Renowned Pula designer Maurizio Ferlin's Fair in Sight exhibition opened at AMI's Sacred Hearts Gallery. Ferlin, one of the longest-standing collaborators of the Pula Book Fair, has developed an exhibition that celebrates the third decade of the event with an overview of its visual design solutions, photographs, works by visiting authors, and memorabilia.
The exhibition was produced jointly by the Archaeological Museum of Istria and Book Fair(y) in Istria, part of a now traditional collaborative effort that has already produced a series of major exhibitions, with AMI as the Fair's main partner.
"The exhibition showcases what has made the Pula Fair stand out from other book events, especially in visual communication," Ferlin noted, adding that he hoped that "this melding of a variety of creative practices and language will yield new readings that reveal the inner character of thinking and creation inherent to the Book Fair(y) in Istria."
AMI Director Darko Komšo underlined our museum's 15 years of collaboration in producing the Fair's exhibitions and the museum's own rich publishing activity, with a library now holding some 50,000 volumes.
"Speaking publicly about someone you know both personally and as an author is a most thankless task," noted Vladimir Torbica, head of the Istra County culture department, adding that he considered "Maurizio Ferlin both a very good man and an excellent author, an author inspired by Istria, who lives and breathes Istria."
Paola Orlić, who heads the City of Pula culture department, recalled her own collaboration with Ferlin, noting that she too grew up with the Fair. Fair director Magdalena Vodopija underlined Ferlin's role in creating a Book Fair(y) coin and the fair's mascot Pufka. She also lauded both the enormous effort he has contributed to the fair and his capacity to subordinate his role as author in favour of pursuing shared ideas.
Sa(n)jam knjige u Istri/Manuel Angelini/Petra Tadić