During the festival, in the theatre exhibition hall
Komagata’s Little Design
1. How real is an illusion for early years’ audiences? Is there any difference from reality?
2. What is the relationship between context, image, and imagination?
3. Risk, curiosity, and care: what kind of role does expectation play in shaping our experience at the theatre?
4. Percipient beings: what is it like to be a baby at the theatre?
5. How can culture be transmitted through theatre for early years? From abstract to concrete and from concrete to abstract.
6. How are movements connected to emotions?
7. How does movement relate to the human condition of the early years?
8. How does stillness speak to the early years?
These questions form the conceptual core around which Katsumi Komagata’s work in this exhibition develops. The eight exhibited panels represent his poetic response to a broader investigation conducted as part of the project Mapping. A Map on the Aesthetics of Performing Arts for Early Years, a research journey exploring aesthetic experiences in early childhood within the context of the performing arts.
The Mapping project was supported by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme and brought together 18 partners from 17 member countries, including La Baracca – Testoni Ragazzi (project leader) and Bologna Children’s Book Fair.
From 2019 to 2023, over 50 artists – including performers, dancers, musicians, and artistic directors – along with cultural institutions and researchers, were involved in investigating the relationship between children and the performing act.
From the reflection on these elements, 24 generative questions emerged, forming the basis of the panels created by four international illustrators – Katsumi Komagata, Manuel Marsol, Fabian Negrin, and Klaas Verplancke – which were brought together in the book The Illustrated Map and the Mapping Exhibition, set up in March 2023 for the 60th edition of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and in October 2023 at Biblioteca Salaborsa during the 20th edition of Visioni di futuro, visioni di teatro… International festival of performing art and culture for early years.
Komagata contributed to this research with his unique design sensibility, creating a visual journey that explores the relationship between form, perception, and movement. His approach is distinguished by the use of essential geometries and pure colours, capable of suggesting transformation, rhythm, and spatial depth through minimal compositional variations. Komagata’s research exists in a liminal space between illustration, design, and performance, offering a reflection on the construction of childhood imagination and the ability of visual signs to activate processes of discovery and interpretation.
Little Design serves as a tribute to a master of contemporary illustration and an invitation to continue the ever-evolving dialogue and inquiry into aesthetic experiences in early childhood, emphasising the importance of cooperation and artistic contamination, both locally and internationally, as key instruments of cultural policy.
