A mano libera. Arte e cinema d'animazione 1957-1977

The connections between Italian artists and cinema animation between 1957 and 1977 are at the center of the exhibition hosted by the Museo di Roma in Trastevere and promoted by Roma Capitale, Department of Culture, and the Capitoline Superintendence for Cultural Heritage. In this twenty-year period going from the economic boom to the Years of Lead the successful television program “Carosello” helped to consolidate Italian animation from a production point of view.

Between the 1960s and 1970s, several artists turned their attention to cinema. Many chose animation, considered a form of expression more akin to visual art, and made short films that were either self-produced, financed by production companies or commissioned by advertisers. The exhibition features fourteen artists: sculptor Toni Fabris, Claudio Cintoli, Rosa Foschi and Luca Maria Patella, Paolo Gioli, Giulio Gianini & Lele Luzzati, a duo who translated the music of Mozart and Rossini into images using the découpage technique, earning international acclaim, Bruno Ceccobelli, painter and animator Manfredo Manfredi, Mario Sasso, author of hundreds of theme tunes for RAI since 1960, Andrea Granchi, artist and art director Magdalo Mussio, Marinella Pirelli and Pino Pascali.

The films and various types of works presented to the public (drawings, paintings, storyboards, cels, backdrops, puppets, photographs, etc.) show how artists were able to experiment freely through this audiovisual medium, achieving results that allow us to gain a more complete understanding of their aesthetic. The exhibition is also an opportunity to admire unpublished or rarely seen materials, such as Ceccobelli’s experiments, Mussio’s drawings on acetate, Foschi’s preparatory studies and some of Pirelli's creations, and to rediscover artists such as Toni Fabris, forgotten by the history of animation cinema and little considered in the field of sculpture.

Photo Magdalo Mussio. Il fagiolo d'oro, 1968