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.

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.

Our publishing houses are at the 68th Frankfurt Book Fair , scheduled from 19 to 23 October.

This is the most important European event and among the most prestigious in the world.

Mondadori, Rizzoli, Einaudi, Sperling & Kupfer and Piemme are in Hall 5.0, Stand D25: a new space, designed to enhance all of our editorial brands, together at the Fair for the first time.

Big buzz at the Frankfurt Book Fair for the new book on Pope Francis by Andrea Tornielli

After the international bestseller The Name od God is Mercy, published in 100 countries and translated in 34 languages, expert of Vatican affairs Andrea Tornielli offers an extraordinary travel tale from the very voice of Pope Francis, plus an exclusive interview to the Holy Father.

The book, entitled Journeying (Piemme), will hit bookstores in Italy starting from January 2017 and it is already catching the attention of the publishers worldwide.

The Museo del Novecento with Electa presents BOOM 60! That was Modern Art, an exhibition sponsored by the City of Milan – Culture, and dedicated to art from the early fifties to the early sixties and its reflection in the popular mass media.

The exhibition at the Museo del Novecento will run from October 18, 2016–March 12, 2017, curated by Mariella Milan and Desdemona Ventroni with Maria Grazia Messina and Antonello Negri. It inaugurates the new exhibition spaces with a complex layout between the Arengario and Piazzetta Reale with an exhibit design by Atelier Mendini.

The exhibition, thanks to the extension of the museum layout into the new galleries assigned to the museum, seeks to explore the themes of Italian art in the 20^th century while enriching the permanent museum layout. In the conception and choice of artworks, as well as loans from museums and public and private collections, it proved possible to draw on the rich collection of the Museo del Novecento: paintings and sculptures of the city’s heritage from the Boschi di Stefano collection, which is not on permanent display, and so makes a fascinating discovery.

BOOM 60! explores modern art as it was recounted from the early fifties to early sixties in the weekly and monthly illustrated press, the popular newsmagazines. 

These were the boom years, when not only the economy and consumption were soaring, but also the sales of illustrated weeklies and monthlies: Epoca, Tempo, Le Ore, Oggi, Gente, L’Europeo, Abc, Oggi, L’Espresso, Vie Nuove, La Domenica del Corriere, La Tribuna Illustrata, Successo, Panorama, L’Illustrazione Italiana, Settimana Incom Illustrata, Lo Specchio, Settimo Giorno. Their readership peaked in this period, with a circulation far greater than that of the newspapers, making them an important means of entertainment, as well as a faithful mirror of the collective outlook and aspirations. 

What emerges from the pages of these popular magazines is an alternative picture of modern art and its protagonists, contrasting with the evaluations of cultivated critics. Artistic innovations clashed with the expectations of the general public, who were highly suspicious of them. The magazines often fomented their readers’ prejudices, and at others sought to “educate” them by relating the art world to the forms of mass culture.

The exhibition, with a spectacular exhibit design by the Atelier Mendini, reflects these varied aspects of Italian visual culture in its decisive phase, drawing widely on the Milanese context, as the center of the major commercial publishing houses and much of the most advanced artistic research.

Some 140 works of painting, sculpture and graphic design – chosen in relation to their particular success in the mass media – create a dialogue in four sections: “Major Exhibitions and Controversies”, “Artists in the Magazines”, “Artists and Celebrities”, “The Market and Collecting”,  with the most popular photographic and TV illustrations of artworks and artists. A rich documentary section, like a great ‘’newsstand’’ from the past organized in  the Sala Archivi of the Museo, presents the public with the magazines and their different ways of recounting modern art, from the covers to feature articles, from criticism to advertising columns, from illustration to photojournalistic images, together with a selection of eight works from which the Dino Buzzati’s Piazza Duomo di Milano.

F.I.L.A. Fabbrica Italiana Lapis ed Affini entra nelle scuole con due concorsi nazionali messi a punto grazie al prezioso supporto di Rizzoli Education: parte così la prima edizione assoluta del PREMIO LYRA – MAIMERI dedicato agli studenti delle secondarie di secondo grado e PREMIO LYRA, giunto al suo settimo anno e rivolto alle secondarie di primo grado.

Due concorsi uniti dalla volontà di avvicinare i ragazzi all’espressione artistica, proponendo tematiche sempre nuove in linea con i programmi didattici, due iniziative che metteno in palio premi importanti e che portano la firma dei brand di casa F.I.L.A. specializzati nel mondo del disegno artistico e delle belle arti: Lyra e Maimeri.

“REFASHION ART”

Il nuovo PREMIO LYRA – MAIMERI nasce per offrire ai ragazzi una grande esperienza formativa nel mondo della professionalità creativa, una proposta che viaggia all’unisono con le nuove direttive scolastiche. I più talentuosi potranno infatti vincere cinque master estivi di sei giorni in formula all-inclusive presso la prestigiosa scuola di illustrazione Ars In Fabula di Macerata e certificato di frequenza con valore di due crediti formativi.

Il titolo proposto per l’elaborazione della tavola in gara è “REFASHION ART”: guidati dai loro insegnanti di arte o di disegno tecnico e da un’ampia dose di fantasia e creatività, i ragazzi sono invitati a modificare un’opera d’arte (quadro, fotografia, veduta o scorcio) o una struttura architettonica, che amano o che li affascina e che desiderano reinterpretare, cambiare, arricchire, rendere diversa. Potranno quindi ridisegnarla, ridipingerla, ripensarla in chiave personale, rivederla proiettata nel futuro, nel passato o in qualsiasi dimensione stilistica: trasformarla esprimendo il proprio talento.

Tutti gli elaborati caricati dai partecipanti entro il 28 febbraio 2017 sul sito ufficiale http://premiolyramaimeri.fila.it/ all’interno di una delle due categorie di appartenenza – arte o architettura – potranno così essere visionati e votati online dal 15 al 30 marzo 2017 dalla giuria popolare.

I più votati rispettivamente nella sezione arte e architettura si aggiudicheranno i primi due master mentre gli altri tre in palio saranno assegnati direttamente da una giuria di qualità indistintamente dalla categoria di appartenenza.

“ANIMAL’ARTE”

Giving a voice to first level secondary school pupils meanwhile, this year’s PREMIO LYRA has the title “ANIMAL’ARTE”, an invitation to produce an original self-portrait inspired by the animal kingdom, choosing the animal that best represents them or with which they have the greatest affinity in a work through which they can discover something new about themselves.

The prizes, for the most voted top two classes le prime (one by a popular and the other a qualified jury), two trips to an Italian city of culture with a museum visit and, for the best work in each of the three categories of merit (one for each level), three workshops led by an illustrator for the Associazione Autori di Immagini (a partner of the project), a supply of Lyra products and a collection of 20 art books provided by Rizzoli Education for the school library.

WORKSHOP WEBINAR: 5 OCTOBER

And to stimulate participation with ideas, suggestions and information on how to take part in the competitions, FILA and Rizzoli Education invite teachers and their classes across Italy to two exciting workshops on the themes of the competitions via an interactive webinar presented by Mariagrazia Rocchetti, curator of the project and the educational content of the prizes. The date is fixed for Wednesday 5 October:

Animal’arte at 11 am http://bit.ly/2d5cyod; Animal’arte  at 3 pm http://bit.ly/2cylHVD

Refashion Art at 12 midday http://bit.ly/2d5duJs; Refashion Art at 4 pm http://bit.ly/2cW7yBW

Additional ideas, suggestions and details about all FILA competitions for schools are available on the blogzine www.diariocreativo.it

Mondadori Libri is proud to announce the publication – simultaneously around the world – of the autobiography by Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run, on 27 September 2016. It will be preceded by the album Chapter and Verse, released by Columbia Records/Sony Music, on 23 September.

Mondadori Store is celebrating this double bonanza with an unmissable competition, organised in collaboration with Sony Music Italy and Mondadori Libri, with as the prize Fender Telecaster American Standard guitar, tested and signed by Bruce Springsteen. For full details please go to eventi.mondadoristore.it.

Finally, to celebrate along with all Bruce Springsteen fans the arrival of the autobiography, Born to Run, and the album, Chapter and Verse, 5 events are planned in Milan, Rome, Bologna, Padua e Turin, with exceptional guest appearances, shows and lots of music. For full details please go to librimondadori.it.

The autobiography Born to Run

In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl: the experience was so exciting that Bruce decided to put it down on paper. This was how the extraordinary autobiography started, a book that Bruce has spent the past seven years preparing and in which we rediscover the sincerity, the irony and originality that we have come to know through his songs.

He tells us about his childhood in Freehold, New Jersey, a place full of poetry but also of potential risks, destined to feed his imagination, until the moment that Bruce calls the “Big Bang”: Elvis Presley’s debut on the “Ed Sullivan Show”. He describes his unbridled desire to become a musician, his beginnings as the king of the bar bands in Asbury Park and the birth of the E Street Band. With disarming candour, for the first time Bruce Springsteen talks about the inner torments that inspired his greatest songs, beginning from Born to Run, a track that turns out to be even more complex than we imagined.

It is an enlightening read for anyone who loves Bruce Springsteen, but it is much more that the memoir of a legendary rock star: it is a book for practical spirits and incurable dreamers, for parents and children, couples in love and lonely hearts, for artists, hippies and anyone who wants to be baptized in the sacred river of rock. It is rare that an artist tells their story in such an intensely detailed way. As in many of his songs (Thunder Road, Badlands, Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River, Born in the USA, The Rising and The Ghost of Tom Joad, to name just a few), the autobiography of Bruce Springsteen outlines the inspiration of a unique artist and the wisdom of a man who has thought deeply about his own experience.

The album Chapter and Verse

Chapter and Verse, is the album that accompanies the autobiography, released on 23 September by Columbia Records/Sony Music four-days ahead of the publication of Born to Run. The collection, which spans the artist’s entire career, includes six songs that have never been heard before. It is available on CD, double LP, digital download and streaming. The CD and double LP contain the lyrics of the songs and some rare photos.

The songs on in Chapter and Verse, 18 in total, reflect the themes and sections of the book Born to Run. The collection begins with two tracks by the Castiles, with the teenaged Springsteen on vocals and guitar, and closes with the title track from 2012’s “Wrecking Ball”. The track list of the album traces Bruce’s musical history, from its beginnings and tell a story that runs in parallel with the narrative of the book.

The recordings by the Steel Mill and the Bruce Springsteen Band feature musicians who would later enter the ranks of the E Street Band. The solo demos “Henry Boy” and “Growin’ Up” were made in 1972, shortly before Springsteen began recording his debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.


The Mondadori Store competition

Mondadori Store, Italy’s most extensive chain of bookstores, in collaboration with Mondadori Libri and Sony Music Italy, has organised a competition for which the prize is a Fender Telecaster American Standard tested and signed by Bruce Springsteen himself. Fans can take part in the competition by pre-ordering or buying the book along with the CD or LP) exclusively at participating Mondadori Stores or on the web site mondadoristore.it,

All you have to do then is to got to the web site eventi.mondadoristore.it before 20 October 2016 and follow the instructions to participate in the draw. The prize will be presented to the fortunate winner along with a certificate of authenticity.

The guitar, on display from today at the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo, will also travel to the Mondadori Stores in Bologna, Padua and Turin as part of three events dedicated to Bruce Springsteen, and finally it will remain on show at the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo in Milan until the end of the competition.

For full details please go to eventi.mondadoristore.it.

The events

A total of 5 events have been organised to celebrate the publication of the autobiography Born to Run and the release of the album Chapter and Verse, starting with Eataly and two exceptional events. The first, in Milan, on Thursday 29 September at Eataly Smeraldo from 8 pm and the second in Rome, on Sunday 2 October at Eataly Ostiense from 6 pm. Two unique occasions, with special guests. At the heart of th event will be a reading from the autobiography Born to Run by the great Giuseppe Battiston. Taking part in Milan will be the journalist Marina Petrillo and I Rome Gino Castaldo.

But that’s not all, because from 3 to 6 October the Fender Telecaster American Standard signed by Bruce Springsteen will tour the Mondadori Stores in Bologna, Padua and Turin, where it will be on display for a whole day. In each city a special event dedicated to the autobiography Born to Run and the album Chapter and Verse, has been organised and the protagonists of these three events will be the comic actor Antonio Ornano, authors, artists and special fans. For full details. please go to librimondadori.it.

With 143 votes, La scuola cattolica (The Catholic School) by Edward Albinati (Rizzoli) has won the seventieth edition of the Premio Strega.
La scuola cattolica is a monumental work of one thousand-three hundred pages in which Albinati recounts the 1970s, starting from the years spent at a private school in the Trieste district of Rome, also attended by the authors of the notorious “Delitto del Circeo”, a widely covered crime committed in 1975 that shocked the whole country, that serves as a means to explore the world as a whole, focusing on key issues such as Catholic education, the Italian bourgeoisie, the relationship between males and females, the institution of the family, adolescence, sex, violence; money, friendship, revenge. Mixing real people with fictional characters, legendary teachers, priests, thugs, little geniuses and psychopaths, enigmatic young girls and terrorists, Albinati builds a powerful and unstoppable narrative that courageously and openly address the great questions of life and history, as well as showing the other side of things.

Albinati was born in Rome in 1956 where he still lives and teaches literature at the city’s Rebibbia prison, an experience he writes about in his diary Maggio selvaggio (Wild May) published by Mondadori in 1999. Among his most recent books published in Italy is Vita e morte di un ingegnere (The Death and Life of an Engineer) published by Mondadori in 2012 and now available in the Rizzoli Vintage series.

During the meeting between Pope Francis and Scholas Occurrentes, held today in the Synod Hall in Rome, a new Mondadori publishing project was presented developed in collaboration with Scholas Occurrentes and the start up eFanswer: Chiedete. Le mie risposte alle vostre domande, a book that will be published later in the year, both in Italy and abroad.

Chiedete. Le mie risposte alle vostre domande is not just a book but an international “social event”, in which Pope Francis invites young people from around the world to ask him questions on the site www.askpopefrancis.scholasoccurrentes.org, developed together with the start-up eFanswer and available in five languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. You can ask anything, there are no predefined arguments or issues, the important thing is that what you want to know comes from the heart. The questions will be collected and selected by Mondadori and Scholas Occurrentes on the basis of two main criteria: variety and originality, in order to allow Pope Francis to share his thoughts on topics never so far addressed. The Holy Father’s answers will be published in a book to be released in the coming months and for which the rights will be sold worldwide. Edited by Tiziana Lupi, a journalist, who wrote Our Pope, an illustrated biography of Pope Francis published by Mondadori in 2014, and edited My Idea of ​​Art, a book published last year, also by Mondadori, in which, for the first time, Pope Francis expressed his thoughts on art.

Chiedete. Le mie risposte alle vostre domande is an authentic social book, which uses new forms of communication to put the Holy Father in contact with people from every corner of the planet. A sort of collective book interview, a new concept, a great virtual dialogue between Pope Francis and young people from around the world, of any social class and religion who, thanks to the internet, can ask their questions just as if they had him in front of them.

During the meeting Pope Francis underlined how important it is to learn to enter into a dialogue, because in a dialogue everybody wins and nobody loses; because dialogue means building bridges. Tiziana Lupi, who presented the project, focused on just this concept to describe it: “With this book, together with Scholas Occurrentes and Mondadori, we have tried to open a door to this dialogue. Unfiltered, so that young people can ask their questions directly on the web platform. The aim is to be open to listening and dialogue, two key tools, as Pope Francis himself claims, for the creation of a different world.” The first two questions were asked by two of the 12 YouTubers present at the meeting. The answers, which the Holy Father gave immediately, will be the first to be included in the book.

This project has been developed in collaboration with Scholas Occurrentes, an international organisation of pontifical law created by Pope Francis and concerned with young people and education with the aim of promoting social integration and a culture of encounters for peace, and thanks to a technological and publishing platform developed by the start-up eFanswer.

Mondadori announces that the new name of RCS Libri S.p.A. is Rizzoli Libri S.p.A.. Today, the company entered the consolidation scope of the Group chaired by Marina Berlusconi and led by Ernesto Mauri, after the closing was completed today.

The members of the new Board of Directors of the company, active on the Italian trade and educational books market, and on the illustrated books market also on an international level, are: Gian Arturo Ferrari (Chairman), Paolo Mieli, Antonio Porro, Oddone Pozzi and Enrico Selva Coddè.

Specifically, Enrico Selva Coddè, Managing Director of the Trade area of Mondadori Libri S.p.A., will head the Trade area of Rizzoli Libri S.p.A., while Antonio Porro, Managing Director of the Educational area of Mondadori Libri S.p.A., will head the Educational books and International Illustrated books area of the company.

¹ Change subject to filing with the relevant company registry

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. announces to have completed today – following the go-ahead from the relevant Authorities – the acquisition of RCS Libri through its subsidiary Mondadori Libri S.p.A.

The acquisition marks a major step in Mondadori Group’s successful strategy to focus on core businesses, strengthening its competitive position on the Italian trade and education books market, and on the international illustrated books market.

The acquisition of RCS Libri was finalized today in accordance with the agreement signed and disclosed to the market on 4 October 2015.

The scope of the transaction includes the entire equity interest (99.99%) held by RCS MediaGroup S.p.A. in RCS Libri S.p.A., including the underlying subsidiaries, and the exclusive ownership of all the trademarks in the books segment, including Rizzoli.

The price of the transaction, which incorporates certain contractual adjustments, is 127.1 million euro, settled in cash today by a dedicated credit line made available to the Group.

The net financial position of the scope at 31 March 2016 shows a positive figure (cash) of approximately 29 million euro, reduced in April following the cash out of approximately 9 million euro for the purchase of a 43.71% interest in Marsilio Editori S.p.A. (increasing the total investment to 94.71%), while at closing, it shows an estimated positive net financial position of approximately 16 million euro.

Under specific contractual clauses, the price may be subject to adjustments of up to +/- 5 million euro, if certain financial targets are met in 2015, as resulting in the 2015 financial statements of RCS Libri S.p.A., which will be determined and disclosed in the coming weeks, in accordance with the contractual agreements.

The transaction includes an earn-out of up to 2.5 million euro to RCS MediaGroup S.p.A., upon the occurrence of certain results in 2017 Mondadori Group’s books segment.

This scope, which will be consolidated as from 1 April 2016, achieved in 2015 the following pro-forma figures: revenue of 225 million euro and EBITDA before non-recurring costs of 13.6 million euro.

Under the authorization of the Antitrust Authority, as part of the remedies set out therein, Mondadori will dispose of Marsilio Editori S.p.A. and of the business unit of the Bompiani publisher.