The Adventures of Pinocchio

“Pinocchio is not just a companion in Art but a companion in Life”

- Antonio Nocera

Oblong Contemporary Gallery unveils a nostalgic exhibition “The Adventures of Pinocchio” by Italian artist Antonio Nocera that will run from the 15th December 2021 until the 31th of January 2022.

The famous Pinocchio film and Disney classic that shaped our childhood, and learning our first lesson around the importance of lying, is a tale of morals we carry throughout our lives.

It was in the year 2002, Antonio illustrated a book “The Adventures of Pinocchio”. In the same year he inaugurated the exhibition “Pinocchio et la Lune '' at Paris Municipality, then at the European Parliament in Brussels, with the introduction of the former President of Italy Giorgio Napolitano. In the story, the mischievous and young Pinocchio, always up to no good had said to a wise cricket, “I shall be sent to school and shall be made to study either by love or by force. To tell you in confidence, I have no wish to learn; it is much more amusing to run after butterflies, or to climb trees and to take young birds out of their nests.”

The butterflies can be seen in most of Antonio’s works. He says they’re a reflection of freedom and spiritual change in the world. As for the fairies, sweet and severe at the same time. The fairy is like a mother born for everyone in the world. From sand to sawdust, from glass to canapa, Nocera experiments with a wide spectrum of materials to ignite different effects on a canvas to make them appear three-dimensional and ‘sculptural like’.

The wooden-nosed Pinocchio has been a strong inspiration over the years of his life. Every time he revisits the story, he finds a new perspective on the moral that has stayed very close to him. Which is why the figure of Pinocchio has been prevalent in Antonio’s works for over two decades. For Antonio, Pinocchio only speaks the truth and never lies, - similar to everyone else. He sees the human in the story. Antonio makes us realize that whoever knows how to play lives better, whoever knows how to laugh escapes sadness, whoever imagines lives twice: a normal life like everyone else and one made up of dreams and fantasy.

Antonio has collaborated with the Carlo Collodi National Foundation for the past 20 years, which has sponsored all of his books dedicated to Pinocchio. In 2015, the book was presented at the Institute of Italian Culture in London as a patronage of the Carlo Collodi National Foundation in the presence of its President, Pier Francesco Bernacchi.