Short but Deep

By PES

Shaun Tan

 I was happy to receive the news today that the wonderful Shaun Tan 

is the recipient of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2011. 

I remember the emotion when I first met him through The Red Tree

at a Bologna book fair a few years ago

The jury’s citation reads as follows:

Shaun Tan is a masterly visual storyteller, pointing the way ahead to new possibilities 

for picture books. His pictorial worlds constitute a separate universe where nothing 

is self-evident and anything is possible. Memories of childhood and adolescence are 

fixed reference points, but the pictorial narrative is universal and touches everyone, regardless of age.

 Behind a wealth of minutely detailed pictures, where civilization 

is criticized and history depicted through symbolism, there is a palpable warmth. 

People are always present, and Shaun Tan portrays both our searching and our alienation. 

He combines brilliant, magical narrative skill with deep humanism.

 

ilustrations from Tales from Outer Suburbia (2008) thanks to Drawn

Tan, born in 1974, has already received a number of literary awards, 

including the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 2009 for Tales from Outer Suburbia 

and a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books award in 2007 for The Arrival.

 The Arrival (2006)

 At this year’s Academy Awards, Shaun won the Oscar for best animated short film 

for The Lost Thing, based on his book of the same title.

 Flinch cover art

See you soon!

Monday Matticchio

Sunday Safari - Book Party!

 Jean Michel-Folon, Kafka's Metamorphosis

thanks to 50 Watts

Wednesday we're off to Bologna... to welcome this exciting 

annual event once again we have organized a reading

party with a group of fellow book-lovers

 Atsushi Hara, Tree

 Anne Crausaz

 Lilo Fromm, 1983 poster, thanks to sugarwheel fl

 Art Spiegelman

Bolin, Easter shoes ad detail, 1946

 Beatrix Potter, The bespectacled mouse, 1890

thanks again to Weimar Art!

 Andrea Rivola, Topo di biblioteca

 Etienne Delessert

 Felix Lorioux's, illustration from Fables De La Fontaine,

thanks a fabulous post at Hollywood Animation Archive

 Savignac

 Celestino Piatti, poster for Swiss League,

thanks to sugarville

Yusuke Yonezu

My Great Birthday Gift

Thanks to my dear Sebastiano for giving me this gorgeous oversized volume, 

a modern bestiary with beautiful paintings by Olivier Charpentier

and humorous whimsical texts by Frédéric Kessler!

 The book was originally published in 2007 by Autrement Jeunesse,

while my copy comes from last year's Italian edition by Donzelli.

...my birthday was in fact two months ago, but only now

I have finally managed to take the photos and create this post!

About Fun

Psapp, About Fun, from the 2004 album Tiger, My Friend,

illustrated by band member Galia Durant and animated by Hanke Hilberg

Gods and Monsters

  La Bestia (the beast) by Umberto & Stefano Cinquini, 

a metaphor of Berlusconi's monstrous power over Italian media

It's time again for our report from Viareggio's annual Carnival parade

of large, wild, colorful and amazing papier-mache floats. Most of the creations 

were inspired by various controversial contemporary issues. I wonder what they 

will come up with next year; they already have plenty of material to work with!

 Trilogia della ruggine, epilogo (final installment of The Rust Trilogy)

by Gilbert Lebigre & Corinne Roger. This double-sided float 

featured a decadent and lascivious Italian "operetta" on one side and 

this joyful Indian style celebration of love blessed by Ganesh on the other

the innovative La cieca umanità (Blind humanity) by Edoardo Ceragioli, 

 inspired by Picasso's Guernica, won the first prize for mask groups

musical owls and a wigged cow from two of the other mask groups

two views of Embrioni chimera (Chimera embryos) by Fabrizio Galli

L’erba di casa mia (Green grass of home) by Jacopo Allegrucci

represents Italy as a lawn peopled by bugs and praying mantis-politicians

Razze in via di estinzione (Species near extinction) by Enrico Vannucci

two views of Urla selvagge (Wild screams) by Gionata Francesconi & Giacomo Marsili

  Non essere sgomento… se la legge va a rilento!!! (Don't be dismayed... if the law goes slow!) by Alfredo Ricci

 I can't remember from which float I photographed this detail 

 La Mattanza (The slaughter) by Carlo Lombardi cautions against oil spills

detail from Abissi (The depths) by Franco Malfatti

a sequence from the winning float, the wonderfully scary Rexpubblica by Alessandro Avanzini.

These still photos give only a pale impression of the full impact of the floats in action,

 complete with moving parts, smoke and light effects, loud music and costumed dancers. 

But you can watch some of the videos on YouTube to get a better idea...