The Malatestiana Library celebrates World Book Day with two works by Vittorio Presepi and Silvano Tontini from Cesena

On the occasion of World Book and Copyright Day, which is celebrated annually on 23 April, the Malatestiana Library exhibits the works of two artists from Cesena whose central theme is the book. These are Access to knowledge by Vittorio Presepi and Il libro ignoto (flooded) by Silvano Tontini.

Vittorio Presepi’s art, after having gone through various moments of experimentation, is always faithful to itself and to the only unchanged element that distinguishes it: the blank page. This kirigami starts from the concept that knowledge and knowledge free and color the mind, lighting up thoughts. Those who transmit curiosity and know how to lead towards what they love, lead them to abandon appearance (empty and ephemeral) to enter substance (dense and tangible). Creating new happiness and new lives and illuminating existence with the color of ideas

“The unknown book” by Tontini, on the other hand, is a work born from a melancholy walk among the mud and rubble left in Cesena by the Savio flood on 16 May 2023. The artist was attracted by the large mass of mud which turned out to be a pile desolate of books. Pages that no one would ever read again. One of the many heartbreaking images that were added up before the eyes of the people of Cesena in those days. Having extracted one of the volumes, Tontini kept the muddy and unrecognizable document. After drying it in the sun and sanitizing it, then protected by a coat of impregnating agent, the volume was placed in a glass case on a panel with the following epigraph printed on it: “the Wise man overwhelmed, the fool picked up and placed”.

The inauguration of the small exhibition area will be held on the morning of Tuesday 23 April, at 11.45 am, in the presence of the two authors from Cesena. For all information you can contact the Library offices (Piazza Bufalini, 1) on 0547 610892 or by writing to [email protected]. The exhibition will be open until Friday 10 May on Mondays from 2.00pm to 7.00pm, and from Tuesday to Saturday from 9.00am to 7.00pm.