Exhibitions

Sara Colaone: History and Stories of the 20th Century through Comics

31 May 2025 - 9 November 2025
Sara Colaone. Storia e storie del ’900 a fumetti

Sara Colaone (Pordenone, 1970) is one of the most compelling figures in contemporary comics and illustration, winner of prestigious international awards, including the Gran Guinigi for Best Cartoonist at Lucca Comics & Games in 2017.

She drew the poster for the XXXVI Turin International Book Fair and teaches Comics and Illustration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. She is also an editor for the Comics section of Nuovi Argomenti.

Through a selection of original plates from five different works, this exhibition, curated by Giorgio Bacci, presents a fascinating journey through the 20th century, rediscovering marginal stories and forgotten perspectives. In Colaone’s drawings, personal and collective memory converge, urging readers to confront complex political and cultural legacies. Evase dall’Harem (Escaped from the Harem, 2020) retraces the story of two daughters of an Ottoman dignitary who, in 1906, fled from Constantinople to Paris in search of a freedom that had been denied them. Leda, che solo amore e luce ha per confine (Leda, Who Only Love and Light Has for Confine, 2016) presents the story of Leda Rafanelli, a woman of letters, an anarchist, who traverses 20th century Italian history; In Italia sono tutti maschi (In Italy They Are All Males, 2008) delves into the persecution and deportation of homosexuals to internal exile during the fascist regime; in Ciao ciao bambina (Bye Bye Girl, 2010), whose title recalls the refrain of Domenico Modugno’s song, Colaone recounts the emigration of Italians in the 1950s and 60s, retracing the experience of his parents who had met as emigrants in Switzerland; finally, Ariston (2018) explores a story of female self-determination in post-war Italy, following Renata’s life, the owner of the hotel of the same name on the Adriatic Riviera, as she resists a predetermined fate.

 

 

  • Fig.1 Sara Colaone, Didier Quella Guyot, Alain Quella-Villéger, Evase dall’Harem, Quartu Sant’Elena (CA), Oblomov Edizioni – La Nave di Teseo, 2021 (I ed. Éditions Steinkis, 2020). China e grafite su carta 25×35 cm, elaborazione digitale.
  • Fig.2 Sara Colaone, Francesco Satta, Luca de Santis, Leda. Che solo amore e luce ha per confine, Roma, Coconino Press, 2016. Due fogli china su carta, 29,5×42 cm ciascuno.
  • Fig.3 Sara Colaone, Francesco Satta, Luca de Santis, Leda. Che solo amore e luce ha per confine, Roma, Coconino Press, 2016. China su carta, 25×38,2 cm.
  • Fig.4 Sara Colaone, Ciao ciao bambina, Bologna, Kappa Edizioni, 2010. Pastello su carta, 21×29,7 cm.
  • Fig.5 Sara Colaone, Luca de Santis, Ariston, Quartu Sant’Elena (CA), Oblomov Edizioni, 2018. Grafite, pastello su carta, stampa digitale, 32×42,5 cm.