The XX edition of the Week of the Italian Language in the World is starting

Italian embassies and cultural centers worldwide are announcing the XX edition of the Week of the Italian Language in the World (October 19-25, 2020) start. The event that aims to promote knowledge of the language, culture, and traditions of Italy abroad, this year has to deal with the challenges imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, and therefore, many events will be available online.

 The Italian Institute of Culture in San Francisco announced that “talian Between Word and Image: Graffiti, Illustrations, Comic Books is the theme for the XX Week of the Italian Language in the World, a theme that can be developed both in a socio-linguistic key and by emphasizing expressive forms such as comics books, graphic novels and children’s books.

The institute in San Francisco indicated in a note, the possibility to launch a competition of ideas with the collaboration of RAI tv of State, aimed at Italians abroad, on the topics of the next Language Week, is being now considered in order to underline the importance of involving the Italian community abroad.

Also, the program that the Italian Cultural Institute of Tunis offers for the XX edition of the Week of the Italian Language adapts to the changes imposed by the emergence of global health. The initiative under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, is promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and by the Accademia Della Crusca. In both Italy and worldwide, the Accademia della Crusca is among the leading institutions in the field of research on the Italian language.

The event in Tunisia is organized by the Embassy of Italy and the Embassy of Switzerland. The rich and varied program offers a foray into the world of comics in its various figures, with the setting up of an exhibition at this Institute that can be visited even from a distance, as well as a series of initiatives linked by the same theme: “from Italian between speech and image”, structured to participate virtually.

The start is scheduled for October 19 with “The New Frontier”, a comic book exhibition that will bring together 14 young artists in this field, including cartoonists, screenwriters, and illustrators. The exhibition – opens to the public by reservation until November 19 from the Italian Institute of Culture in Tunis, can also be visited online on the Institute’s networks and openartweek.com.

 It is produced by Open Art Week, in collaboration with La Biblioteca delle Nuvole – one of the largest Italian libraries of comics and illustrations – with Lab619, a renowned and awarded group of Tunisian artists, and with the Swiss association Fokus Drawing. “Its goal is to create, each with his style, a story to illustrate, by catapulting into the future, this very particular and dramatic historical moment, where the virus and confinement have conditioned the lives of us all, with unexpected and new consequences,” a press statement said.

On October 23 there will be a new meeting with graphic designer Timothy Hoffmann, online with ISLT Tunis with his online seminar entitled “The testimony of comics”, in collaboration with the Embassy of Switzerland in Tunisia. The day after, the cartoonist Claudio Calia will present on the IIC networks “Comics as a social language: the experience of Claudio Calia in Tunisia”, a video clip in which he will illustrate international cooperation projects with, in the center, the comic strip produced by young Tunisians.

Calia is one of the main Italian authors of Graphic Journalism and its cartoons for the social campaign to contrast the spread of the virus in Tunisia, produced by Cefa Onlus. That is one of the most successful stories of Italian comics abroad, with more than four million views in less than a month. The various Italian departments of Tunisian Universities, starting with La Manouba will present the comic book exhibition of the 15 finalists of the Lucca Project Contest 2020 and the winner of last year’s edition. The exhibition is made up of 35 panels.

The initiative confirms that the virus does not stop the world and especially culture, but that it is necessary to adapt to the new challenges without panic and alarmism.