The book refers to the exhibition resulting from the project, curated by Rudi Fuchs and Cristina Mundici, for a major urban art intervention on the new boulevard created by the covering of Turin’s Passante Ferroviario (a new tunnel where previously the railway ran on the surface). The project brings together eleven of the best-known and internationally recognised Italian and foreign artists, who have been asked to interpret the theme of public commissions, offering not only the imprint of their own creativity but also a different configuration of the urban intervention: from fountain to door, from monument to practicable sculpture. The exhibition, held at the GAM in Turin from 19 March to 25 April 1998, is documented in this volume with images of the installation and the projects conceived by the artists.

Child Gino Enn introduces one by one his classmates, which he describes by taking cue from their physical faults and behavioral habits that characterize them and that, highlighted by an entertaining perspective inversion, determine their role as monstrum: Cucco Fulvo, for example, has ears that resemble speakers and a pulsing nose that make him look like a television; Foffo Frino blows up like a balloon every time he breathes and soars up in the sky, while Ciaba Brina cries fruit candy and the Fritti Fratti twins transform into bicycles. 

The little monsters’ classroom that Piero Gilardi paints and Sebastiano Ruiz Mignone narrates is the metaphor of an ideal world where the lack of prejudices and the tolerance towards each other allow to take on a positive turn on anyone’s faults and habits, and get to know each other in a moment of authentical magic. 

Piero Gilardi (Turin, 1942). Artist who has, since the Sixties, been centered around the difference between the terms Nature - to which “reconstruction” he applies since the first Tappeti natura in polyurethane - and Culture, particularly the technologic culture to which the artist has vastly contributed with the creation and activities of Parisian association Ars Technica. In La classe dei mostriciattoli, Gilardi takes from his own academic background and his experience in the social field. 

Sebastiano Ruiz Mignone (Santo Stefano Belbo, Cuneo, 1947). Theatrical and cinematographic set designer, he has written for television and radio; he was a finalist for the Città di Verbania prize - Il Battello a Vapore in 1994 for his novel Guidone Mangiaterra e gli sporcaccioni.

Catalogue of the artist’s solo exhibition at the Pecci Museum in Prato, curated by Bruno Corà, from 31 October 1997 to 25 January 1998, the volume – which comprehensively documents Salvadori’s artistic career from the 1970s to the 1998 – opens with an essay by Bruno Corà and is followed by critical contributions by Bettina della Casa, Giuseppe Leonelli, Giorgio Maragliano, Pierluigi Tazzi and Tommaso Trini, among others, a poem by Barouh Benvensite and completed by the biographical and bibliographical apparatus edited by Sally Benjamin Salvadori.

This catalogue and book was published on the occasion of Giuseppe Penone’s travelling solo exhibition, organised in three venues (Nîmes, 6 June - 7 September 1997, Tilburg, 11 October 1997 - 8 February 1998, Trento, 6 March - 3 May 1998) by the Carré d'Art - Musée d'Art Contemporain de Nîmes, the De Pont Foundation for Contemporary Art of Tilburg and the Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea of Trento. It includes a large number of reproductions of works conceived throughout the career of the artist from Tilburg, as well as texts by the artist and critical contributions by Guy Tosatto, curator of the exhibition, and Georges Didi-Huberman.

This catalogue and book was published on the occasion of Giuseppe Penone’s travelling solo exhibition, organised in three venues (Nîmes, 6 June - 7 September 1997, Tilburg, 11 October 1997 - 8 February 1998, Trento, 6 March - 3 May 1998) by the Carré d'Art - Musée d'Art Contemporain de Nîmes, the De Pont Foundation for Contemporary Art of Tilburg and the Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea of Trento. It includes a large number of reproductions of works conceived throughout the career of the artist from Tilburg, as well as texts by the artist and critical contributions by Guy Tosatto, curator of the exhibition, and Georges Didi-Huberman.

Little Marco embarks on a real “journey of wonders” on Christmas night when, in defiance of the most obvious prohibition, he ventures alone into the snowy countryside, where a storm of shapes and colours will take him through a series of bizarre, tender or frightening encounters. Immortalised by the artist Julian Schnabel in enigmatic portraits and hazy visions, the Snow characters range from the Idiot, who hates to think but loves to play cards, to the Platypus, which no one ever sees but which leaves plenty of traces, and the Snowman, whose Polaroid “holy card” in Marco’s pocket protects him in his wanderings until he reappears at sunrise in the armoured guise of a medieval warrior.

Dario Voltolini skilfully alternates between narrative and figurative registers, punctuated by Schnabel’s otherwise hermetic images. The writer combines these with a fantastic dictionary of objects, music, environments, concepts and emotions that draw bibliophiles and beginners alike into the dreamlike adventure of reading.

Julian Schnabel, born in New York in 1951, completed his studies there, where he attended the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program from 1973. In 1976 he made his first trip to Europe, where he became fascinated by the masterpieces of Giotto, Duccio da Boninsegna and Caravaggio. On a second European trip, the use of majolica in Antoni Gaudí’s Barcelona architecture fascinated him so much that he decided to cover the entire surface of his canvases with a collage of broken plates. In his word he has not, however, neglected more traditional techniques, such as painting on canvas or board, although he is strongly characterised by the use of unusual materials as supports, such as velvet, theatre backdrops, waxed tarpaulins. His figurative repertoire is equally vast, ranging from large texts to portraits in an expressionist key, from the elaboration of religious symbols pertaining to different cultures to the literal quotation of famous paintings.

Dario Voltolini, born in 1959 in Turin where he graduated in Philosophy of Language, is known to the general public for Una intuizione metropolitana, (Bollati Boringhieri), Rincorse (Einaudi) and for his recent book published by Feltrinelli, Forme d’onda. He has written two radio plays for Radio3 and Radio2, the texts by Mosorrofa o dell’ottimismo, Città, Macchinario, Capelas Iperfeitas for the musician Nicola Campogrande and regularly holds creative writing courses at the Scuola Holden in Turin. Here he makes his confident debut in children’s literature, guiding them through the mysterious jungle of Julian Schnabel’s works.