Institution

Slovenské literárne centrum / The Slovak Literary Centre

Bologna Children's Book Fair 2010

Guest of Honour: Slovakia

Between 23 - 26 March 2010 The International Children’s Book Fair took place in the city of mortadella and tortellini, Bologna. The fair is a prominent international cultural forum with an international outreach and a media response from all over the world. The Center of Information on Literature (LIC) and Bibiana, The International House of Art for Children, were authorized by the Ministry of Culture of Slovakia to realize all of the preparations and the actual event, together with other organizations from the culture department, publishing houses and civil organizations. Our participation was to erase the differences between large and small nations for a moment. Slovakia received the status of the guest of honour.

The official website of the festival: www.bookfair.bolognafiere.it

The concept of the illustration exposition and the stand
It was the first time in history that Slovakia had become the guest of honour at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and gotten the opportunity to introduce itself in the exclusive space of the entrance hall, in the illustration exposition titled SLOVAKUNITEDIMAGINATIONS. On the area of 200 square meters, we presented the work of 32 Slovak visual artists. The quality of our visual culture was represented by the classic figures of the illustration scene, as well as by younger generations: Jaroslav Vodrážka, Ľudovít Fulla, Štefan Cpin, Vincent Hložník, Ľubomír Kellenberger, Róbert Dúbravec, Viera Gergeľová, Viera Bombová, Albín Brunovský, Miroslav Cipár, Ondrej Zimka, Jana Kiselová Siteková, Ľuba Končeková Veselá, Karol Ondreička, Ivan Popovič, Kamila Štanclová, Maja Dusíková, Robert Brun, Dušan Kállay, Svetozár Mydlo, Katarína Ševellová Šuteková, František Blaško, Peter Kľúčik, Martin Kellenberger, Peter Čisárik, Andrej Augustín, Ľuboslav Paľo, Miloš Kopták, Peter Uchnár, Daniela Moravčíková, Martina Matlovičová and Zuzana Bočkayová Bruncková.

The architect Pavol Choma, author of the graphic design and the exposition, proposed a horizontal placement of the illustrations on the pillars rising from clean white cubes. Visitors appreciated the soft white pillows and the placement of the screen featuring the film of Daniel Rihák and Vilo Csino. Slovakia’ stand boasted a rich exhibit of Slovak children’s books in a new visual setting spread out across 64 square meters.

Program
An integral part of Slovakia’s guest of honour project was a series of important cultural events in Bologna as well as in other parts of Italy.
Dušan Kállay and Kamila Štanclová were our star illustrators.
The younger generation of illustrators at the Bologna book fair was represented by Martina Matlovičová and Daniela Olejníková. The illustrations of Peter Čisárik excelled as well, as did the works of the authors Ján Uličiansky, Dušan Dušek, Gabika Futová, Peter Karpinsky, Erik Jakub Groch and Jana Bodnárová.
The additional cultural program was impressive, too. There was a ballet performance about general Štefánik, theatre plays, exhibitions, concerts and the crowning moment in form of the work of Matej Krén: a breath-taking tower made out of books in the MAMbo Gallery.