Rome: Etruscomix, Etruria in comics, 30 June – 25 October 2009
Creating comics is a real form of art, although it is too often considered as a bare entertainment for kids. In fact comics are powerful means of communication and tools to express one’s creativity and imagination.
Comics are even more than this: they are effective narrative tools that using images and words (sometimes only images) can communicate with the reader more than any other means of communication. An evidence of the narrative power of comics is given not only by the literary value of many graphic novels,
but also by their being used to tell historical events and as reworking of literature classics. Comics have showed to be on the same level of other forms of art and literature, succeeding in standing comparison with them, even giving them something more. The exhibition “Etruscomix, Etruria in comics”, which will take place in Rome from the 30th of June to the 25th of October, shows that comics can be compared to and inspired from a field that is seemingly very different from them: archaeology.
The exhibition, which is meant to make people discover the Etruscan civilization, a civilization that has left many important traces in the Italian areas where it developed, is born of an original, though not new, idea: six Italian comic-strip writers have been selected (Francesco Cattani, Marino Neri, Paolo Parisi, Michele Petrucci, Alessandro Rak, Claudio Stassi) and immersed for few days in places that have been described as “Auteur residence”: the National Etruscan Museum Villa Giulia in Rome, the Necropolis della Banditaccia in Cerveteri and the Museum of Tarquinia. Each place has been visited by two artists, who have taken inspiration from the finds to realise their works. Here are the titles of the works that have been inspired by Etruscan culture and civilization: “Etruria” (by Claudio Stassi); “Una Partenza” (A departure, by Marino Neri), “Adonie” (Alessandro Rak), “L’episodio del fabbro” (The episode of the blacksmith, by Francesco Cattani), “Netvis” (Michele Petrucci), “Viaggio” (Travel, by Paolo Parisi). If you travel to Rome you will have the possibility to see these works visiting the exhibition at the National Etruscan Museum Villa Giulia, an event that is expected to attract many visitors, both comics lovers and people with a passion for history and archaeology, in cheap B&B in Rome. The plates, indeed, will be displayed next to the archaeological finds of the museum, giving birth to something new and fascinating, and helping visitors to learn something more about Etruscan history and culture. The reproductions of the plates will be displayed also in the other “Auteur residences” that hosted the six comic-strip writers (the museums of Cerveteri and Tarquinia), enriching also these museum paths.
The bill of the exhibition is also worth mentioning, as it has been realised by one of the greatest and most famous Italian comic-strip writers: Milo Manara. The bill takes inspiration from the Sarcophagus of the Spouses of Villa Giulia Museum, and the portrayed characters seem to invite visitors inside an Etruscan house; the exhibition, indeed, as Milo Manara himself has pointed out, is meant to open a window on history. Book now 2 stars hotels in Rome and get ready to travel back in time!
Tickets: 4 euro, reduced 2 euro
Date: 30th June – 25th October 2009
Location: National Etruscan Museum Villa Giulia, Rome, Italy
