The sixth RUFA annual report presents the two-year period 2020-2021 as a single temporal unit, the time of COVID-19, the narrative of a year made up of 24 months and 320 pages, the most voluminous academic report to date. The graphic, photographic and illustrative choices respond to the horror vacui generated by the pandemic and recall the artifices, physical or digital filters, that society has chosen to adopt as tools to stem the contagion. The variety and saturation of the chromatic tones serves as a sort of artistic compensation: having lost the warmth (human, relational, vital), we return it and compensate it in the form of color.
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The illustration project introducing each course of study, on the other hand, pays tribute to the great international personalities who passed away over these two years, leaving a great legacy through their work to the students and creatives of today.
The idea behind the illustrated project was to reconstruct paratactic images through the collage technique, which aggregated events, works, curiosities related to the author of the tribute.
CECILIA MANGINI
☆ Mola di Bari, 31 July 1927 ★ Rome, 21 January 2021
She is considered the first female documentary filmmaker in Italy. She debuted with photography and later collaborated on short films with Pasolini. Together with her husband Lino Del Fra, she shot numerous documentaries that recounted the changing face of Italy in the 1960s and 1970s, investigating the rituals and customs of Southern Italy.
LETIZIA BATTAGLIA
☆ Palermo, 5 March 1935 ★ Palermo, 13 April 2022
Italian photographer, photojournalist and politician. Her photos, often in vivid, sharp black and white, aim to recount above all Palermo in its misery and splendour, its mafia deaths but also its traditions, the looks of children and women, neighbourhoods, streets, festivals and mourning, daily life and the faces of power in a city of a thousand contradictions.
GINO STRADA
☆ Sesto San Giovanni, 21 April 1948 ★ Rouen, 13 August 2021
Italian war doctor, activist, philanthropist and writer, founder in 1994, together with his wife Teresa Sarti, of the Italian NGO Emergency, an international humanitarian association whose aim is to provide free assistance to war victims and to promote a culture of peace, solidarity and respect for human rights.
ENZO MARI
☆ Novara, 27 April 1932 ★ Milan, 19 October 2020 Designer, among the most innovative of the 20th century. A personality with a strong political commitment, he has always conceived design as an activity that can transform society. Promoter of a kind of ‘democratic utopia’ that aims to design and produce beautiful and useful objects for ordinary people.
MILTON GLASER
☆ New York, 26 June 1929 ★ New York, 26 June 2020
American graphic designer, illustrator and lecturer. One of the leading contemporary graphic designers, known for the famous ‘I Love New York’ logo (1976), and the Bob Dylan poster (1966 ). Glaser’s work is characterised by immediacy, originality and an apparent simplicity: every medium and style is used to finalise his graphic works ranging from posters to logotypes, from book straps to music album covers, from various advertisements to magazine illustrations.
OSVALDO CAVANDOLI
☆ Toscolano Maderno, 1 January 1920 ★ Milan, 3 March 2007
Italian animator, director and cartoonist, famous for having created numerous cartoons and animations, in particular for the character of La Linea, broadcast from 1969 on ‘Carosello’, the RAI advertising container. Massimo Lagostina, owner of the saucepan factory of the same name, chose as the protagonist of his advertising campaign the original character who was born and lives in a single white line, who would become the star of La Linea.
ROBERT MASSIN
☆ La Bourdinière-Saint-Loup, 13 October 1925 ★ Parigi, 8 February 2020
Leading figure in 20th century typography and graphic design, particularly publishing. Known mainly for his use of expressive typography and a transversal approach to the visual arts, he succeeded in realising an interaction between various artistic disciplines (music, theatre, image, literature) in his works. Massin is an interpreter: his works are in fact variations and typographical translations of works by other artists such as ‘The Bald Soprano’ and ‘Délire à deux’ by Eugène Ionesco.
GILBERT GARCIN
☆ 21 June 1929 ★ 17 April 2020
☆ 21 June 1929 ★ 17 April 2020
He only began to discover photography after retiring at the age of 65, and after running a chandelier import company for many years. He quickly became an internationally renowned photographer thanks to a visionary and distinctive style that characterizes his work. Garcin uses the photomontage technique and analogue assemblage to create paradoxical images full of surrealism and irony, focusing on human themes: time, loneliness and existence, capable of conveying intense emotional evocations.
TUONO PETTINATO
☆ Pisa, 27 September 1976 ★ Pisa, 14 June 2021
Pseudonym of Andrea Paggiaro, he was an Italian cartoonist and illustrator. Tuono Pettinato features in his stories a very varied gallery of characters ranging from Gabibbo to the Pope, from Adolf Hitler to Pino Daniele, casting them in absolutely paradoxical and unusual contexts. It is quite evident how a sarcastic and fantastical-surreal vein characterises most of his works, with his deliberately jaunty and childlike traits.
EMANUELE LUZZATI
☆ Genova, 3 June 1921 ★ Genova, 26 January 2007
A multifaceted personality, set designer, animator and illustrator, he was a master in every field of applied art. He was nominated for an Oscar for the animated films ‘La gazza ladra’ (1964) and ‘Pulcinella’ (1973), Luzzati is the interpreter of a cultured figurative culture, capable of skilfully using all sorts of materials to build sketches for sets, costumes and stage settings. The richness of his fantastic world, the immediacy and expressiveness of his style, have made him one of the most loved and admired artists of our time.
CREDITS Editorial project Guido Lombardo, Nicolas Martino, Cristiana Pagnottelli / Content supervisor Fabio Mongelli / Design Intorno Design, Guido Lombardo (creative direction), Roberta De Cristofaro (art direction and layout), Fabrizio Crollari (erasmus map, staff pages) / Producer Cristiana Pagnottelli / Illustrations “Homage to” Francesco Fidani / Portrait Photo Stefano Compagnucci, Maria Vittoria Pecchioli / Postproduction Christian Rizzo / Text Editor Nicolas Martino / Contents translator Claudia Vitali / Visual Content Editors Lisa Romanato, Luca Santarelli, Francesco Paolo Incantalupo, Martina Marabitti / Contributors Daniele Bonomo, Emanuele Cappelli, Maria Chiara Castelli, Pietro Ciccotti, Emiliano Coletta, Michele Fontana Sabatini, Luciano Hassan, Gianluca Losi, Nicolas Martino, Alessandro Mongelli, Alfio Mongelli, Fabio Mongelli, Michele Palazzi, Melany Parasole, Carlo Privitera, Mario Rullo, Caterina Tomeo, Andres Rafael Zabala / Photo contributors Claudia Rolando, Marta Ferro, Micheal Trutta, Stefano Scala, Tommaso Schirru / Thanks to All RUFA offices / Typeface GT Maru (Thierry Blancpain, 2021, Grilli Type foundry) / Printed on Favini papers (Burano giallo zolfo 250 g/m2, Burano giallo zolfo 140 g/m2, Dolce Vita White 145 g/m2, Burano pink 140 g/m2) / Printing Tiburtini srl / Shooting book Eleonora Cerri Pecorella / The RUFA Annual Report 2020&2021 was realised thanks to the valuable contribution of Favini papers division and Tiburtini Srl, who respectively provided the paper and printed the publication.