Fantastic worlds are the theme of BilBOlbul 2018. Building fantastic worlds leads to imaginary realms, combinations of reality and fantasy, extreme visions. Or, as it is the case with Francesco Cattani, it leads to tension. Tension between reality and imagination, between here and elsewhere.
Cattani has a unique perspective on the present world, which he draws with a style that, although influenced by traditional comics, always manages to stay contemporary.

Francesco Cattani’s first solo exhibition is an attempt to unravel the artistic path of one of the most relevant young authors of contemporary Italian comics. Cattani’s works occupy the space of Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna – which also hosts Mat Brinkman’s exhibition – in the form of panel sequences, meant to be read as if the walls were comic book pages, and sketches – little glimpses on the organized chaos from which Cattani’s stories emerge. Besides revealing the artist’s creative process and the evolution of his drawing style through time, the exhibition will explore the main themes returning in all of Cattani’s graphic novels: love and conflict, sex and violence, work and everyday life, reality and dreams.

with Francesco Cattani, Paolo Martinello, Riccardo Pasqual
moderator Daniele Barbieri

in collaboration with Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna, Canicola

with Francesco Cattani
moderator Alessio Trabacchini
in collaboration with Erasmus Mundus in Culture Letterarie Europee

Francesco Cattani was born in Bologna in 1980. He began his career in 2004 with his comic Inizio, published in the magazine “RES-ISTANZE” in which he tells the story of the hardships faced by a group of partigiani dispersed throughout the mountains of Modena in December of ’43.
He is one of the founders of the self-publishing collective ernest, with whom he published sixteen pages of Barcazza in 2007, which then won the Micheluzzi prize for Best short story in 2008. Expanded and revised, the graphic novel  – winner of Napoli Comicon Nuove Strade prize – was published in 2010 by Canicola, and again in a new, colored edition in 2018, during BilBOlbul.
His comics and illustrations have appeared on several magazine, such as Internazionale, Lo straniero, Canicola, Hamelin, Animals, Rolling Stone, XL, and comics anthologies.
After some time off the scenes, he made a comeback in 2017 with Luna del mattino (Coconino Press – Fandango), which was immediately recognized as one of the best graphic novels of the year and won some of the most important Italian comics awards ( Romics Grand jury prize, Best Italian graphic novel at Napoli Comicon) and was translated into French.
Recently, he started working at Mercurio Loi, a popular series published by Sergio Bonelli Editore.