Opened on December 8th in the double seat of the National Museum of Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome and Giacomo Manzù Museum in Ardea (Rome), the exhibition Manzu. Dialogues on spirituality, with Lucio Fontana retraces, in the aftermath of the Jubilee of Mercy, the parallel experiences of the two sculptors with the liturgical commission in the 50s and 60s. The exhibition documents the common desire of the two artists – Giacomo Manzù (Bergamo, 1908 – Rome, 1991) to work for the Vatican, Lucio Fontana (Rosario, 1899 – Comabbio, 1968) for the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano – to renew the traditional iconography in contemporary terms and the fertile relationship that came to be created in this way with their respective stylistics developments.

Open until 5 March 2017, the exhibition is organized by the Museum Pole of Lazio under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for Culture and in collaboration with the municipality of Ardea and the Fondazione Giacomo Manzù. They have also collaborated Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Architecture and Design and the CSAC – Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione of Parma. The catalog is published by Electa.

Again in the capital – even for a few days (until 15 January 2017) – do not miss the exhibition Jean Arp, dedicated, fifty years after his death, to one of the major protagonists in contemporary art.

Staged in the Great Halls of the Baths of Diocletian, the large retrospective of French master is promoted by the Superintendence for the Colosseum and the central archaeological area of Rome and the Roman National Museum in collaboration with Electa: about 80 works, including sculptures, reliefs, tapestries and papier collés giving an overview of Arp’s wide-ranging experimentalism, from the first wooden reliefs of 1915 to the sculptures made from 1930 to 1966.

About two hundred photographs are at the core of Picasso Images. Works, Artist, Character. The exhibition outlines in new ways not only the path of an exceptional artist, but also the most intimate portrait of a man who has built its worldwide fame. The rich selection of images is accompanied by a significant selection of graphic works, sculptures and paintings from the Musée National Picasso -Paris that frame his artistic evolution.

The exhibition, promoted by Roma Capitale, Assessorato alla Crescita culturale – Sovrintentenza capitolina ai beni culturali, it is designed by Electa in collaboration with the Musée National Picasso – Paris and is organized with Zètema Progetto Cultura.

The exhibition is hosted at the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome until 19 February 2017.

Entitled LuminosaMente, the new light installation at the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo is by the artist Marco Lodola. The work, which is on display on the store’s façade, is in the form of a big open book that will illuminate the centre of Milan for the coming months.

LuminosaMente celebrates reading as a vehicle for experience and awareness, an invitation to stop and immerse oneself in the luminous stories we can find in books. The illuminated pages symbolise the passing of life through stories and the discovery of new meanings. Symbols like the moon, the circle, the triangle and the square – esoteric forms belonging to the culture and story of humanity – are the way of life that is revealed to the reader through the books.

“We say that reading provides food for the mind; and this is the inspiration behind the idea of an illuminated book. Our lives are all linked by the common denominators of experience, discovery and illumination. The title of the work, LuminosaMente, indicates the natural need of every human being to know. In a fast-moving world, in which the media bombard us with notions and news, the intention is to attract the attention of people who still don’t appreciate the value of immersing themselves in a luminous story different to their own,” commented Marco Lodola.

LuminosaMente continues the cycle of initiatives created by Mondadori Store to bring people closer to contemporary art which began with “St-Art, artist of the months”, a series that, for over a year, exhibits new young talent and established names in the Mondadori Megastores in Piazza Duomo and Via Marghera in Milan. The project features a number of other activities open to the public, including the exhibition of light sculptures by the artist Marco Lodola, who for Mondadori Store has already produced Eden, the ballerina symbolising life and passion, and Mio Cugino, marking the tenth anniversary of Italy’s World Cup victory.

The initiative is curated and promoted by the artistic agency Avangart Connessioni Creative.

Don’t trust a surface that is too calm: you never know what it conceals. With the same narrative force that has captured millions of readers around the world with The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins gives us a multifaceted novel that is rich in emotions. When the river of a small town gives up the bodies, within a few weeks of each other, of a single mother and her teenage daughter, what also comes to the surface is a much more complicated and surprising affair than expected. As in The Girl on the Train, INTO THE WATER  comes from a deep and powerful understanding of human instincts and the damage they can cause.

“INTO THE WATER offers surprises on every page,” said the American editor Sarah McGrath. “As in The Girl on the Train, also here the murders are part of a bigger story. INTO THE WATER shows us what the tricks of memory can do and the ways in which the past creeps dangerously into the present and the future.”

“Once again Paula explores the fascinating depths of our mind,” says the British editor Sarah Adams, “reminding us that things are rarely as they seem, and prompting us to investigate the reality around us.”

“An original and courageous book,” said Paula Hawkins’ agent, Lizzy Kremer.

The novel will be published in the United States and in Great Britain on 2 May 2017.

Paula Hawkins is the author of the worldwide bestseller The Girl on the Train, which has sold over 18 million copies around the world. The novel spent 79 weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list, and more than three months in the number one spot. In Italy it has sold over 600,000 copies, and has never left the bestsellers list since it was published in June 2015, and remains in the top ten best-selling books. The Girl on the Train was recently adapted for the cinema starring Emily Blunt.

This year Mondadori Store is launching a special competition for customers who buy, during the Christmas season, books, music, films, toys, gift boxes and stationery at one of the 600 stores across Italy or from Mondadoristore.it.

The prizes available include, a book “for life”, with which a lucky reader, drawn from all those who participate in the Mondadori Store initiative, will be able to enrich his or her personal library. The winner will receive directly at home one book every month for 30 years, a total of 360 books,  chosen on the basis of the reader’s preferences.

The Mondadori Store competition also aims to reward Italian families with a gift of one year’s shopping and a year of petrol, two important elements in the family budget. For the first name draw, a coupon worth €8,000 to spend at a preferred supermarket, and, for the second name drawn,  a coupon worth del €4,000 in petrol that can be used at a petrol station chosen by the customer.

Finally, there are also 1,000 Mondadori Store €5 gift cards.

The promotion will run until 8 January, when you buy using the PAYBACK card, one of the products in the 2016 Mondadori Store Christmas Gift Guide, available in stores and online. For full information and rules, please go to Mondadoristore.it.

Confidenze tra amiche blows out 70 candles as it celebrates an important anniversary with a special collectors’ issue, on newsstands from Wednesday 23 November.

The historic Mondadori magazine remains a point of reference for an audience of affectionate readers with which is deals, in a confidential tone and complicit language, issues about current affairs, fashion, beauty, wellbeing, psychology, DIY, cooking and the home.

“It is extraordinary how Confidenze tra amiche has managed to maintain over time its vocation as a mirror for women with a strictly emotional vision of daily reality,”  declared the editor Susanna Barbaglia. “In planning the special issue for the magazine’s 70^th anniversary, we felt strongly the timeliness with which Confidenze has always recorded changes in habits and women’s needs through a narrative driven by writers and real stories,” Barbaglia continued. “After 70 years, the direct testimony of readers, the events and the protagonists of our times, presented in both a journalistic and literary approach and commented on our blog, remain at the very heart of the magazine,” the editor concluded.

The strength of Confidenze tra amiche is the stories, often written by the readers themselves. Stories about how love, careers, friendship and health have changed their lives.

A patrimony of content that for years has ensured the success of the magazine and that is highlighted also in the special collectors’ issue, that features on the cover the current Miss Italy, Rachele Risaliti:  52 pages of stories to read; seven extraordinary accounts of the 1940s, with original drawings and four new love stories written exclusively for the anniversary of the Mondadori magazine.

And to satisfy cooking fans, Confidenze tra amiche on the newsstands, will include with the special issue a special cooking insert  with 12 recipes for an exclusive celebration.

The title has a strong community of readers who are active on Facebook with 40,000 fans and also across the country, thanks to events orgnaised by the magazine’s staff in various cities and towns around Italy.

The campaign in support of the initiative has been conceived and developed by Hi! Communication.-

Rakuten Kobo, one of the world’s leading companies in the eReading sector announced a new initiative “6 novels in search of an author”, using its self-publishing platform, Kobo Writing Life, in collaboration with Mondadori Store, Italy’s most extensive bookstore chain, and PassioneScrittore.it, a portal that provides services for self-publishers. The initiative is aimed at Italian writers who want to rise to the exciting challenge of winning the possibility of realising the dream of a lifetime: being published and distributed.

With the continuous growth of the self-publishing phenomenon, which in recent years has led to publishing successes such as that of Andy Weir, with “The Martian”, and Anna Todd, with “After”, more and more authors are opting for self-publishing. So much so that, according to Bowker, the US government agency that manages the ISBN (International Book Standard Number) for the identification of books,  in the last 12 months the self-publishing sector has grown globally by 21%. It is precisely for this reason that Kobo, that has always paid close attention to the needs of both its readers and innovative publishing developments, has decided to launch an initiative that aims to offer visibility to new generations of Italian creative writers.

“6 novels in search of an author” is a contest with two different sections: on the one hand a “Self-publishing tournament” and, on the other, a “Writing competition”.

For the first category, participants, as well as being over 18, must enrol between 15 November and 15 December 2016. They will need an active account on https://it.kobo.com/writinglife and their work, which should be not less than 200,000 characters (including spaces), must be available on the portal https://store.kobobooks.com/it-it from the moment of enrolment until the end of the tournament, even if they are already available on other platforms. as well as the publication of an extract, of a maximum of 25,000 characters, on Kobo Writing Life by 1 December 2016 and not be in violation of copyright or any other form of intellectual property rights held by third parties. Consequently, the competition will be divided into two parts: a collective review on the pages of the Kobo Store Italia, which, from 21 December 2016 to 20 February 2017 will call on the platform’s readers to vote and comment on all of the work in competition, and a professional review, by a jury of experts, chaired by the literary agent Maria Paola Romeo, that will draw up a shortlist by 30 May 2017.

For the second category, meanwhile, users, only if over 18, can register, again between 15 November and 15 December 2016, and create their own account on https://it.kobo.com/writinglife and by filling in a special form on www.kobowritinglife.it, in which a file in the Word of PDF format can be uploaded. The document must only contain the title and a synopsis of the work, in a total of not more than 5,000 characters, in addition to the complete work, that must be not less than 200,000 characters (including spaces), and that, to be admitted, must also be unpublished, in prose and in Italia, completed at the time of enrolment in the competition and  not be in violation of copyright or any other form of intellectual property rights held by third parties. Subsequently, a jury of experts will select the winners by 30 May 2017.

From a shortlist of 12 finalists, each section will choose three winners, a total of 6 participants, who will receive a publishing contract from Kobo, both for a printed and digital version of their work, along with promotion and distribution on the Kobo Store Italia and the main outlets of the Mondadori Store chain, also through the innovative “Book on demand” service offered by the network.

In addition, until 15 December 2016, to assist all those who would like to participate and to register correctly, a help line will be available on this link.

For more information, please go to: www.kobowritinglife.it

What is Carlo Cracco doing next to Linda Evangelista? And Gualtiero Marchesi alongside Charlotte Rampling?  In the collective imagination, little could be as distant as a chef and a model. Two antithetical worlds,  in opposition but… are they also incompatible? Not if the observation point is fame, notoriety, beauty. When food and its, now immortalised, creators are on the same plain as the image of a beautiful woman. With a keen and deep eye, and at the same time, with an irony that has always characterised him, Bob Krieger proposes his latest work: iCONS. Alongside familiar faces of timeless beauty from fashion and world cinema, which his lens captures with an unmistakable style, Krieger presents the new stars of Made in Italy, the “ambassadors of taste”, of an exquisitely Italian capacity to express the excellence of our food. iCONS is a fun, irreverent and, at the same time, current way of portraying authentic icons of style and passion.

“This show,” says Ferruccio De Bortoli in the preface of the volume iCONS (Electa), “brings together the  Krieger’s photographs of the fashion of the moment, cooking, with the fashion we are familiar with, and of which he is the high priest with a camera instead of scissors. The chefs and the models. A bold approach because the latter, in order to stay on catwalk, have to keep away from the kitchen. But it has within it, a socially useful message, and can be safely described as a small manifesto against anorexia… And in the work of the chefs – who not only satisfy our tastes but with maniacal precision oversee the aesthetics of their dishes – there is an artistic inclination that brings them closer to designers. Bob Krieger’s photographic wit captures the curious expressions of Cracco, Oldani and his colleagues, and offers us again the timeless charm of the most acclaimed models. Krieger has stopped time, with a click. The subjects portrayed give themselves up to him with a surprising abandon. But great photographers also have a hypnotic power.”

The exhibition will be presented, during a special evening,  on 15 November by the chairman of Mondadori Retail, Mario Resca, the inspiration behind “St-Art. Artist of the month. Today’s and tomorrow’s masters on show”, a cultural project designed and promoted by Mondadori Megastore in collaboration with Milo Goj’s Art Relation.  For over a year, at the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo 1 and Via Marghera 28, important young talent have alternated with established artists, on collections that aim to draw the public in to contemporary art and, thanks also to accessible prices, enable the general public to begin collecting.

Among the multiple literary events taking place during the four-day festival BookCity Milan 2016, Interni brings the writings, by three major Italian designers, to the audience. The initiative, named Architects read architects, aims at describing the everlasting relationship between writing and designing. The texts will be gone through and commented by an architect.

All three expositions, free of any charge, will be held at 5pm in Sala Bertarelli at Sforza Castle, in three different days. On November 18^th, Patrizia Ranzo will talk about the writings by Ettore Sottsass, well-known designer who’s able to communicate concepts in such a straightforward and intelligent way that the reader cannot but be grasped by the author.

The following day, November 19^th, Amate l’architettura by Gio Ponti will be presented by Stefano Boeri, stressing the need of architects to also write books, essays and reflections in addition to designing.

The last meeting, on Sunday 20^th, will be centred on Scritti di Domenica by Alessandro Mendini, who will lead a discussion with the art historian Loredana Parmesani.

To sum up:

Interni at BookCity 2016 – Architects read architects
Sforza Castle – Sala Bertarelli

Friday 18 November – 5pm
Texts by Ettore Sottsass read by Patrizia Ranzo

Saturday 19 November – 5pm
“Amate l’architettura.” Stefano Boeri reads Gio Ponti

Sunday 20 November – 5pm
“Scritti di domenica.” Conversation between Alessandro Mendini and Loredana Parmesani

Mondadori Store is once again the “Retalier of the Year Italy 2016-2017” in the “bookstore” category, the leading Italian award based on consumer assessment which, for the third consecutive year, rewards the buying experience offered by Italy’s most extensive chain of bookstores.

Mondadori Store obtained the highest score among the eligible candidates  in the “bookstore” category. Nine main aspects in the buying process were judged by customers who in recent months were asked to express their evaluations: the price/quality ration, price levels, special and promotional offers; service, training and courtesy of staff, assortment, atmosphere and innovation.

With 600 sales outlets across the country, and three different shop formats – Megastore, Bookstore and Point – every year Mondadori Store serves more than 20 million customers, that in addition to books and a variety of other products, offers service from qualified staff and experience in entertainment. This award is an encouragement to Mondadori Retail to continue to offer its clientele an environment that is increasingly stimulating and surprising.

Retailer of the Year is an international award, first launched in 2003 under the name Beste Winkelketen in the Netherlands and  subsequently expanded as Retailer of the Year to Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and, from this year, also Russia.

It has been present in Italy for 9 years, 3 of which with the name “Insegna dell’Anno Italia” (www.insegnadellanno.it). Insegna dell’Anno Italia is an initiative by Q&A Research & Consultancy, organised by SEIC – Studio Orlandini.

Donna Moderna launches DM LAB (#dmlab), a new initiative dedicated to women and the whole family with more than 50 free meetings, workshops, laboratories and talks that will take place on Friday 11, Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 November, at the Spazio Open in Milan (Viale Montenero 6).

“DM Lab is a dream come true: bringing the content and values ​​of Donna Moderna to a physical space and making them accessible to readers,” said Annalisa Monfreda, the magazine’s editor. “This initiative offers us a three-day opportunity to come into direct contact with our community, in the sense of a real community of people gathered in one place thanks to the strength of our brand,” Monfreda concluded.

DM Lab is a new way of exploiting the experience and content also of some of the Group’s other brands who are working with Donna Moderna on the initiative, from Starbene to CasaFacile and Sale&Pepe, as well as Focus Junior, Focus Pico and ‪Nostrofiglio.it. A system that in print already embraces an overall audience of 11 million net contacts (Source: Audipress February 2016 and Audiweb July 2016) and that is able to expand and develop further thanks to this type of event around the country.

DM LAB will kick off in the morning with the editor of Donna Moderna, Annalisa Monfreda who, over coffee, will talk with special guests about a range of topical issues and closing in the evening with talks by five major personalities who will go up on stage to launch, in ten minutes, ideas and provocations around the great themes affect the world of women.

On Friday at 7 pm a generational clash on the theme: Who is the youngest between you and me? in which three couples will face each other in a debate moderated by psychologist Beatrice Toro on love, work and family relationships. On the stage, the many guests include: the writers Enrica Tesio and Manuela Stefani, journalist Roberto Parodi, Alessandro Rosina, who teaches demographics at the Catholic University in Milan and the YouTubers Jaser and Daniele Brogna.

The talk on Saturday at 7 pm will catalyse the attention of participants where the subject will be women’s bodies and beauty, that of normal women who always seem to feel they are not quite attractive enough. Here the guests include fashion photographer Settimio Benedusi, Cristina Fogazzi,  the well-known online beauty consultant Anna Turcato, image consultant.

With workshops on fitness, home decor, beauty and money, participants will also find a corner with expert nutritionists from Starbene, a desk for advice from the best architects of CasaFacile, and meetings with chefs promoted by Sale&Pepe.

And on Saturday afternoon the Spazio will be the theatre – at 5 pm – for a meeting with Davide Oldani who will talk about a taste for lightness: less fat, more flavour and aromas.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, the chef Roberto Rinaldini, will explain how to turn every dessert into a tailor-made masterpiece based always on the pursuit of quality. And, from 7 to 8 pm, on stage, five well-known writers – Alessandra Appiano, Roberto Moliterni, Michela Murgia, Aldo Nove and Pulsatilla – will be the protagonists of “5 scrittori per 5 storie di donne moderne” (5 writers for 5 stories about modern women).

There will also be workshops for children, in collaboration with Junior Focus, Focus Pico and Nostrofiglio.it, to learn while having fun while mothers can follow the debates about the family, safety and education with psychologists, educators and experts.

Donna Moderna has thought of everyone with DM LAB and at Spazio Open there will alos be yoga and fitness classes in collaboration with Starbene. But the pursuit of health does not end there: a nutrition area, open on Friday from 4 to 6 pm and on Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 5 pm, expert nutritionists from the European Institute of Oncology and dietician Carla Lertola will be available for advice for personalised diets, supplements and natural remedies.

The DM LAB format has been developed by  the advertising sales company Mediamond that has received very positive feedback from the market. Thanks to the popularity and audience of the Mondadori Group brands involved, along with the strength of the Mediamond network, this type of initiative is able to reach a very broad audience that interacts with the events and generates spontaneous buzz; a result that is due to the  active participation of the brands involved in the construction of the project and its implementation, and providing an opportunity to get in touch with their audience to present the products and the corporate values ​​that the brands represent.

The following partner companies contributed to the creation of DM LAB:

L’Oreal Paris, L’Oreal Professionel, Compagnia della Bellezza, MetLife, BioNike, 10 Buoni Propositi, Ferrarelle, Vitasnella, Rescue®- Fiori di Bach Originali, Caffè Vergnano, Pruneaux D’Agen.

A complete programme is available at: www.donnamoderna.com/labweekend