Under the theme “Italian Between Word and Image: Graffiti, Illustrations, Comic Strips”, the 20th Edition of the Week of Italian Language in the World kicked off worldwide on October 19, 2020.
Organized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and its diplomatic and consular network, the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Tourism (MiBACT) and the Ministry of University and Research (MUR), as well as the main partners of linguistic promotion in Italy (Accademia della Crusca, Dante Alighieri Society), the Week has over time become one of the most important initiatives dedicated to the celebration of the Italian language in the world. The initiative, since its inception, has annually been granted the High Patronage of the Presidency of the Italian Republic. An important partner of the initiative is the Government of the Swiss Confederation, one of whose official languages is Italian.
For the 2020 edition, the Italian Embassy in Muscat will propose, among various activities, a reading and illustration online workshop for children by the illustrator Chiara Armellini and dedicated to Gianni Rodari, to celebrate this famous author on the occasion of the centenary of his birth. Further, to discover and compare the realities of comics between Italy and Oman, Lorenzo Ceccotti “LRNZ”, an Italian visual artist, will lead a workshop with the Omani author Nof Al Zadjali and other Omani illustrators to explore the relationship between image and word in different cultural contexts.
Lucca Comics, a partner of the Embassy in Muscat for the 2020 Week, will also include, among the initiatives, an online competition for young talents in comic strips.
The 20th edition of the Week of Italian Language in the World, scheduled from October 19 to October 25, 2020, will focus on those expressive forms that enhance the Italian language through images, with a particular emphasis on comic strips, graphic novels and, more generally, the publishing chain for children and adolescents.
Each year the Week is dedicated to a different theme, which serves as a common thread for a rich program of conferences, exhibitions and meetings. The last edition, entitled “Italian on the Stage”, gave birth to a wide range of events (about 900 in over 100 countries) dedicated to music, popular songs, theater, dramaturgy and melodrama.
As usual, the Accademia della Crusca edited a collection of essays on the theme of the event. The participation of the Swiss Confederation will see its diplomatic representations abroad collaborate with the Italian Embassies in the organization of events to promote the Italian language.
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