Books

As of September 1, 2023 Federica Magro will assume the position of Editorial Director of Rizzoli, responding directly to Massimo Turchetta, General Manager and Publisher of the publishing house.

«I am grateful for the trust of those who appointed me to this position in the senior management of the Mondadori Group, and to Massimo Turchetta in particular. I consider myself fortunate because I know that I will be working with a team of professionals whom I hold in high esteem. Rizzoli is a great publishing house with a strong tradition of confronting the key issues of its time. We publish books in every sphere of publishing – from fiction to non-fiction, from classics to graphic novels – and have never been afraid to give space to the ideas and experiences of different worlds, faiths, and political orientations. We think we can gain new readers only if we maintain an open-minded approach to the complexities and contradictions of the present. This is my ambition: to keep Rizzoli at the centre of the debate, offering readers the tools and stories they need to interpret our times.»

Originally from Friuli, 54 years old, with two daughters, after graduating in Literature from the University of Milan and earning a doctorate from La Sapienza in Rome in Romance Philology, Federica Magro began working in the world of books, as a translator and reader for publishing houses, literary agencies, and newspapers, an activity with which she combined university research until 2001, when she joined the Mondadori Group as digital content manager for Mondadori Retail.

In 2006, she was called to work at the Oscars.

She joined the RCS Group in 2012 as editorial manager of BUR, where she combined management of a catalogue of over 4000 titles with creation of new original paperback series and scouting of non-fiction authors (including Daniele Novara and Stefania Andreoli, among others).

In 2016, she added to her frontlist responsibilities with BUR: historical novels for Fabbri and YA fiction for Rizzoli, the latter a veritable hotbed of new and established authors (such as Christopher Paolini, John Green, and Stephanie Garber, recently joined by British writer Holly Jackson, with her “Good Girls” trilogy on the charts for over a year).

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Martina Donati will join the Mondadori Group on September 1, 2023, as part of the team led by Stefano Peccatori, CEO of Sperling & Kupfer, Piemme, Frassinelli, Mondadori Electa, Rizzoli Illustrati, and President & CEO of Rizzoli International Publications New York. Donati will serve as Editorial Director of Italian and international fiction for Sperling & Kupfer, Piemme, Frassinelli and the Pickwick paperback brand.

«I am honoured and happy with this assignment because of the welcome and trust I have received from Mondadori Group management, and particularly Stefano Peccatori. The goal is undoubtedly to make the most of the formidable authors the various brands already have in their catalogue, and to seek out and acquire new talents. The new generation of readers is formed of a target audience of young and very young people, and the publisher is doing its best to intercept them. These are readers who have put books and reading back in the forefront of discussion, thanks to social media. Our task is to continue responding to their tastes and giving them more and more opportunities to explore the stimulating world of quality writing. We will devote our editorial offerings to them, in various areas of fiction, ranging from genre fiction to more literary fiction, particularly through the Frassinelli brand.»

Born in Florence in 1967, Donati holds a law degree from La Sapienza University in Rome and has worked in the world of publishing for more than twenty-five years. After serving as head of the press office and communications for a number of brands, including Fanucci, Arcana and Fazi Editore, where she handled such international successes as Melissa P and Twilight, she has now embraced the profession of editor.

She was Editorial Manager for Giunti, where she founded the YA and adult fiction department and published authors like Simona Sparaco, Sara Rattaro, and Lucinda Riley.

As Editorial Manager at Newton Compton, she has recently worked on scouting and launching Italian and foreign authors such as Angela Marsons, Robert Bryndza, and Elena Armas, and in conceiving the best-selling Medici series written by Matteo Strukul. She has also been involved in non-fiction and miscellaneous publications, taking a gamble on Mark Manson, author of the highly successful “The subtle art…”

In 2017 she introduced Felicia Kingsley, a very Italian writer who has now become one of the most successful authors on the Italian publishing scene.

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This June, our brands take part in the festivities of Pride month, a time of the year dedicated to celebrating the diversity, inclusion and rights of the LGBTQIA+ communities.

Pride month is an occasion to foster values such as respect, equality and tolerance towards each individual, regardless of their gender, identity or sexual preferences.

For pride month, we recommend a series of publications on LGBTQIA+ topics published by our publishing houses. We believe in the power of books as a tool used to convey inclusiveness through stories speaking of all shades of love.

Mondadori and Star Comics created a special Pride month page on their respective websites to demonstrate their commitment towards inclusion and diversity. In fact, the same will contain various book suggestions for its readers. And there’s something for everyone: from comics to novels or autobiographies to memoirs.

Thanks to this initiative, people can access a vast range of editorial offers depicting heartfelt and open-minded stories full of brave characters.

Our publishing houses also suggest other reading suggestions:

The Wom also created a special section on its website. The Wom in fact addresses its community through such area by sharing content developed to give space to the LGBTQIA+ communities and clarify the most controversial issues to spread awareness and inclusion.

 

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The major exhibition dedicated to Italo Calvino (Santiago de Las Vegas, Cuba 1923 – Siena 1985) was presented as a preview to the press and the public at the 35th edition of the Turin International Book Fair. The exhibition will open in Rome at the Scuderie del Quirinale in October 2023. Curated by Mario Barenghi, organised by Ales S.p.A./Scuderie del Quirinale in collaboration with the Electa publishing house, it is among the main events of the official program celebrating the centenary of the writer’s birth.

It is a ‘visual’ project, covering Calvino’s character and work, which will address both his admiring public and ‘new’ readers and young people, who are only now coming to his works. Particular attention will be paid to Calvino’s relationship with the arts, which curator Mario Barenghi and Marco Belpoliti spoke of today in a discussion planned for the Fair, introduced by Rosanna Cappelli, CEO of Electa and Matteo Lafranconi, the Scuderie Director.

The exhibition will be a journey through the life, the choices, the political and civil involvement, the places and above all the literary output and the working method of the writer that will run through the history across ten sections on the two floors of the Scuderie del Quirinale.

The Scuderie del Quirinale, together with Electa, are also once again collaborating with the Liguria Region, the city of Genoa and the Palazzo Ducale Foundation to celebrate Calvino’s centenary, the year that Genoa is Italy’s Book Capital. In October, the city and the Palazzo Ducale will pay tribute to Calvino, starting a site-specific project on the theme of fairy tales and the countryside, which will end in the spring of 2024 when the Roman exhibition travels to Genoa.

Electa will publish a guidebook for the exhibition designed by Studio Sonnoli and edited by Mario Barenghi, as well as a volume of the encyclopaedia series entitled Calvino A-Z, with numerous articles assigned to major specialists and the whole work curated by Marco Belpoliti, who has recently edited for Mondadori Italo Calvino. Take a look.

Mondadori Studios’ Originals catalogue, the Mondadori Group’s space for creating and producing original audio contents, is now further enhanced with Shelf. A book’s home.

Based on the idea that readers, books and bookstores are all concerned by a common space known as the shelf, the new podcast is an exclusive project aimed at reviewing and discovering the literary world and its protagonists through the voice of the poet and bookseller Alessandro Barbaglia and involvement of Chiara Sgarbi, a passionate reader known on Instagram as @chiara_sui_libri.

The bookshow conceived for all literature lovers consists of 8 episodes available for free on all major audio streaming platforms, including Speaker, Spotify, Apple Podcast and Google Podcast.

The podcast

The episodes of Shelf. A book’s home will be airing every Wednesday with special sections: such as Cover, consisting of Alessandro Barbaglia’s personal opinion on books or Novelty, dedicated to the presentation of new books to help listeners find their way among the many editorial offers.

And again, ad hoc Advice given by Chiara Sgarbi to help people find the right story to read or purchase for others. Or the not to be missed Interview, in which the writer Barbaglia discusses with a bookseller, writer or protagonist of the editorial world.

Whereas, the Where to read section, a space conceived to let listeners speak about where and what they read, will enrich each episode. Finally, End Credits to summarise all the readings mentioned at the end of each episode.

Other novelties from Mondadori Studios

The first season of Shelf. A book’s home will complete Mondadori Studios’ original podcast offer, including Elements, Digital Wars and Under the nails, whose executive coordination will be guided by Michele Dalai to cover topics such as science, geopolitics, philosophy and true stories through new and expert voices and accurate authorial direction. The podcast Looking up, seeing the stars, developed by the scientist Amalia Ercoli Finzi together with Randstad, is also among the newest projects available. A unique episode added to the very high quality original audio format catalogue produced by Mondadori Studios: from spin-offs and discussions on what goes on behind the scenes in the creation of successful books to great works of historic and scientific education, from narrative invention to political analysis.

The Museo del Novecento museum and Palazzo Morando | Costume Moda Immagine palace, together with Liberty and our publishing house Electa, present the FuturLiberty Exhibition from April 5, 2023.

The exhibition, under the scientific curatorship of Ester Coen and artistic direction of Federico Forquet for the fabrics, delves into the history of the futurist movement in an unprecedented way, through a selection of paintings and applied arts exposed in the two seats of the Modern and Contemporary Art Museums of the Municipality of Milan. The works of the futurist movement’s protagonists, Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà and Fortunato Depero are harmoniously combined with the Vorticist paintings of contemporary English artists, such as Percy Wyndham Lewis and Christopher Nevinson, starting from the “Vital English Art” manifesto of 1914, signed by Europe’s avant-gardist, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. These artists in turn represented the source of inspiration that guided Federico Forquet and Liberty’s design team in the creation of two new collections.

The inspiring avant-gardes of Futurism and Vorticism express the transition from past practices through a sharp outlook towards the future, by influencing the culture expressed in traditions and in all forms of everyday routines. Strength, energy and dynamism all reflect the vitality of the forms that boosted the creativity of Liberty’s designers throughout the different eras.
Art life, leisure and identities are recombined into a futurist aesthetic, into a vision aimed at reshaping principles and traditions.

The project includes over 200 works in 2 seats. At the Museo del Novecento museum, the exhibition is focused on the interdisciplinarity of avant-garde movements. This unprecedented and fascinating journey is divided into 8 sections, varying from Futurism and Vorticism with essential works of the Museo del Novecento museum’s collection, of which 15 created by renowned authors such as Boccioni, Balla, Severini and Carrà, and others borrowed from prestigious Italian and international institutions, among which the MART of Rovereto, GAM of Turin, Banca d’Italia, Tate, British Council, Estorick Collection, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, William Morris Gallery of London, Sainsbury Centre of Norwich; all there to be compared to the designs of the Liberty collections.

Moreover, images of Milan’s stylish buildings will be projected to further appreciate its Liberty-style architectures. This journey combines architecture and decorations with the designs of the prestigious London archive, thus highlighting the stylistic influence of floral and geometric patterns to reveal a close connection between these two cities.

In the Palazzo Morando | Costume Moda Immagine palace, the focus is instead oriented towards the extraordinary creativity which characterises Liberty’s story and its past and present designers. For the first time since the V&A of 1975, which celebrated its centenary, the paintings, drawings, tapestries, fabrics, clothes, furnishings, photographs and a wide selection of unpublished materials from the Liberty archive will be exhibited in 8 rooms, starting with a section dedicated to its partnership with William Morris.
The exhibition reveals the influences that most affected both the careers of some great masters, among which William Morris, Bernard Nevill and Federico Forquet, and the ideas that redesigned the future throughout the eras by glancing back at the past. The fabric connects the beginning and end of a journey through shapes, colours, patterns and refractions of light.

A guide of the Museo del Novecento museum and Palazzo Morando | Costume Moda Immagine palace leads visitors through this artistic journey, organized by Electa and curated by Ester Coen.

The Museo del Novecento museum houses the largest collection of works from the futurist movement, also thanks to the recent loan of some precious masterpieces of Boccioni, Balla, Severini, among others, from the Gianni Mattioli collection. The futurist gallery offers visitors a one of a kind opportunity to get acquainted with the most renowned Italian artistic movements worldwide, right in Milan, where the main historical events of this movement unwound. The exhibition, dedicated to the connection between Futurism and English Vorticism, thus finds its ideal seat at the Milanese institution.

The Palazzo Morando | Costume Moda Immagine palace: has the task of presenting, preserving and producing evidence of the changes that Milan embraced. The Art Gallery houses paintings, drawings and sculptures representative of the historic, urban and social evolution of the Milanese capital. Milan’s custom and fashion collection is exhibited alternately according to thematic exhibitions and continuously allows to reflect on the interdisciplinarity of decorative arts and design. This is the perfect setting for taking part in Futurliberty, whose focus is dedicated to the study of the connection between art and fashion through the works of great masters of Futurism and Vorticism.

Liberty is the avant-gardist of design and decorative arts since 1875. It is internationally renowned for its fabrics, in particular for its floral patterns, but also for a long history of experiments with bold geometric designs reminiscent of the shapes and colours of the early 20th-century’s avant-garde art, in particular of those created by Italian futurists and English Vorticists. The extraordinary archive of over 50.000 drawings and prints from the beginning to present day is a constant source of inspiration. For Liberty’s 150 years, the esteemed interior couturier and designer Federico Forquet has curated a striking new range of fabrics – the FuturLiberty collection – aimed at bringing Liberty’s creative legacy into our era. The collections are produced in the northern Italian plant, in Lombardy, using both innovative digital technologies and century-old techniques.

The Original projects by  Mondadori Studios

are created, strengthening Mondadori Group’s presence in the podcast market. A format that is making a name for itself in the consumption habits of an ever wider public – which also embraces younger generations – to which the Mondadori Group will be able to offer high quality audio content, written, developed and created by a dedicated team.

The Mondadori Studios project
Mondadori Studios is a new space for the creation and production of original audio content: from spin-offs and discussion of what goes on behind the scenes in the creation of successful books to great works of historic and scientific education, from narrative invention to political analysis.

Includes original podcasts created in collaboration with important authors and characters with a strong experience in the world of audio broadcasting. A portfolio of stories and insights that enrich the wide digital offer of the Group’s publishing houses, with a catalogue of over 20,000 e-books and about 1,700 audiobooks.

The transversal nature and wealth of content and authors of Mondadori Studios is accompanied by the very high level of the production phase, thanks to an excellent sound design capable of enhancing the big names who collaborate on the initiative, and a graphic project with a strong visual impact by Francesco Poroli, internationally appreciated graphic illustrator.

The Original podcasts

There are three podcasts that will open the Originals by Mondadori Studios, featuring a total of 15 episodes, dedicated to highly topical issues, such as the protection of the planet, digital security and domestic violence: they include Elements, Digital Wars and Under the nails, available free on all major audio streaming platforms and usable from any device.

Elements was based on an idea by Mariasole Bianco, scientist, naturalistic populariser and President of Worldrise Onlus, to celebrate nature through the work of women who embody its essence. Four elements for four episodes – Water, Earth, Air and Fire – plus a fifth episode that exalts the human being par excellence: The culture.
Voices of Elements are Mariasole Bianco herself together with zoologist Mia Canestrini, the meteorological physicist Serena Giacomin, the environmentalist and forager Valeria Margherita Mosca and the communication expert Chiara Sgarbi, creator of the social profile @chiara_sui_libri.
A podcast to feed sparks of hope and give the right boost to change to safeguard our planet.

Digital Wars. What it is and why we talk about it (Guerre digitali. Cosa sono e perché ne parliamo),conceived by Mariarosaria Taddeo, Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, over six episodes deals with the themes of IT security,cybernetic intelligence, and the use of artificial intelligence as a military advantage up to its moral implications.

Under the nails (Sotto le unghie) is a true story of Patience Manzumba Nyapasa, a drama of ordinary domestic violence. A simple adjective to describe the too many tragedies that are still present in the chronicle of modern society.
There are four episodes written and narrated by Giulia Muscatelli, an author linked to women’s issues, regarding gender and social inclusion. Under the nails is a story of pain, beauty and courage, a story like many others, but it’s precisely for this reason that it’s important to be told.

From books to podcasts

Four podcasts dedicated to successful books and narrated by as many famous authors of the Group’s publishing houses are already available on all digital platforms: Bruno Vespa, Sveva Casati Modignani, Giuliano Da Empoli and Federico Varese.

The Wizard of the Kremlin. Instructions for Use Giuliano Da Empoli takes the reader backstage at The Wizard of the Kremlin (Mondadori, 2022), returning a real “instruction manual” to understand the story of Vadim Baranov, Vladimir Putin’s spin doctor.
The great storm by Bruno Vespa recounts a century of Italian history, from the end of fascism to the birth of the Meloni government, retracing the pages of his homonymous book published for Mondadori (2022) in collaboration with Rai Libri.
Protagonist of the podcast Crime and Punishments in the age of Putin. Russia seen through four criminals the voice of Federico Varese. Taken from his book Russia seen through four criminals (Einaudi, 2022), talks about contemporary Russia through the lives of four criminals representing different eras and social groups.
Lastly, in Dear Sveva. Time and love – produced in collaboration with Sperling & Kupfer – the bestselling author Sveva Casati Modignani imagines writing four letters to the female protagonists of the history of literature to discuss immortal themes: time (of life, of relationships) and love.

Coming out in the next few weeks, linked to the publication of Enrico Camanni’s new book Se non dovessi tornare, edited by Mondadori, the podcast Gary Hemming. Story of an obsession. The story of the life of a truly unique character – a nonconformist and libertarian climber – becomes an opportunity to recall the birth of a new way of thinking about mountaineering and the mountains, against the backdrop of the wonderful utopia of the 60s.

Useful links

Stay updated on the Mondadori Studios podcasts via the Instagram page, the Telegram channel and the playlists available on the main platforms, including Spreaker, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

“Each of us must ask himself if there are horizons in his life. Are there horizons? Many times, it happens that people cannot see them. And they feel a little bad because they do not observe, do not know how to look and search for those horizons. Observing the horizons of life, in this way, means looking at hope.”

Pope Francis

“Pope Francis really makes you feel like a person. He’s the Pope, of course. At the beginning there is a sense of expectation, the same as I felt as a child, the first time I met one of St. Peter’s successors. But then, without you even realising it, he makes you feel like an equal, with the understanding and authenticity of a man who loves you, and that’s all: he simply loves you, just as you are.”

Davide Banzato

If you suddenly had an unexpected opportunity to spend some time face to face with the Pope, what would you ask him?

This was the extraordinary experience of Davide Banzato, described in the pages of this book. In the Vatican for his television programme I viaggi del cuore, Father Davide never thought he would get a unique opportunity to chat with the Pope and ask him the questions that he, like many of us, had been wondering about. The result is a sincere, spontaneous dialogue, but also an enlightening reflection between a priest who has not been afraid to take risks, with a life full of light and shadows, and a Pope of great wisdom and, above all, unbounded humanity. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the papal ministry of Pope Francis, the Holy Father answered ten questions, in a discussion addressing existential and highly relevant issues: from solitude to indifference, from the crisis in faith to peace of the heart, from fear to poverty. All enriched with personal anecdotes and reflections on the times we live in, on the Pope’s documents and speeches, on burning issues such as abuse, war and economic crisis, in a discussion that speaks to everyone. Thus the Pope’s words take us on a true “voyage of the heart”: an intense walk, with obstacles and dark places of its own, but capable of showing us that it is always possible for each of us to cast the anchor of hope in the midst of the storm, to open a window and look out at the horizon of a more serene future.

Pope Francis

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, born in Buenos Aires in 1936, became the 266th Pope of the Catholic church on 13 March 2013. He chose the name of Saint Francis of Assisi, “a man of poverty, a man of peace”. Piemme also published his books Il nome di Dio è Misericordia. Una conversazione con Andrea Tornielli (2016, translated into 100 languages, published in English under the title The Name of God is Mercy), Dio è giovane (2018, published in English as God is Young), Ritorniamo a sognare (2020, published in English as Let us Dream) and Vi chiedo in nome di Dio (2022). And in the Battello a Vapore series: Laudato si’. L’enciclica raccontata ai ragazzi, Le più belle storie del Vangelo and A come Amore, B come Bambino.

Davide Banzato

Born in Padua in 1981, Father Banzato works with disadvantaged youth in Nuovi Orizzonti, the community founded by Chiara Amirante. He writes for a number of newspapers, presents the television programme I viaggi del cuore for broadcaster Mediaset, and has appeared in a series commenting on the gospels on Rai1 as well as a number of radio broadcasts. Piemme published his bestseller Tutto ma prete mai (2021).

Daisy Jones & The Six is back in the bookstores on the occasion of the March 3rd arrival, on Prime Video, of the long-awaited TV series based on the novel: 13 episodes produced by Amazon Studios and Reese Witherspoon, starring Riley Keough and Sam Claflin. 

The book, published in Italy by Sperling & Kupfer, has been a global success: a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, independent American booksellers’ book of the month and book of the year according to major international publications.

“The rock novel of the year” tells the story of the dizzying rise to success of an iconic ’70s rock group, revealing the mystery behind their notorious break-up.

“Reading this story, told in first person by the people who appear in it, is like watching an amazing series of documentaries about an icon of rock music. A novel overflowing with style and energy.”

– The New York Times

The author

Taylor Jenkins Reid wrote Carrie Soto Is Back, Malibu Rising, Daisy Jones & The Six and The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo, all New York Times bestsellers. She started out with the novels: One True Loves, Maybe in Another Life, After I Do, and Forever, Interrupted. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter. taylorjenkinsreid.com

The plot

Daisy Jones & The Six: a rock group becomes a legend. Their concerts have packed stadiums all over the world, and their songs have inflamed a whole generation. Their legend is the fairy-tale of the dizzying rise from their first performances in underground clubs to world-wide stardom. It’s the incarnation of a time when sex, drugs and rock’n’roll went hand in hand. The story is one of a perfect alchemy: the unique magnetism between Billy Dunne – the band’s charismatic, tormented frontman – and Daisy Jones, the splendid cover girl and singer with a natural talent and a free, elusive spirit. Yet on 12 July 1979, at the end of a memorable concert, the group split up forever. Nobody has ever known why… Until now.
The former band musicians and managers, reporters and family members were all witnesses to the event, and now, forty years later, they are finally ready to tell the truth. But each of them has his or her own version of the events. What is brought back in their words is a story of a bunch of twenty-year-old friends and lovers, brothers and rivals; idols on the stage, fragile souls when the lights go down. A story of crazy nights and lost dawns, of dreams too big to be seized and demons too strong to be defeated, passions that ignited the blood in their veins. Because a song is never just a song. There’s life, in music. And it’s impossible to say where one ends and the other begins.

Electa presents Oilà, the new series, edited by Chiara Alessi, that tells the stories of twentieth-century female figures who distinguished themselves in the Italian and international creative setting (from design to fashion, architecture to music, illustrations to graphics, photography to literature) by practising disciplines and professions that had always been considered part of the male universe. The graphics are developed by Studio Sonnoli.

The first three titles, which will be simultaneously released on March 8, are dedicated to Elsa Schiaparelli, Lisetta Carmi and Vanessa Bell: three protagonists, three characters, three stories, three individuals stories that transformed the way of interpreting art, design, photography and fashion and that contributed to the social and artistic emancipation of women. The stories take place in the midst of wars, displacements and social revolutions, in a world, or profession, not considered suitable for women.

The books

The books, intended to be read aloud from beginning to end in forty-five minutes – a short journey –  detail the stories of people’s biographies, jobs, private situations and public achievements. Small in format, with a defined layout and special cover for each individual title, the texts were entrusted to scholars, experts, writers and professionals. Each series begins with a story or anecdote on the life and profession of these women, digging into their childhood, family or sentimental relationships, based on the correspondence and diaries preserved in the archives, or on unpublished and unknown projects, to free women from preconceptions only aimed as seeing them as daughters, wives or sisters (such as Vanessa for Virginia Woolf).

And so, the series, or collection, of monographic readings based on the characters’ personal stories was created in the form of notebooks.

The title

The playful title of the series, Oilà, was taken from the famous verses of the socialist song La Lega [The League], which then became part of common italian women workers’ life. “Although we’re women, we’re not afraid, we have beautiful and nice mouths to defend ourselves. A oilì oilì oilà and our league will grow.”

Oilà is also a way to greet someone unexpected, the sound of someone caught by surprise. This series represents the voice and work of women.

Rossella Locatelli

The future, whatever it may hold. Elsa Schiaparelli

Elsa Schiaparelli’s circumstances seem like an ongoing struggle in the name of small freedoms. Alongside other women sharing this feeling. Fashion comes from instinct, revenge, necessity. Hers is a quick and absolutely spontaneous revolution. Although ironical or cruel at times, Schiap’s vision of fashion is closely linked to women’s obsessions and manias, or to a profound desire of independence. And… She is never alone in her fury.

Anna Toscano

With love and friendship. Lisetta Carmi

The hands, eyes and heart. Initially, Lisetta Carmi’s fingers run up and down the black and white keys of a piano, her eyes follow the keyboard from left to right, and her heart beats to the rhythm of a well-tempered harpsichord. Then, Lisetta Carmi’s fingers record and write the life of others through pictures. Pictures of people, streets, harbours, theatres, hospitals and cemeteries. Pictures of death and sex: of humanity Eyes and hearts to help her understand both others and herself. With love and friendship.

Luca Scarlini

Life is terrible and fun. Vanessa Bell

Vanessa Bell is always available for others: her husband, Clive Bell, despite his betrayals and critical mindset towards the artist’s life; Duncan Grant, the love of her life and colleague, who is however attracted by men; Omega Worshop, which according to its founder and financier, Roger Fry, wants to suppress the cult personality of her representatives; her sister, Virginia Woolf, through whom her work as an artist, graphic designer, decorator and illustrator is always interpreted. Vanessa Bell is there for others, those close to her have never jeopardised her art, on the contrary, they’ve fed it.