ITALIAN EXCELLENCES. PINOCCHIO’S NEW CLOTHES
Photography Exhibition
Italian Cultural Institute @INNOVIT
710 Sansome Street, San Francisco
October 28, 2026 – January 29, 2027
Open to the public by appointment
Monday–Friday, 10 AM–4 PM
Email: contact.sanfrancisco@esteri.it
On the occasion of the bicentenary of the Carlo Lorenzini’s birth, better known by his pen name Collodi, the creator of a puppet who became a universal figure of literature, the new exhibition in the Italian Excellence series, organized by Bologna Children’s Book Fair – the world’s leading trade event dedicated to children’s publishing and content – pays tribute to The Adventures of Pinocchio, one of the most widely translated, illustrated, and reinterpreted books in the world.
In this context, Italian excellence is represented not only by an individual artist, but by a work that belongs to a shared global cultural heritage. In the course of time, Pinocchio has been reinterpreted by a multitude of artists, illustrators, cartoonists, theatre and film directors, and masters of animation.
The exhibition is dedicated to the winning works of an international competition that brought together 531 illustrators from 54 countries and regions, invited to engage with the figure of Pinocchio. The illustrations selected testify to a wide-ranging contemporary take on the character that varies decisively in language, tone, and imagery. Light-hearted, playful images designed with young readers in mind contrast with darker, more dramatic, even symbolic images clearly appealing to an adult mindset. Taken as a whole, the competition entries confirm that Pinocchio still elicits extraordinary interest, triggering a desire to reinterpret and re-present a character, that can be chiselled and re-worked, like the wood from which he is made.
The exhibition is organized by the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and Bologna Fiere, and curated by the Accademia Drosselmeier, with the cultural patronage of Comitato Nazionale per le
celebrazioni del bicentenario della nascita di Carlo Collodi and of Fondazione Nazionale Carlo Collodi, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco.