shows special skill in the use of long fields and in the differentiation of colours, while from Portugal, Gémeo Luis proposes a two-faced reality through the use of paper cut-outs in black and white.

Rolwing		Cepleanu		Luís		Luís

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Under the Patronage
President of the Italian Republic
Ministry for National Heritage and Cultural Activities
Veneto Region
Province of Venice

In collaboration with
Municipality of Chioggia . Assessorship for Culture
Veneto Region

The Teatrio Cultural Association, leader in the field of illustration and graphic arts, under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, under the Patronage of the Ministry for National Heritage and Cultural Activities, of the Region of Veneto and the Province of Venice and in collaboration with the Region of Veneto and the Town Council of Chioggia, is delighted to announce that has just concluded the meeting of the board of examiners for the selection of the works in the new International Competition of Illustration, that has reached by now its 14ª edition.

The Competition is a fundamental stage, that sanctions the extraordinary engagement of the involved institutions. A past full of attention towards the emergent talents, the search of promotional opportunities and tools in order to value the expressive freedom and the figurative debate of the artists.

The competitors coming from all over the world had to realize an unpublished illustrated story, exclusively based on images, i.e. with no text, through the free use of the most different techniques.

For the publishers of all over the world this appointment must represent more and more a precious tool of singling out of the new tendencies of illustration and an effective filter to focus the most interesting personalities, in the immense and heterogenous panorama of the artistic offer. To those publishers who do not want to keep on running after the stilistic modalities, typical of the illustration trade or for whoever wish to free himself from the traditional models, the Competition offers the opportunity to examine simultaneously a rehearsal of various styles, of different national artistic cultures, throwing therefore the bases for new, important relations between authors, illustrators, publishers and marketing managers.

The title and theme of this 2008 edition of the competition is: GHOSTS AND GETAWAYS. Where do ghosts dwell? In castles, abandoned houses, cemeteries or in enchanted forests? And what do ghosts do… maybe they want to scary us… or maybe they are asking for help, to solve ancient injustices – or they are simply looking for a get away from time? Some times ghosts find a desert house in our mind, they play with our fantasy and they disturb our dreams and memories, they play us unexpected jokes in the apparently quiet every day life… and inevitably they even propose a guided get away over the roofs of rationality, taking us to fly in dizzy skies to watch the landscapes of childish perception… which is the land of fantasy.

The jury, who has evaluated the illustrations, was composed by important professionals in the field of illustration:
- Sigute Chlebinskaite, director of the Litexpo-International Book Fair in Vilnius (Lithuania);
- Claude E. Dagail, editor La Compagnie Créative (France);
- Mohamed Danawi, professor of illustration at Savannah College of Art & Design (GA, USA);
- Oddo De Grandis, president Teatrio Cultural Association;
- Roberto Denti, writer and owner of La Libreria dei Ragazzi;
- Walter Fochesato, journalist and art critic;
- Adelchi Galloni, illustrator;
- Mark Heflin, art director of American Illustration (NY, USA);
- Farideh Khalatbaree, writer and owner Shabaviz Publication (Iran);
- Kveta Pacovska, illustrator (Czech Republic);
- Pirkko Vainio, illustrator (Finland).

When the selection has happened, whose participants have been approximately 500, with 3.000 illustrated drawings, the best illustrated stories have been chosen.

Besides the section “Book Project", that traditionally accompanies the Competition of Illustration, this year the Teatrio Association has decided to renew itself: all the enrolled ones have been able to participate to one new section of the competition who previews the realization of an illustration, relating to the topic “Glimpses and views of Chioggia".

The awarded illustrators of “Ghosts and getaways” competition are:

1st Prize: Franki Sparke, Canberra (Australia)
Technical abilities and skills in the composition are melt together admirably, giving the “A” to an elegant and ironic narration, figuratively cultivated and lively in its close essentiality.

2nd Prize: Susan Maier, Atlanta (GA, USA)
An exciting story of high narrative level which finds in the picture a particular expression that is based on essential colouristic elements, on a strongly characterized sign, on the originality of figuration.

3rd Prize: Hoda Haddadi, Teheran (Iran)
Already in the cover the reader is suggested that ghosts are not just those of the narrative and figurative tradition, but also other images of our daily life. Soft colours that speak a particularly expressive language.

The Prize Critics in Arms has been given to Enrique Felipe Ramírez Torralba, Mexico city (Mexico). Assigned by a jury composed by kids from ten to fourteen years old from the ground schools S. Todaro and Don Milani in Sottomarina - Chioggia. The kids’ jury was composed by: Diego Boscolo, Mary Boscolo Bragadin, Sara Boscolo, Valentina Lettera, Simone Longo, Ludovica Longo, Laura Penzo, Anna Pugiotto, Martina Raule, Giulia Scarpa, Laura Schiavon, Serena Tarozzo, Alessia Tiozzo, Mattia Tolomei, Manuel Varisco, Sara Varisco.

Each plate proposes aspects of a life balanced between reality and dream. Starting from the cover with an ancient castle that is in contrast with a modern car, the author presents to us a close quantity of signs that lead us to interpret a surreal world.

The illustrators who were given the Special Mention are:

Chiara Dattola, Varese
An airy and bright composition rich of pleasant visual surprises, characterized by a frugal and happy use of the collage and by a free and involving sign.

Bélén García Monroy, Mexico City (Mexico)
The use of the soft colour in two particolar tones (light blue and dark sand) in which few figurative elements insert, characterizes this short story, that bases its figurative elements on a female character, a stairway, the moon and a crocodile with black skin, determining anironic oneiric narrative atmosphere.

The other selected illustrators are:
Ruggero Asnago, Barlassina (MI)
Neda Azimi, Teheran (Iran)
Sahar Bardaee, Teheran (Iran)
Paulina Barraza Gómez, Mexico City (Mexico)
Hoseyn Bayat, Teheran (Iran)
Behnoosh Behzadi, Teheran (Iran)
Laura Bianchi, Vaiano Cremasco (CR)
Ghazaleh Bigdeloo, Teheran (Iran)
Ali Boozari, Teheran (Iran)
Negin Ehtesabian, Teheran (Iran)
Saeed Ensafi, Teheran (Iran)
Banafshe Erfaniyan, Teheran (Iran)
Marjan Farmani, Teheran (Iran)
Maya Selene García López, Mexico City (Mexico)
Zahra Haghgoo, Teheran (Iran)
Mahnaz Hashemi Aghdam, Teheran (Iran)
Sam Keshmiri, Teheran (Iran)
Sharareh Khosravani, Teheran (Iran)
Fereshteh Najafi, Teheran (Iran)
Lauren Rolwing, Nashville (TN, USA)
Marjan Vafaeian, Teheran (Iran)
Elisa Vignali, Sala Baganza (PR)
William Wenzel, Evanston (IL, USA)
Morteza Zahedi, Teheran (Iran)

The illustrator awarded for the competition “Book Project” is:

Samira Zamani, Groningen (Olanda)
A simple and witty story of magic realism with a grateful flavour that reminds Rodari’s. Beautiful are also the tasty illustrations, fresh and quick iin their marked dimension of apparent semplicità, fed with a lively graphic culture.

The selected illustrators are:
Franki Sparke, Canberra (Australia)
There is a sweeper which sweeps the city but he can choose among people’s garbage, what can still be used. So he teaches everybody that many things don’t have to be thrown away. A funny story, even if similar to captions, few but extremely suitable the words of the text, images of rare meaningful efficacy.

Morteza Zahedi, Teheran (Iran)

The illustrators awarded for the competition “Glimpses and Views of Chioggia” are:

1st Prize: Sam Keshmiri, Teheran (Iran)
A marked taste for the composition characterizes this work, where the elements of the historical and architectural landscape of Chioggia are freely and in an imaginary way reinterpreted with polite irony and joyful decorativism.

2nd Prize: David Lara, Mexico City (Mexico)
The centre of the poster is Chioggia presented in a precise panoramic synthesis, that divides the cloudy sky and the water in which the bricole tipical of the lagoon culture reflect. An invitation to discover a city of a secret charme.

3rd Prize: Somayeh Saleh Shoshtari, Teheran (Iran)
Boats, bridges, domes, houses, ships, bell towers, flying swallows, many real and many dreamed elemento in a colouristic strenght of precise bilance between synthesis and analytic description.

The selected illustrators are:
Hoseyn Bayat, Teheran (Iran)
Sharareh Khosravani, Teheran (Iran)
Karen Runge, Berlino (Germany)

The works distinguish themselves for the wide experimentation of expressive ways, supports, of communicative strategies and they avail themselves of a lyrical, poetical use of the sign and of the colour to hit the centre of two aims: to tell stories and provoke emotions, making the illustrated book not just a vehicle of knowledge, but also of affectivity and human values.

The “Ghosts and getaways” exhibit supplies a set of amusing, evocative interpretations, from the most ironical, to the most refined, from the subtly melancholic tones to the most curious and peculiar ones.

The “Book Project” exhibit, that has reached its 7h edition, displays prototypes of remarkable value, spacing in infinite possibilities of visual and conceptual game, from the join of the text in the page to the directions of readability of the image, from the rhythm structure of the composition to the combinations among graphical means and pictorial classic ones and the new technologies.

The awarding of prizes ceremony, the opening of the exhibition, the presentation of the catalogue and the seminar will be held on June 29, 2008, at the Civic Museum of the South Lagoon “San Francesco fuori le mura” - Chioggia (Venice), and then it will be hosted in other Italian and foreign cities as follows:

GUADALAJARA - International Book Fair, November 29, 2008 – March 3, 2009
SAVANNAH - Savannah College of Art & Design, March 15 - April 15, 2009
BOGOTA' - Italian Institute of Culture, June 20 - July 5, 2009

The board of examiners has been invited to join the opening, in occasion of the seminar, entitled “The trade of an Illustrator and of a Publisher” and to talk with the illustrators who have not been selected in the competition, to explain their motivations and with those who have been selected to examine together their portfolio.

Download Patronages

1° Prize Sparke		2° Prize Maier		3° Prize Haddadi		Young Critics Prize Ramírez Torralba

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The exhibition “Book Project”, that has reached its 7th edition, presents prototypes of a remarkable value, that space in the infinite possibilities of visual and conceptual game, from the articulation of the text in the page to the directions of legibility of the image, from the rhytmic structure of the composition to the combinations between graphical means and pictorial classics and the new technologies.

Zamani		Sparke		Zahedi		Zahedi

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Among shadows, ghosts and dreams, an image is reflected on the surface of a mirror: it's a face, a profile, a glance, a story to be told, crossing the mirror, deceptive limitation, threshold towards the unknown...

Since its beginning, The Associazione Culturale Teatrio of Venice has been a leader in the field of illustration and graphics, with the high patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, the patronage of the Ministry for National Heritage and Cultural Activities, of the Veneto Region and the Province of Venice and in cooperation with the Municipality of Chioggia and the Fondazione della Comunità Clodiense. It is proud now to present the public and the critics with the results of a selection that has involved, as a jury, the most important experts in the field of the book industry, of art and of journalism in the category.

This year also the selected works for the Competition will be exhibited in a travelling exhibition that, starting from Chioggia, will touch the most important cities in Japan, the United States, Mexico, Ethiopia, Portugal, Finland but also Italy.

1° Prize Maier		2° Prize Goodreau		3° Prize Mannino		Young Critics Prize Mari

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A magnifying glass on creativity: this could be the definition of “Book Project” which, this year also, puts forward new and unedited publishing projects. In time, this section of the competition has become for the publishing companies of the whole world a precious tool to look into and select new talents and new tendencies in the field of narration and illustration for childhood, a workshop of experimentation, well-known and accredited at an international level.

Falkenberg		Longo		Sforza		Shipman

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Two nuances for a same colour: yellow as a shrill colour, a recall at sun, at gold, at light, but also as a flash, an enlightenment as quick as lightning on the darkness and on the mysteries to solve ….

The exhibition is opened from July 10 to 30 2006 at the Civic Gallery "S. Francesco Fuori Le Mura" in Chioggia and in November it will be presented in Abano Terme. Then it will be presented in Venice and in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Mexico City (Mexico), Helsinki (Finland), Lisbon (Portugal) Tokyo (Japan), Savannah (GA, USA)…

1° Prize Devernay		2° Prize Sforza		3° Prize Silverini		Young Critics Prize Devernay

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A magnifying glass on creativity: this could be the definition of “Book Project” which has become an important means for the publishers from all over the world in order to check and select the new talents and the new tendencies growing in the medium of children’s illustration. An experimental workshop which is known at an international level.
The opportunity to admire and compare editorial prototypes which are very different from each other both from a cultural and a stylistic point of view is a unique occasion in order to discover and analyze the new artistic sceneries of art and “actual” production of a children book.

BaaSanSuren		D'alfonso		Hudson		Léon Calixto

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The surreal graphic nature of the Japanese illustrative school, - winner of the first prize thanks to the expressive synthesis of Kiyoko Sakata , absolutely modern both for its graphic form and its content - but also the pre-dominance of the vivacity and elegance of the French school - that merited the second and the third prize thanks to the richness and the dynamism but also the narrative irony of Benjamin Adams and Laura Tendil- surely gave this edition of the Prize something new and an ability of enchantment that we haven’t seen in the last years. All the thirty selected stories have the rare talent of influencing the reader and dragging him into a kind of a parallel vision of reality, built through fantastic disclosures, provided with extraordinary freshness and emotional richness. So, each image hides its double, which is the mirror of its inner soul. The one who can catch it, who can feel it, grasping beyond the appearance, tearing aside the veil of habit and normality, can enter this wonderful world, which offers innumerable feelings beyond any logical thought. Only in this way, our mind will be able to free the fantasy and see what the images don’t say...

Chioggia July 10 - July 20 2005
Naples July 28 - September 15 2005
Addis Abeba September 28 – October 8 2005
Mexico City November 12 – November 20 2004

1° Prize Sakata		2° Prize Adam		3° Prize Tendil		Young Critics Prize Falli

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The prototypes selected at “Book Project” are various for technique and style, proposing a kind of expressive spectrum which testifies the last tendencies of the productive survey of the new generation of illustrators. On one side there is the graphic or chromatic essentiality that uses the page as a sort of open space where they can code a story through absolute symbols or a predominance of graphic elements in a narrative ‘continuum’ based on essentiality, on the other side there is the chromatic passion together with a complex, elaborate stroke, that direct the attention to the visual emotionality of the narrative element. The jury has evaluated the submitted works with great interest. The technical quality and the sense of composition of the prototypes , together with the global structure of the narration have been analysed from an editorial point of view at 360°: from the communicative gradient to the factor of publishing possibility.

BaaSanSuren		Bacconi		Durfee		Gwis

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