Bologna Children’s Book Fair
The Bologna Book Fair is the most important meeting place for creators and publishers of children’s books as well as other specialists in the field. It’s where the main trends and diversity in contemporary publishing get revealed and where the best children’s publishers exhibit their books. More than 600 journalists report from the fair, which brings together over 1 200 publishers from over 70 countries.
About the 2015 Bologna Children’s Book Fair
The 53rd Bologna International Children’s Book Fair took place between 30 March and 2 April. Lithuania also exhibited at the fair – it has taken part in the fair since 1989, and four years ago it earned the privilege of being the guest of honour.
Guest of honour privileges at this year’s fair went to Croatia.
One the main aspects of this country’s presentation was a focus on the uniqueness of childhood experiences and how these vary according to different cultural and historical circumstances.
Croatians sought to evoke the mythological figure of moving water, which is calming and which can regenerate vision, and which in certain cases is rejuvinating.
The Bologna Book Fair is the most important meeting place for creators and publishers of children’s books as well as other specialists in the field. It’s where the main trends and diversity in contemporary publishing get revealed and where the best children’s publishers exhibit their books. More than 600 journalists report from the fair, which brings together over 1 200 publishers from over 70 countries.
About the 2014 Bologna Children’s Book Fair
The 51st International Bologna Children’s Book Fair will take place on 24-27 March, where the International Cultural Programme Centre (now Books from Lithuania) will introduce the best Lithuanian children’s book authors and illustrators to members of the children’s book publishing sector and creative industries related to it.
Two publishers, Alma littera and Baltos lankos, will take part in the fair and display their books. Joining them at the fair will be Lithuanian illustrators Rimantas Rolia, Karolis Strautniekas, and Sigutė Chlebinskaitė
Also, Povilas Blaževičius, the creator of Žaislų muziejus (Toy Museum) has been nominated for the Children in Museums Award and will attend the award ceremony as well as a seminar at the fair.
“The Bologna Book Fair is the most important meeting place for creators and publishers of children’s books, as well as other specialists. It’s where the main trends and diversity in contemporary publishing are revealed and where the best children’s publishers exhibit their books.
This is why it’s very important to give Lithuanian illustrators and publishers the opportunity to meet with potential partners and gain experience and inspiration.
We are very pleased that Lithuania’s stand, which is original and unique every year, as well as the creators we present always attract attention,” said project coordinator Rūta Nanartavičiūtė.
Book fair participant Rimantas Roila has been selected for the second time to take part in the annual Illustrators Exhibition contest and exhibition, which spotlights the latest trends in contemporary book illustration.
This year, 75 participants from 78 countries have been selected for the contest from a list of more than 3 000 applicants.
The Italian illustrator and blogger Anna Castagnoli, who is also a member of the contest’s jury has said, “The exceptional work of Rimantas Raila has something about it that is both modern and tender.
I imagine that his work is very much enjoyed by small children . . . . If I could remember the way I saw the world as an infant, it would seem that this was how I saw it . . .”.
Works created for the exhibition are included in a special catalogue that is used by many publishers, and following the book fair the exhibition will travel to Japan.
Works by the young and promising illustrator Karolis Strautniekas are frequently published and shared by prestigious creative portals such as www.itsnicethat.com, www.fubiz.net, www.designtaxi.com, among others.
He has also received commissions from and been published by Britain’s daily the Independent newspaper, French magazine Usbek & Rica, and other foreign publications, such as www.creativereview.co.uk and others.
Sigutė Chlebinskaitė will present her “Make your own book” children’s creative studio, now in its thirteenth year, which is a popular workshop for kids who visit Book Island at the annual Vilnius Book Fair
Visitors to this creative studio have the opportunity to get introduced to the books and creators of foreign publishers, which Sigutė Chlebinskaitė “scouts out” at the Bologna Book Fair.
An excellent example of collaboration was the presentation at the Vilnius Book Fair of the publisher Tara Books, which has won numerous awards at the Bologna Book Fair including best Asian publisher last year.
This year, a Lithuanian representative, Žaislų muziejus (Toy Museum), located in the capital Vilnius, was nominated for the Children in Museums Award, which is given to the best practice of an exhibition with the most innovative approach for children under 14 years old.
The creator of Žaislų muziejus, Povilas Blaževičius, will take part in the awards ceremony as well as in a seminar held at the fair that will concentrate on the challenges of technology and interactivity in books and museums for children, and which is organized by Hands On! The International Association of Children in Museums and the European Museum Academy.
The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is the most important international event where publishers, presses, authors and illustrators and books, literary agents, translators, retailers, and the TV and film production community can be acquainted with the works of illustrators and publishers.
More than 600 journalists will share their reports about this year’s fair, which has invited 1 200 publishers from more than 70 countries.
The Bologna International Children’s Book Fair has been held since 1964. Lithuania has been attending since 1989. Every year, one country is chosen to be the guest of honour – this privilege was extended to Lithuania in 2011.
The fair’s organizers extend to the guest of honour the possibility to present its best children’s book illustrators and to realize a broad programme of literary readings, discussion, and meetings with creators. This year, the privilege belongs to Brazil.
About the 2013 Bologna Children’s Book Fair
From March 25 to 28th, Lithuania will participate in the 50th jubilee of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (Italy).
The Lithuanian national stand, organized by the International Cultural Programme Centre (now Books from Lithuania), will welcome the following book illustrators: Kęstutis Kasparavičius, Sigutė Chlebinskaitė, and Ieva Babilaitė.
Visitors to the fair will be introduced to the most captivating recently released Lithuanian print and interactive children’s books as well as a special exhibition of books by Kęstutis Kasparavičius dedicated to the fair’s jubilee.
Also, the “Make Your Own Book” creative studio for children will be presented at the fair. It has been held annually at the Vilnius Book Fair for the past twelve years as part of the Book Island event.
The studio allows children to interact with the stories in books as well as with their writers and illustrators.
Activities will be presented by the studio’s creator, Sigutė Chlebinskaitė.
At Lithuania’s stand, children’s publishing specialists will have the opportunity to become acquainted with a collection of the finest Lithuanian children’s books by established as well as promising illustrators
from the following publishers: Dominicus Lituanus, Alma littera, Žara, Tyto alba, Versus Aureus, Baltos lankos, Aukso žuvys, Vario burnos, Kauko laiptai, Bernardinai.lt, Bokartas, and Petro ofsetas.
The collection will include three award-winning works by designers who took part in the Vilnius 2012 design contest – Tomas Butkus’s Bumba Dumba ir Visatos sukūrimas (Bumba Dumba and the Creation of the Universe), Rimantas Raila’s Žiemos išdaigos (Winter Follies), and Lina Žutautė’s Ferdinandas ir Pū (Ferdinand and Pu) – as well as the winner of the first prize, Ieva Babilaitė’s Vaizdai iš gyvenimo bobulytės ir kt. (Scenes from the Life of Baba and Other Tales).
The Bologna Book Fair is the most important meeting place for creators and publishers of children’s books as well as other specialists in the field.
Publishers, printers, authors and illustrators, literary agents, translators, retailers, and TV and film producers meet annually at this four-day fair.
About the 2012 Bologna Children’s Book Fair
Lithuania returns to this mecca of book authors and illustrators one year after its stint as the Bologna Book Fair’s special Guest of Honour.
Last year, there were three exhibitions of Lithuanian illustrations. On 19-22 March, the International Cultural Programme Centre (now Books from Lithuania) will acquaint visitors with the finest recent children’s books as well as five new interactive electronic books for children.
Several up and coming and established Lithuanian illustrators will accompany their new digital books to the fair – Kęstutis Kasparavičius, Lina Dūdaitė, Rasa Joni, and Lina Žutautė.
At Lithuania’s stand, children’s book specialists will be able to evaluate a collection of titles consisting of 18 of the finest illustrated books published in the past five years.
Visitors will encounter well-known artists whose works appear in the collection – Stasys Eidrigevičius, Kęstutis Kasparavičius, and Rimvydas Kepežinskas – as well as illustrators of the younger generation – Sigute Chlebinskaite, Lina Dūdaite, Rasa Joni, and other significant contemporary illustrators.
The Bologna Book Fair is the most important international event in children’s book publishing and its related creative sectors.
Publishers, printers, authors and illustrators of books, literary agents, translators, retailers, and TV and film producers meet annually at this four-day fair.
At the 48th Bologna Book Fair in 2011, Lithuania organized a wide-ranging exhibition of its children’s book illustrations as well as a rich cultural programme.
The main exhibition of works by Lithuanian illustrators, Illustratium, which included 32 of the most significant children‘s book creators of the past decade, generated great interest and drew many visitors.
Visitors to the book fair were drawn to the original and playful exhibition of illustrations, which invited them to open the doors of the Illustratium installation and uncover the illustrations themselves.
This year, Lithuanian visitors had the opportunity to view Illustratium at the 13th International Vilnius Book Fair.
About the 2011 Bologna Children’s Book Fair
Lithuania, the Guest of Honour at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, will reveal the mystery of the illustrations produced by a remarkably rich yet undiscovered country.
Like amber that has withstood the test of time on the Baltic coast, lying at the crossroads of paths leading North and East – the major crossroads of European history – Lithuania has preserved its ancient, rich Indo-European culture and language, its strength as a welcoming nation, and its inspiring dynamism as it pursues its imagined future.
These features of their native country Lithuania are merged subliminally in the individual works of the Lithuanian illustrators, who invite viewers to look at the world through their eyes.
Lithuania has participated at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair since 1989, the “pre-dawn” period of its independence, regained shortly thereafter.
At that time, Lithuania was in its early childhood phase of freedom. It brought to Bologna its rich experience of creativity under a period of deep oppression.
The fantasies of Lithuanian illustrators did not succumb to the tight restrictions of censorship. The power of their creativity, the subtext of the drawings and their originality, as well as painstakingly perfected artistic techniques – all of these were a dynamic expression of resistance.
The extraordinary works during the period of Soviet occupation brought fame to the older generation of Lithuanian illustrators and established a solid foundation for the original and exacting school of Lithuanian illustration.
It’s an exceptional school whose traditions are characterized by its range of style and expression; it requires artists to be distinct and to discover and be discovered for something new and unprecedented.
Illustrators of the middle generation who were creating newly reborn Lithuania were faced with a task requiring ingenuity – amid their creative explorations, they also needed to find a way to survive in an emerging state.
Meanwhile, young illustrators have a duty to live up to their teachers.
Their creative dynamism is no longer fettered by repression: they are throwing down a challenge to the world that has opened up to them with its multitude of new techniques, merging media and different cultures.
With the bar for illustration raised very high, it is with great respect that Lithuania – the first of the three Baltic states – accepts its role as Guest of Honour in Bologna.
For this occasion, Lithuania will arrive with a mysterious gift, Illustratium, which offers viewers the opportunity to open windows that offer a glimpse of the rich world of pictures originating from our country and to discover the country’s greatest creators through their illuminating works and their magical power of illustration.
Illustratium embodies three exhibitions: the great period of historic creativity that led to freedom; the new, innovative period of Lithuanian illustration; and the emerging blossom of contemporary illustrated Lithuanian children’s books.
Like a tiny illustration among the pages of the book of Europe, Lithuania invites visitors to peak behind the secrets of the letters, to look underneath the rustling paper covers and the pleasant scent of ink . . .
Lithuania’s participation at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair is organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania and the former International Cultural Programme Centre, now the Lithuanian Culture Institute.
Lithuania’s participation is patronized by the President of the Republic of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaitė