XXIV Humor in Gallarate, Grand Prix Marco Biassoni / Miroslava Rakovic, Serbia
Winners of the International Cartoon Contest XXIV "Humour a Gallarate" 2019
More than 300 cartoonists from around the world sent a thousand works to this event, which was inaugurated at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Gallarate (MAGA), and will remain open until September 15.
Again the Cultural Association Pro Loco, which chairs Vittorio Pizzolato, organizes the International Festival of Graphic Humor, of the Italian city of Gallarate , an interesting event that contributes to the promotion of humorous drawing and the development of a social, innovative, plural and tolerant, when addressing in its calls aspects of great interest.
This year the contest, divided into caricature and graphics, was dedicated to the 60s, a time impregnated with events of diverse character that influenced the history of humanity: wars, revolutions, births, and fallen ideals ... Just for mention some: the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the death of Pope John XXIII, the construction of the Berlin Wall, the Vietnam War, the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet troops, the protests of May 68 in Paris, the hippy movement , the landing on the moon, the musical phenomenon of the Beatles ...
It is obvious that the organizers wanted to make a reading of this era in terms of graphic humor. A fundamental demystifying approach, precisely because the function of humor is to relativize the values of any subject, to send a teaching and to reflect.
"Linking a competition -says Pizzolato- not to a specific topic, but to an interval of time allows us to discover facts and characters that have entered the collective memory with an imaginative power that is still difficult today to repeat".
"For those - he adds - who have lived those years personally, it will be like going back in time, between songs that we all know by heart and indisputable mass hits, like the Beatles and Rolling Stones albums, or again with films that have perfectly painted the state of mind, like "Easy Rider" or "The graduate".
"The sensations are multiple, and even after so many years are still recorded in the memory and with a little presumption we would like that even the youngest, who have not lived those years for generational reasons, can discover and learn" -says.
The Grand Prize, dedicated to the memory of the great Italian cartoonist and illustrator Marco Biassoni (1930 - 2002) was for Miroslava Rakovic, from Serbia, with his work dedicated to the famous musical album "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles.
The other coveted prize, the Cava Award, went to Angel Ramiro Zapata, from Colombia. And the First Prize in Graphics was won by Eder Santos, from Brazil, and in that category, the jury also recognized Lorenzo Vannini, from Italy.
XXIV Humor in Gallarate / First Prize in Caricature / Javad Alizadeh, Iran
The First Prize in Caricature corresponded to the Iranian Javad Alizadeh, with a portrait dedicated to the assassination of JF Kennedy.
"When the JFK murder happened," Javad writes, "I was 10 years old, I was very impressed and sad, and at that age, I discovered how brutal and violent politics is."
That date, November 22, 1963, I kept in my mind forever as the worst day and even many years later, my father died on the same day November 22, 2005.
"I did that drawing," he adds, "first without a background in 2013 and then I completed it with the crowd from the city of Dallas welcoming him to the fund. I called it "the last smile".
"When I heard about Gallarate's graphic humor festival and its good theme: the sixties, I sent it for moral reasons, not financial reasons, because the amount of cash prizes is small and my main intention was to pay homage to that politician. And I thank the organizers of the festival for giving me that opportunity "-finaliza.
Meanwhile the Portuguese Pedro Silva, with a vignette of the singer Janis Joplin, achieved in that category, the Special Jury Prize. On the realization of this work, Pedro expresses: "After investigating and looking at several photos of J. Joplin, I chose to highlight the glasses, with shades of pink / purple, and leave the part of the face and body in black and white. Therefore, I would give more prominence to this feature by creating a resemblance to soap bubbles, circles with something psychedelic that remind us of the illusions created by the music and drugs of the 60s. The smile and the position of the hand in the necklace are features in almost all the photos observed and that are available. "
There were several mentions and awards to the artists: Vannini Lorenzo, Tessarolo Sergio, Andrea Pecchia, Paolo Dalponte, Kazanevsky Vladimir, Ivailo Tselkov (one of the winners of the last edition), Achille Superbi, Mariani Marzio Luigi, Tucios Omar Alberto, Amorim Carlos , Gianni Audisio. And a special thank you went to Emilio Isca.
On this occasion, the Museum also hosts a personal exhibition in homage to Ernesto Cattoni, a renowned Italian comedian, defined by experts as "the Poet of Humor", for the great ability to synthesize complex thoughts in images.
The jury of this edition was chaired by Assunta Toti Buratti, and integrated by Arnauld Van Der Donck, Joshua Held, Marilena Nardi and Mattia Massa.
