On 15 September 2023, the solo exhibition Regione e Sentimento. Itinerari italiani illustrati by Piedmontese illustrator Riccardo Guasco, curated by Francesca Fontana, on display in the Museo della Figurina until 11 February 2024, will open in the FMAV Palazzo Santa Margherita exhibition venue.
On occasion of the exhibition, Riccardo Guasco has made 20 new illustrations, one for each region of Italy, with landscapes, customs and local products; he will also present other works linked to Italian cities and trademarks, and the poetic animated video, Italian Way. These works echo and dialogue with the various materials housed in the Museo della Figurina archive, such as the now obsolete hotel labels which first appeared in the nineteenth century to stick onto travellers’ luggage, first for practical reasons of tracing the station or port of arrival or preventing mix-ups, then becoming an effective advertising tool. Objects that trace the history of holiday making and reflect society’s customs, at the time they were very much a status symbol for the middle classes: by displaying them, they showed that they could afford to travel and stay in expensive hotels.
Bio
Riccardo Guasco (Alessandria, 1975), “rik” is an illustrator and painter.His art is influenced by movements such as cubism and futurism. Enamoured of posters as a useful means of communication to provide an education in images, he mixes poetry and irony, creating illustrations that are a delight to behold .His illustrations appear in advertising campaigns, magazines and books, on hats and bicycles.He has worked with The New Yorker, Eni, TIM, Diesel, Rizzoli, Baldini & Castoldi, Poste Italiane, Campo Viejo, Giunti, Moleskine, Rapha, Thames & Hudson, DeAgostini, Sole 24 Ore, Emergency, Greenpeace, Rai and L’Espresso.He has made his first illustrated book, L'elefante. He has won, among others: ILLUSTRI prize 2019, AI Annual Award 2017, 58th New York Society of Illustrators prize.
