Mail Artists Pay Homage to Italo Calvino
The Italian writer Italo Calvino (1923-1985) is still one of the best known and most influential writers of his country. By the time of his death, his books were available in 40 countries, among them Armenia, Burma, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Iran, Lithuania, and Turkey. In 1974, Joseph McElroy, critic for the The New York Times, called him “Italy’s most original storyteller”. And, as Calvino admitted, “a tormentor of translators”, always ready to discuss at length the use of a single word.
Calvino, who was a partisan during the war and left the powerful Communist party because of the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, combined a keen interest in physical and technical processes with an unbridled imagination.
In 1923, Sergio Guerrini invited the mail art community to participate in an exhibition dedicated to the Italian writer. Participants from all over the world followed the call.
Gerald Jatzek’s solution [enlarge] draws inspiration from Calvino’s preface to his novel Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore (If on a winter’s night a traveler, 1979). In this text, the author gives the reader the advice,
“Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door; the TV is always on in the next room.”
The Exhibition
Raccontare Italo Calvino attraverso le cartoline postali, Galleria Artheka 32,
- Via Sartena, 32, Ostia Lido, Roma (RM), Italy, 31.8..-12.9.2024
- +39 360 997 483
- artheka32@gmail.com
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