THE TRIALS OF HISTORY, THE LEAVEN OF LIFE

Curated by Elena Rondena e Giuseppe Langella (Centro di ricerca “Letteratura e cultura dell’Italia unita – Francesco Mattesini”, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano), Giulio Luporini, Paola Scaglione, Renato Mambretti, Franco Camisasca, Alessandro Rivali, Francesco Righetti, Camilla Gaetano, Gianfilippo Filippi
With the collaboration of Vanda di Marsciano Corti e dell’Associazione Eugenio Corti
With the contribution of Edizioni Ares, Associazione Culturale Internazionale Eugenio Corti, Centro studi Eugenio Corti

Forty years ago, “Il cavallo rosso” by Eugenio Corti was published by Ares publishing house a historical novel that has achieved considerable success with the public and numerous international awards, to the point that, today, with its thirty-five editions and eight foreign translations, it can be considered a true longseller. 

The exhibition offers a re-reading of the 1280 pages of the work, with particular attention to the dynamics that led the author to conceive the activity of writing as a task assigned to him by Providence. In fact, the path intertwines the biography of the Brianza author with the events narrated in the novel, observing, in some respects, almost an overlap between his life and the content of the work. However, the pages of Corti not only help to understand how literature is born from life, because, at the same time, they are also an emblematic example of how great literary works are able to illuminate the various proofs of existence, helping to understand their meaning beyond the ideological reductions that have marked the last century in a tremendous way. 

Adjacent to the exhibition there will also be an arena where daily the curators and other experts of Corti will give life to moments of dialogue and comparison on the characters of the novel and on the author. 

 EVENTS SCHEDULED IN THE EXHIBITION ARENA

Eugenio Corti International Award 2023 – Monday 21 August 2021 at 9.00 pm, room B2, 
The Eugenio Corti 2023 International Prize will take place at the Meeting. The initiative is sponsored by the Eugenio Corti Association and promoted by the Research Center “Literature and Culture of United Italy – Francesco Mattesini” of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan. The awarding of the prize to the best publication and the best degree thesis will be an opportunity to deepen the work of the writer from Brianza thanks to the interventions of illustrious personalities. Prof. Giuseppe Langella, former Director of the Research Center “Literature and Culture of United Italy – Francesco Mattesini”, Vanda Corti, wife of the writer and president of the Eugenio Corti Association, His Eccellency Mons. Massimo Camisasca, bishop emeritus of Reggio Emilia. In closing, the winners of the Prize will give an account of their research on the work of Corti. Touching pieces by the author will be interpreted by Matteo Bonanni and accompanied by the CeT Lab Choir.
This important event will also allow to resume and develop the themes of the exhibition The red horse by Eugenio Corti: the tests of history, the leaven of life, created for this year’s Meeting, on the occasion of the forty years of publication of the Cortian masterpiece.