CAGLIARI.- From the 6th of August to the 4th of December 2022, the Palazzo di Città in Cagliari hosts the Corto Maltese Towards new routes exhibition. Over 200 original works, including drawings, watercolors, very rare panels and an original documentary, will retrace the journeys of the famous adventurer born from the genius of Hugo Pratt, defined by many as the creator of illustrated literature. It was 1967 when Corto Maltese made his appearance on Italian newsstands in the pages of the Sgt. Kirk magazine with the saga Una ballata del mare salato. From then on, the character, born from the internationally recognized brilliance of Hugo Pratt, quickly established himself in the public imagination as the quintessential romantic anti-hero, a gentleman adventurer and a sea dog.
The location of Cagliari and the island itself, surrounded by a sea that strongly highlights its colors, scents and customs, is the perfect port to set the imaginary route of seafaring adventures towards the South Seas, passing through Africa, up to the North American frontier. In Corto Maltese's liquid worlds you will find the whole Pratt’s imagery, made of rebels and revolutionaries, seductive women, African deserts and American prairies, rich in literary references that were part of his education, such as Kenneth Roberts, Fenimore Cooper and James Olivier Curwood.
The exhibition aims to retrace the twentieth century, as experienced by Pratt and his alter ego Corto, in various exhibition sections, accompanied by graphic animations to further immerse the audience in the stories of their most beloved adventurer. Among these: I Mari del Sud - in which you will also find the helmet of a vintage diving suit and a sculpture-reproduction of a Shardana warrior, offered on loan by the Navy (Ente Circoli Marina Militare, Circolo Sottufficiali Cagliari), - focuses on the adventurer's sea voyages; Africa, where Pratt spent his adolescence, whose landscapes, customs and culture will provide the inspiration for iconic works such as the four episodes of Le Etiopiche; Women, dreamed or actually met, mythical characters of literature or history such as the painter Tamara de Lempicka, the actress Louise Brooks, the mathematician Hypatia, honored by Pratt in magnificent watercolors.
Corto Maltese Verso nuove rotte brings to Cagliari one of the most beloved authors of all time in Italy and beyond, who is still able to speak to readers of all ages through immortal themes: the journey and the exploration of new frontiers, both in a physical and metaphorical sense, the adventure and the encounter with distant cultures, the relationship with the sea and the love for freedom.
"It will be interesting, therefore, while exploring this exhibition in Cagliari, to try to imagine the encounter between Corto Maltese and the celestial navigator Dedalo - who built the first nuraghe -, or to see him conversing with a sailor about the navigation techniques of the great Shardana sailing ships", declares Patrizia Zanotti, curator of the exhibition. In fact, in the Cagliari exhibition it will be possible to see a magnificent original watercolor representing a Shardana warrior.
In his last story, written and drawn by Hugo Pratt, Mū the lost city, Corto Maltese is in search of the mythical Atlantis in a journey set between 1924 and 1925 and, among the many characters he meets, there is also a Shardana warrior. In the same story, Pratt represents himself inside a diving suit, swimming into an abyss. There is a sense of premonition that hovers over the whole story, as if fate had decided in advance that this would be Corto Maltese's last adventure.
“This exhibition - tells Paolo Truzzu, the mayor of Cagliari - is an excellent synthesis of the works of the Venetian master and is an important opportunity to consolidate the cultural offer of the city.” “The lucky circumstance - tells Maria Dolores Picciau, Councilor for Culture and Entertainment of the Municipality of Cagliari - that allowed the municipal administration of Cagliari to promote a highly qualified exhibition such as the one dedicated to Pratt allows us to articulate some reflections on the importance of opening up the city's cultural program to forms of expression which, despite often being erroneously classified as "minor", were able to grasp the movements of the collective
imagination and influence it. The exhibition on Pratt is not only a tribute to a great master known
throughout the world for the meaningfulness of his tales and for his unmistakable trait, but also
wants to be a contribution to the re-emergence of eternal themes. In this sense, the exhibition is
aimed both at the old lovers of Pratt, those who have had the good fortune to wait for the periodical
publication of the panels of which today an excellent selection is offered, and at young people, who
also feel the unconscious but present call of adventure, of escaping, of the freedom to express
oneself outside the traditional social canons."
