08 February 2019
Telling the story of the 'beautiful game' is a complex task, one that over time has been attempted by great writers, great photographers, as well as great cartoonists - something that is reflected in the exhibition - "Gulp! Goal! Ciak. Calcio e Fumetti", which is dedicated to the world of football in comics. The display was inaugurated today at the Juventus Museum and will be open to the public from tomorrow until 20 May.
The new exhibition created at Juventus Museum, curated by Luca Raffaelli, will have a "twin" exhibition at the Museo del Cinema in Turin, dedicated to the parallel between comic strip and film camera. With the key question of the exhibit - "How can the story of the passion for football be expressed in this particular narrative in different ways and styles?"
The result is a unique story, because the comic has the ability to stop time, and to tell everything in a particular way. The exhibition aims to tell as much as possible about the relationship between football and comics, and is organised according to different chapters:
The first, "Hero Footballers", explores famous characters, such as the English - "Roy of the Rovers" by Walter Booth, the French comic - "Eric Castel" by Raymond Reding and the famous "Capitan Tsubasa" by Japanese cartoonist, Yoichi Takahashi.
"Footballers by chance" is the chapter dedicated to famous cartoon characters who occasionally found themselves struggling with a ball (from The Simpsons to Peppa Pig and from Asterix to Andy Capp) or with events related to soccer (Diabolik). With a section devoted to the "Disney World with the Ball", revisited through the many panels and episodes in which the Disney characters have encountered the world of football. Finally, it closes with "The round noses of Mordillo", which explains how the great Argentine author was able to tell the story of football through his brightly coloured cartoons.
And that's not all! The exhibition continues with comics novels that tell stories related to football, (for example, "Morti di sonno" of David Reviati or "The Years of Sputnik" by Baru) in the sections called "The little pitches in comic novels", "The great stories of football", that chronicle footballing events (such as, the World Cup, the great matches, the champions), and the stories of the various soccer teams told in comic book strips, with "Super-caricatures" of the champions and drawings that illustrate great goals.
There is also space for the great cartoonists ("The vignettes: A rectangle of play"), in a selection that includes the works of names like Carlin, Forattini, Giannelli Giuliano, with the extraordinary presence of Silver, the creator of "Lupo Alberto". A further chapter: "The cartoons of the ball" - how the world of animation has told the story of football, for example in the film "I primitivi" and in the TV series "La compagnia dei celestini", or in that of "Capitan Tsubasa." Last, but not least, there is the section dedicated to Jay, the official mascot of Juventus.
"The common thread that binds the two exhibitions? The comic, of course, and therefore the time that it takes for the reader to take in a drawn story - are the words of the curator Luca Raffaelli - For how many seconds can we admire the vignette that frames the ball just evading the goalkeeper's fingertips, as it flies into the back of the net? Two? Twenty? One thousand? Different to football and cinema, where the time that passes is fixed, whereas in comic books it lives forever, where we can experience the emotions for as long as we want."
"For our museum - explains Paolo Garimberti, President of the Juventus Museum - which has now become a nationwide attraction, permanently amongst the Top 50 most visited museums in Italy. This exhibition represents the consolidation of a dialogue with the other city institutions and we are happy to showcase it today, along with with the National Cinema Museum. The exhibition - "Gulp! Goal! Ciak! Calcio e Fumetti" highlights the expressive and communicative function of a form of story, like that of comics and cartoons, whose charm remains unaltered, just like that of football."
The twin exhibition at the Museo del Cinema of Cinema, entitled - "Gulp! Goal! Ciak. Cinema e Fumetti", will present the analogies and the differences between film and comics over the span of 100 years of history, with the display of original panels of some of the most important comics, projections and interactive workstations.
Both exhibitions are open from 9 February-20 May and can be visited with a single ticket valid for both, costing €20, which also grants you entry to visit the Juventus Museum and the Museo del Cinema (Excluding discounts for other types of ticket and promotions which cannot be combined).
Further information can be found on www.museocinema.it and in this section of our site.
