A project by Letture Liminali
Victoria Lomasko special guest of the first edition
From 4 to 6 December, the Baldini Library in Santarcangelo will host Zàca!, a project by Letture Liminali curated by Giovanni Boccia Artieri and Gianluca Costantini, and promoted by Fo.Cu.S. – Fondazione Culture Santarcangelo. The festival is dedicated to comics as a language of reality and its poetic resonance.
As part of the “Diritti a Tavola” programme, Zàca! explores comics as an art form capable of giving space to marginal voices, crossing conflicts and telling the story of the present with a civil and poetic gaze.
The title comes from a sound, “zàca”: an onomatopoeia that evokes the visual impact of the comics page and, in the Romagnol dialect, the blow that shakes and awakens. An effective metaphor for the way comics, with their visual immediacy, can jolt our perception of reality.
The project opens on Saturday 22 November at 5.30 pm at the Baldini Library with the presentation of Viaggio in Italia (Coconino Press) by Pietro Scarnera, dedicated to the theme of travel and the representation of Italy through images. Giovanni Boccia Artieri will be in conversation with the author, who in this book travels across Italy in an illustrated reflection on landscape, memory and the contemporary gaze.
The main guest of Zàca! is Victoria Lomasko, Russian artist and activist, recognised internationally as one of the most important contemporary social illustrators. Forced into exile in 2022, Lomasko continues to narrate, through drawing, the contradictions and wounds of the post-Soviet world, weaving together poetry, politics and testimony.
Her presence in Santarcangelo lies at the heart of the exhibition Political statement: From Sketch to Symbol, opening on Thursday 4 December at 6.30 pm at the Gallery of the Baldini Library. The exhibition retraces her artistic and personal journey, from her early works of social denunciation to her more recent pieces on exile and memory.
Around the exhibition, three days of talks, screenings and workshops will unfold, bringing together art, words and civic engagement.
On Thursday evening at 9.00 pm, at C’Entro Supercinema (Wenders room), the documentary Tree of Violence by Anna Moiseenko will be screened, with Victoria Lomasko in attendance.
On Friday 5 December at 10.00 am, the Baldini Library will host a graphic journalism workshop with the Russian artist. In the evening, at 9.00 pm, there will be a presentation of Diario segreto di Pasolini (Altraeconomia) with Elettra Stamboulis, Gianluca Costantini and Giovanni Boccia Artieri.
On Saturday 6 December, the festival will close with two events: at 4.00 pm, the presentation of HIU. Happening International Underground 1993–2003 (In Your Face Comix) with Marco Teatro, Gianluca Costantini and Giovanni Boccia Artieri; and at 6.00 pm, the final meeting with Victoria Lomasko and Elettra Stamboulis dedicated to L’ultima artista sovietica (Becco Giallo).
“Here, comics are not just drawn storytelling, but a critical and sensitive tool for reading the world, giving voice to those at the margins, and crossing conflicts and memories,” explains Giovanni Boccia Artieri, who curates Zàca! together with Gianluca Costantini.
“Zàca! weaves together the political dimension of graphic journalism with the intimate and visionary nature of sequential art, bringing together authors who use images as a civil and poetic gesture. It’s a liminal project, living between word and image, between reality and invention, between the strike of the drawn line and the open wound of the present.”
Zàca! is a project by Letture Liminali, curated by Giovanni Boccia Artieri and Gianluca Costantini, with the support of the Emilia-Romagna Region.
Information and bookings
All events are free of charge until capacity is reached.
Booking is recommended by contacting the Baldini Library:
📞 +39 0541 356 299
📧 biblioteca@comune.santarcangelo.rn.it
Updates and further information:
www.baldinisantarcangelo.it
www.facebook.com/Biblioteca.Baldini.Santarcangelo
www.instagram.com/bibliotecabaldinisantarcangelo
