STATEMENT: Henrique Coser, winner of the Bologna Children's Book Fair-SM Foundation International Illustration Award

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The ruling was announced at an event held at the Caffè degli Illustratori of the Bologna International Children's and Youth Book Fair, chaired by Elena Pasoli, director of the Bologna Children's and Youth Fair, and José Manuel Cidad, president of SM.

The jury, composed of Philip Giordano, Italian illustrator and winner of the first edition of this award, Ayami Moriizumi Cometti, art exhibition researcher, filmmaker, restaurateur and owner of Editorial Alboroto (Mexico) and Sara Rioja, designer at Editorial SM , has decided to unanimously award this award to Coser for its fresh, poetic and refined style, with images so simple that they seem like icons and narrate with subtle irony the small daily events that are "a child's look at the microscopic world of insects, which keeps analogies with that of adults, a whispered sequence, like a caress, almost a meditation on aspects of life.

The jury also appreciated the harmony achieved between manual and digital techniques, with images that breathe in a game between empty and full spaces as in the best tradition of graphic art. The selected color palette reflects the minimalist spirit of the author, who manages to convey a lot with little.

The prize, worth 15,000 euros, also entails the creation of an illustrated children's album that will be published by SM and presented at the Bologna Children's and Youth Book Fair 2025.

Henrique was born in the city of Curitiba, Brazil, in 1998. As a child he was very shy, quiet and observant. He always expressed himself better with drawings than with words. When he was at school, he used to spend the day drawing in the margins of books, in notebooks, or on his desk.

Henrique Coser Moreira winner in 2024

Today he is an illustrator and graphic designer. He is very interested in the publishing world and exploring the use of illustration as a means of communication.

In 2022, Planeta Tangerina published its first book “El primer día”, winner of the IV Serpa International Illustrated Album Award. In 2023, “The First Day” was selected for the 57th Illustrators Exhibition of the Bolonha Children's Book Fair, also receiving a Special Mention from the Ragazzi Prize of Bologna (BRAW) in the “Comics – Early Reader” category.

https://www.instagram.com/henriquecmor/

Presentation of the album Solo una noche of the 2023 winner

During the Bologna International Book Fair, the book by the winner of the XIII Bologna Fair-SM Foundation International Illustration Prize, Solo una noche by the Italian Andrea Antinori, was also presented.

An illustrated album without text, but with multiple readings created by Andrea Antinori.

A man leaves his house and goes on an excursion to the mountains. He climbs to the top and then descends and camps for the night in a forest. He gets into his store and, from that moment, many things begin to happen around him. Is the forest a magical place when night comes, or are all these fantastic characters and beings in the dreams and imagination of the hiker?

International Illustration Award Bologna Children’s Book Fair-Fundación SM

The Bologna International Children's and Young People's Book Fair, known for its special dedication to children's book illustration, and the SM Foundation, one of whose main objectives is the promotion of children's books and reading, were launched in 2009. This award, which seeks to promote the work of artists under 35 years of age, whose works have been selected by the Bologna Fair to be included in the Illustrators Exhibition that is shown during its celebration.

About the SM Foundation

The SM Foundation is a non-profit educational institution that works so that, through education and culture, no girl or boy is left behind.

It directs all its initiatives towards improving educational equity and quality. He is backed by more than forty-five years of experience in the development of educational and cultural projects in Spain and Latin American countries.

The SM Foundation allocates the benefits derived from SM's business activity to programs that, through education, seek to contribute to a more inclusive, fair, peaceful and sustainable world.

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