Tehran Book Fair Diary

In preparation for Italy’s role as Guest Of Honour of the International Tehran Book Fair, Arianna Vairo and Simone Rea have been invited to hold a number of workshops from January 25 to February 1st.
The workshops will involve a representative spread of illustrators in Iran, 25 in Teheran and 20 in Ahvaz, and will serve as a warm-up to an exhibition and a book, due to be premiered at the International Tehran Book Fair next May.
Arianna and Simone were among the artists featured in the exhibition called “Illustrazione per ragazzi. Eccellenze italiane”, which is still on tour around the world. It came from a partnership between Bologna Children’s Book Fair and the Italian Institutes of Culture in Madrid, Berlin, Sophia, and Cairo. Moreover, Arianna and Simone will be part of the 75 selected authors at the 2017 Bologna Children’s Book Fair’s Illustrators Exhibition.
They will live-stream their experience both here on the website and through Bologna Children’s Book Fair’s social media pages.

Arianna Vairo was born in Milan in 1985. She trained as an illustrator at the Milan’s Istituto Europeo di Design and Stockholm’s Konstfack Institut. Her contributions include works for The New York Times, the Marina Abramović Institute, The New Republic, Vice, Il Sole24Ore and more.
So far she has illustrated 15 children’s books in total for Topipittori, A Buen Paso, Eli Edizioni, Giannino Stoppani Edizioni. She has held numerous solo- and collective art exhibitions, both in Italy and abroad.
In Arianna’s view, illustration in children’s books is essential to develope a child’s own self and imagination. Drawing somehow contributes to keeping each individual’s child self awake and thriving.

Simone Rea was born in the Rome area in 1975. He graduated at Rome’s Accademia di Belle Arti. He has published a considerable number of works with Eli, Else Edizioni, Mondadori, Franco Cosimo Panini, Rizzoli, Topipittori, A Buen Paso, Cambourakis, to name just a few publishers. Moreover, he was awarded a number of prizes, among which the "Figures Futur" (Montreuil 2006) e "The Plaque of the BIB 2011" (Bratislava).
“Children’s books live through the blend of pictures and words. An illustrated book can make you think, entertain you, stun you and may even teach you something”.