Nonconformist, eclectic, relentless. The MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts dedicates a major exhibition to Francesco Tullio Altan, born in 1942: "ALTAN. Pimpa, Cipputi and other thinkers", created in co-production with the Solares Foundation and Franco Cosimo Panini Editore, from 23 October 2019 to January 12, 2020.

The exhibition, curated by Anne Palopoli and Luca Raffaelli, offers a complete reconnaissance to tell, in an articulated path, all of Altan's work, his relentless humor, his ability to move easily between drawings dedicated to childhood and comics. adventure, between illustrated novels and animated films, between cartoons and screenplays.

Altan's is a world in which doubt is revealed as the only great certainty possible, in which the great myths of history are overturned and humanity tries to float in the disordered sea of life. We are saved by a dog who, thanks to her desire for knowledge, smiles in front of the wonders of the universe. Altan's characters are all free thinkers, so free that they can also confess to themselves and the world their desire for self-destruction. But their thought is always a revelation, that's what we were going to say, that we had on the tip of our tongue. Altan reveals it to us with surprising clarity. As if it were always one step ahead of us.

In the Extra MAXXI space , original tables and drawings, posters, illustrations, paintings, sketches, books and films will be exhibited, with many characters who have become part of our collective imagination: the dog Pimpa, the metalworker Cipputi, but also Ada , Cristoforo Colombo, Kamillo Kromo, the Robin Pippo, Trino.

And it is these characters, reproduced in extra large format on the floor, that welcome visitors, literally catapulting them into the world of Altan, in a setting of great impact, engaging and immersive.