Cesare Zavattini died on October 13, 1989, just thirty years ago. Three decades seem to be a good time to analyze such a complex, original and passionate character as Zavattini was. To him – in the various guises of a filmmaker, writer, cartoonist, a person with a strong political commitment – many studies have been dedicated in Italy and in the world. However, one aspect remained, if not in shadow, certainly less investigated and that is what the Panizzi Library and the Cesare Zavattini Archive have studied in recent years: the role of Za abroad, in times, its own, impregnated by the climate of the Cold War and ideological conflicts. A role that has been crucial in promoting salient aspects of the Italian culture of the second half of the twentieth century and in particular of neorealism, in the European horizon and more generally in the international scene, thanks to its intense participation in conferences, congresses, conferences, training courses in Decolonized or developing countries, to collaborations with magazines and film co-productions.

The exhibition project is based on two guidelines: on the one hand it investigates the activity carried out in the various artistic areas (cinema, literature, painting, etc.), in the geographical areas (both in Europe and on the New Continent); on the other, explores particular themes and events, such as the journey (for example in the footsteps of Van Gogh), peace, relations with the Latin American writer Garcia Marquez and with Jewish cosmopolitan environments.

In the exhibition at Palazzo da Mosto, documentary and iconographic materials will be presented that tell all the activities and the network of relationships woven by this eclectic personality: thousands of original, typewritten and manuscript papers, handwritten notes, along with photographs, videos, posters and books .

The exhibition is enriched by some of its inseparable objects, the typewriter, the Basque, the travel bag, in addition to the 150 paintings from the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, which are part of the famous collection of 8X10 that Cesare Zavattini had collected during the meetings with some of the most important twentieth-century artists. Among the many will be exhibited Giacomo Balla, Antonio Ligabue, Alberto Burri, Enrico Baj, Renato Guttuso, Giorgio De Chirico, Lucio Fontana, Fausto Melotti, Bruno Munari, Claudio Parmiggiani, Gillo Dorfles, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Mario Sironi, Alberto Magnelli and then again Pietro Consagra, Roberto Crippa, Fortunato Depero, Filippo De Pisis, Gianni Dova, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mimmo Rotella and many others.

The last room of the exhibition will be dedicated to the unpublished shots of one of the greatest Italian photographers, Gianni Berengo Gardin, made on the occasion of the work that re-proposes the “Luzzara” by Cesare Zavattini in the photo book “Un Paese twenty anni anni”.

At the end of the exhibition, a conference focused on the international dimension of Zavattini is scheduled for Saturday, February 29, 2020, in Reggio Emilia in the aula magna of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. During the initiative, the research carried out by the work group of the project “Zavattini beyond the borders” and published in the exhibition catalog will be presented.

For further information: Fondazione Palazzo Magnani