“Fifteen years ago no one would have thought that this poster, from a wall in Quarto Oggiaro, would end up illuminated by a spotlight in a museum in northern Rome”. It is with the usual low profile that the cartoonist Zerocalcare, born Michele Rech, presents in Rome the exhibition that the MAXXI museum has decided to dedicate to him. "Digging ditches, feeding crocodiles", this is the title of the exhibition which for four months, from 10 November to 10 March, will occupy the spaces Extras of the Capitoline museum with posters, plates, illustrations, record covers, jerseys, logos, labels and more. All covered by the drawings of one of Italy's most beloved cartoonists and divided into four sections: Pop, Tribes, Struggles and Resistances, Non-Reportage.
“Some of these works concern only me, while others are part of a collective story – continues Zerocalcare – I designed them, but I thought of them with other people. That's why I asked around: maybe there was some person who didn't like the name of his group or his occupied space ending up in an institutional context like this. If someone had asked me, I would have removed your poster from the selection for the exhibition. But it didn't happen, because the staff who worked on this exhibition were respectful of the history of all communities, without trying to hide, sweeten or make a show of it. And this, in my opinion, is an added value”.
Born in 1983, Zerocalcare achieved success for the first time in 2011 with "The Armadillo Prophecy", from which a film was recently made. One of her works – “Forget my name” – was classified second at the Premio Strega Giovani of 2015.
Today, Saturday 10 November, Zerocalcare will be in the MAXXI auditorium at 18.30 pm for a conversation with the photographer Paolo Pellegrin – author of theanother exhibition hosted in the museum – and with the deputy director of Espresso, Marco Damilano. Admission is free, subject to availability.
In video lesson, some images from the Zerocalcare exhibition.
