Paolo Mottura

The CAMeC Centre of Modern and Contemporary Art of La Spezia presents a novel version of Paolo Mottura, with the exhibition “Pinocchio, Carême and other stories”, curated by Eleonora Acerbi and Cinzia Compalati, and a large mural presenting the artist and his passions.

Paolo Mottura is a comic-strip artist known for his collaboration with the Walt Disney company. At the CAMeC he is exhibiting other, lesser-known aspects of his work, which is distinguished by talented drawing, a precious, versatile technique and original, engrossing stories.

The exhibition, laid out on the floor 2 of the Centre, consists of numerous illustrated stories, starting from his last work dedicated to the most famous, most frequently-represented children’s story, “Pinocchio” (Edizioni NPE, 2021), with a series of canvases and works on coloured paper which re-interpret the episodes and develop a particular metaphorical expression of Collodi’s invention. These are followed by various original preparatory panels from another important production, “Carême” (Les Humanoïdes Associés, 2009), an ode to friendship written by Christophe Bec, which relates the troubled adventures of two men of solitary disposition: Martinien Fidèle, a skinny vacuum-cleaner rep lost in the mountains, and Aimé Carême, a painting restorer, a sharp-witted soul whose extraordinary obesity makes him the victim of mockery.  Another French work is “Deus” (Soleil, 2008), a graphic novel with an historical setting and an extremely topical content, whose protagonist is a humanoid creature, The New Man, who/which seems invulnerable to illness. After “Carême” and “Deus”, “Redemption” (Dupuis, 2009) is the third collaboration between Paolo Mottura and Christophe Bec, who here address the theme of the man without a past, the stranger who arrives in an unknown, ghost town called (not coincidentally) “Death”, or “Redemption”. Then some drawings for the visionary story “Hanté” (Soleil, 2008), for the children’s audiobook “Through me the way into the dark cave” (Voglino Editrice, 2016), and for three novels and stories by Stefano Benni: “Terra!” (“Earth!”), “Il nuovo libraio” (“The new bookseller”), “Il sax del Nuovola rossa” (“The sax of the red Cloud”).

Also on display is an eminently pictorial work which reveals a Paolo Mottura who is unknown to the public at large, as well as his fondness for experimentation with materials: the 1998  “No graffiti”.
Finally, we should mention a special, fundamental contribution to this new project of the CAMeC exhibition: a site-specific intervention, created on the corridor wall, a large acrylic drawing showing the artist himself surrounded by the main objects and characters appearing in his ‘stories’, and linked to his other passions besides art, such as music and the sea.

Paolo Mottura was born in Pinerolo (TURIN) in 1968.
In 1989 he began to publish with Disney Italia, at that time Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, working from then on in Topolino, Minni & Company, Paperinik e PKNA (Paperinik New Adventures), as well as for the Disney Books section.
His first graphic interpretation of a script in Disney was Zio Paperone e il mistero dell’Olimpo (Uncle Scrooge and the mystery of Olympus), by Giorgio Pezzin. He translated numerous stories into cartoon form, including:  Dalla parte sbagliata (On the wrong side, 1998) and L’ombra del drago (The shadow of the dragon, 1999), both scripted by Tito Fraci; Topolino e la valle della dimenticanza (Mickey Mouse and the valley of forgetfulness, 2001), by Rudy Salvagnini.
In 1998 he won the Topolino d’oro (Golden Mickey Mouse) for the best Disney story of 1997. He also collaborated with other publishers and newspapers, such as Sole 24 Ore and La Stampa.

Since 2003 he has worked with the French publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés. drawing for them the series Carême and winning the Albert Uderzo 2005 prize as the best new talent. In 2007 he began a collaboration with the publisher Soleil Productions, publishing with them DEUS, with texts by Bec/Betbeder, and in 2008 with Dupuis, for which he publishes Redemption.
In 2010, with his friend Fabio Celoni he adapted the video game Epic Mickey into graphic form, scripted by the American Peter David, and he created the graphic novel of the film Tron: Legacy. In 2011 he began to collaborate with the publishers Sergio Bonelli Editore, publishing among other things a Dylan Dog story scripted by Barbara Baraldi, also illustrating an edition of Le Storie based on a script by Fausto Vitaliano.
More recently Paolo has concentrated on the great parodies of literary and cinematographic works, including Topolino e il ritorno alla dolce vita (Mickey Mouse and the return to the Dolce Vita), scripted by Roberto Gagnor and Marco Ponti, On the Road by Fausto Vitaliano, Moby Dick and Metopolis, scripted by Francesco Artibani.