Hugo Pratt and Corto Maltese

Palazzo Pepoli , from 04/11/2016 to 19/03/2017

50 anni di viaggio nel mito.

On the fiftieth anniversary of Corto Maltese, Genus Bononiae hosts from 4 November 2016 to 19 March 2017, at Palazzo Pepoli. Museum of the History of Bologna, the great exhibition “Hugo Pratt and Corto Maltese. 50 anni di viaggio nel mito.”

In collaboration with CMS.Cultura, with the curatorship of Patrizia Zanotti and with the support of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna, the exhibition will show over 400 works celebrating Hugo Pratt and his alter ego Corto Maltese: a real literary myth of the Twentieth century, an anti-hero, a modern Ulysses able to make us travel in the most fascinating places and let us rediscover some of the major episodes and protagonists of the history of the Twentieth century. Corto was born in La Valletta, Malta, in 1887, of a British sailor and an Andalusian gypsy; he was one metre eighty-three centimetres tall, with eyes of the colour of honey and a ring in his left ear, romantic sailor and extemporary gentleman that caught the imagination of generations of readers.

As a show within the show, in a dedicated room of the museum, the 164 original drawings of the Ballad of the Salt Sea, the classic of the designed literary where Corto appears for the first time, are exhibited together for the third time since they were created in 1967.

Hugo Pratt, connoisseur of men and peoples, world traveller, actor, guitarist, but above all designer of an imaginary literature without borders, has given us some of the most beautiful pages of plots between fiction and history of the ‘900 in a never predictable romantic adventurer vision. Born on a beach in Rimini in 1927, wandered globetrotter but entirely Venetian, he has managed to combine and return to the reader-dreamer the importance of the sea, the game of mirrors, the theme of imagination and reality, the typical atmospheres of picaresque literature, dangerous women, abstract art and photographic realism.
The exhibition will not show only Corto Maltese but also Anna the Jungle (1959), Ernie Pike (1961), The Justice of the Wathee of Sg.t Kirk (1955), and the amazing tables and watercolours of the Scorpions of the Desert leading the visitor–traveller in the 1941-1942 Ethiopia, where references to historical figures overlap with imaginary characters. The exhibition guides visitors in the several literary references animating the stories of Pratt: from Jack London and the American adventure literature to Joseph Conrad, from the poetry of W. Yeats and A. Rimbaud to the poetry of J.L. Borges, in a close dialogue with the marks left by the American comic artists such as Milton Caniff and Hector Oesterheld.

#mostrapratt #genusbononiae

Opening Hours

Monday: chiuso

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Saturday: 10. a.m. - 8 p.m.

Sunday: 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Building

Palazzo Pepoli

via Castiglione 8, Bologna

Admission tickets

Open ticket 13,00

visit the exhibition when you want without fixing a date or exact time. The ticket can be used as a gift.

Full price 11,00

Reduced price 9,00

– military personnel and members of the police forces
– handicapped people
– accredited journalists
– holders of Bologna Welcome Card
– holders of Metropolitan Museums Card
(€ 5.50)
– holders of a City Red Bus ticket
– holders of an IKEA Family Card
– members of TPER, FAI, Alitalia, Coop and Touring Club
– those taking part in guided tours.

Reduced price for groups 9,00

booking required, min 15, max 25 pax.

Special Reduced price 8,00

– 6-18 year olds not in school groups
– university students presenting their cards (on Tuesdays)
– holders of tickets for the Palazzo Fava exhibition “Bologna dopo Morandi. 1945-2015”
– members of the public who attend the special Thursday openings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
– tickets to other Genus Bononiae venues (Santa Maria della Vita, San Colombano and Palazzo Fava).

Reduced price - schools 5,00

booking required, max 30 pax

Free tickets

– Children up to 5 years old (inclusive) not in school groups
– group leaders (1 for each group)
– teachers accompanying pupils/students (2 for each group)
– ICOM members presenting their membership cards
– one helper per handicapped person
– holders of a Genus Bononiae Membership Card
– accredited tourist guides
– accredited journalists on duty, subject to application for accreditation.

Family ticket 23,00

(1 adult + 2 children)

Family ticket 2 30,00

(2 adults + 2 children)

Booking fee and presale

Groups and individuals € 1,50 per person;
School groups € 1.00 per student.

Buy the tickets here…

Educational Services

  • Corto’s suitcase

    A tour during which a professional actor plays the part of the famous adventurer to lead the class through the exhibition. Our sailor will not be alone, he will have the suitcase he took with him on his travels all over the world. At each stage all sorts of treasures and secrets will emerge from it, strange objects from far away islands used to explore the exhibition with him and listen to his stories and legends!

    • Suitable for

      Infant and primary schools

    • Length

      approx. 1hr 30 min.

    • Cost

      € 90,00

    Notes from a journey

    After visiting the exhibition and exploring together the thousand seas and horizons navigated by Corto Maltese, the tour includes activities in a workshop where students can give vent to their creativeness through the use of specially designed educational material, and write their own notes from a journey, using their imaginations, just as Hugo Pratt did.

    • Suitable for

      Primary schools, lower secondary schools

    • Length

      approx. 2hrs

    • Cost

      € 90,00

    Letters from the South Seas

    After visiting the exhibition the students will be taken to a workshop where they can write their own letters, aided by suggestions and special reading materials. Images from the Corto Maltese books are at their disposal to help them decide their favourite country or island from which to write their letters, on parchment and sealed with wax, just like pirates’ secrets.

    • Suitable for

      Primary schools, lower secondary schools

    • Length

      Duration: approx. 2hrs

    • Cost

      € 90,00

    Pirates and sailors

    After visiting the exhibition the students will be taken to a workshop where one of Hugo Pratt’s favourite themes will be explored: the fabulous coats of arms and flags that are a feature of the uniforms and vessels in his works. The students can each draw their own pirate flag or design a personal military badge. At the end they can be applied to a special backing: will they be pirates or sailors…?

    • Suitable for

      Primary schools, lower and higher secondary schools

    • Length

      approx. 2hrs

    • Cost

      € 90,00

    Tête à tête with Corto

    After visiting the exhibition the students will go on to the workshop where they can create their own personal comic strip. Landscapes from the Corto Maltese graphic novels will be a starting point for inventing the plot and screen play. The last page will illustrate the end of the adventure, closing the curtain on the figure of Corto Maltese.

    • Suitable for

      Lower and upper secondary schools

    • Length

      approx. 2hrs

    • Cost

      € 90,00

    In the pirates’ trunk

    A guided tour of the exhibition conducted by an actor with a pirates’ trunk containing objects connected with the characters in the story: Corto Maltese’s sailor’s cap, the monk’s tunic and Rasputin’s unkempt beard and scar. These will be used to invite the students to take on the roles of these mysterious individuals, revealing meanings and enigmas.

    • Suitable for

      Infant school

    • Length

      approx. 1hr 30 min

    • Cost

      € 90,00

    In the footsteps of …

    A tour of the exhibition to find out about the characters in A Ballad of the Salt Sea. The guide will help the children to discover Corto’s bizarre travelling companions. In the workshop each pupil will choose an old, ruined passport containing certain information typical of such documents. The aim is to guess and draw the face of the character in question, using the suggestions given on the passport.

    • Suitable for

      Primary school

    • Length

      approx. 1hr 30 min

    • Cost

      € 90,00

    Postcards from the border

    A tour of the exhibition designed to look closely at Hugo Pratt’s art, especially the settings for his fantastic stories. The guide will take the schoolchildren along a route leading to territories like the former African colonies, Venice and South America. In the workshop each pupil will be given a blank postcard without a picture. The operator will explain how to paint watercolours, an art form much loved by Hugo Pratt. The pupils can then create a landscape on their personal postcards using water colours and taking inspiration from the places visited by Corto Maltese.

    • Suitable for

      Primary schools and lower secondary schools

    • Length

      approx. 2hrs

    • Cost

      € 90,00

    The art of making balloons

    A guided tour of the exhibition designed to look closely at Hugo Pratt’s art, paying special attention to his role as a comic strip artist, and more generally on the art of the comic strip. The guide will tell the pupils/students the stories that inspired Hugo Pratt, and then take them to the workshop: here each pupil will be given a sheet of paper on which the first panel has been drawn in the style of Hugo Pratt’s plates, whereas all the others, including the speech balloons, will be blank: each pupil will create their own story, just like a real cartoonist.

    • Suitable for

      Lower and higher secondary schools

    • Length

      approx. 2hrs

    • Cost

      € 90,00

Special opening times

Thursday 17 November 10 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Thursday 8 December 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Thursday 15 December 10 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Saturday 24 December 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Sunday 25 December 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Monday 26 December 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Saturday 31 December 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Sunday 1 January 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Monday 2 January 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Friday 6 January 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Thursday 19 January 10 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Thursday 26 January 10 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Thursday 16 February 10 a.m. – 10 p.m.