The Long Journey of Fellini:Dreams,Drawings,Films at SH Contemporary

“The long journey of Fellini. Dreams, drawings, films” is the exhibition that the Emilia-Romagna Region presents at Shanghai Contemporary, the international fair dedicated to contemporary art, promoted by BolognaFairs in partnership with the Emilia-Romagna Region itself, the Ministry of International Trade and the Italian Institue for Foreign Trade (ICE).

The exhibition – by Fellini Foundation – consists of about fifty drawings made by the outstanding director from Rimini Federico Fellini and afterward re-edited by the Russian director Andreji Khrzhanovskij in a great animated film, The long journey, ideated and off-screen commented by poet Tonino Guerra, that is shown within the exhibition.

The boards by the “Maestro” from Rimini offer a selection of drawings that Fellini loved to fix in his powerful imaginary the characters, the settings and the atmospheres that would later appear in his films. They are testimonies of “Fellinean art” that – in the animated film – translate themselves into the fascinating story of The long journey. Thus, a many-coloured crowd of characters from films, self-portraits, caricatures of the collaborators (among others one can recognise the Italian actors Marcello Mastroianni and Alberto Sordi, the Italian composer Nino Rota, the characthers, Gelsomina and Cabiria, performed by the actress and Fellini’s wife, Giuletta Masina) that animates itself and comes to life to go together toward an enchanted island. Giulietta and Federico are also on board the “Rex” ship, but they do not stop as the others do: their journey will last much more.

Fellini was always carrying a ream of white sheets and a box of coloured felt-tip pens. He was always drawing continuosly, in order to prompt his partners, to portray hisfriends or passers-by of the moment, or in order to fix the elements of one of his characthers. After all, many of his characters were drawn on paper before becoming cinematic characters.