Igort and Federico Buffa ‘played their cards’ for Cartaceo#06 and the Burgo Calendar 2025
On Sunday 17 November, the Salone d’Onore of the Milano Triennale hosted the sixth edition of the project designed by Burgo Group in collaboration with Associazione Illustri and ArtsFor. Titled “Giocarsi le proprie carte”, the event once again highlighted paper as an intermediary between narration and illustration.
Cartaceo#06, part of BookCity Milano 2024 program, reinforced further the cultural connection between Burgo Group and the Milanese kermesse.
Cartaceo#06
With their charming style, the charismatic protagonists Federico Buffa – journalist and sports commentator – and Igort – stage name of graphic novel master Igor Tuveri –, joined by Mauro Bevacqua – Sky journalist who led the event – presented an engaging and empathetic discussion.
The large audience was treated to a captivating journey through the history of the Olympics, its episodes and challenges, not just in sports and individual but also collective, human, and artistic.
In the background, six panels created by Igort for the Burgo Calendar 2025 were displayed on screens.
Buffa stated: “There are countless sporting competitions. But one above all holds an incomparable symbolic power: the Olympics”.
The sport has “the power to change the world for the better, to unite the peoples that populate it in harmony, to inspire positive behaviour”. But sport can also tell immortal stories such as that of Abebe Bikila, who by winning the Rome 1960 marathon barefoot “symbolically redeemed his own people through a victory in the home of the defeated who through the Olympics were in turn redeeming themselves”.
Buffa’s Olympic stories formed the base of the dialogue, which Igort interpreted through a fascinating challenge: “The Olympic discipline of drawing on blotting paper requires many tricks to be successful. I hunted down these drawings one by one, straining my ear to catch them. Trying to evoke the scents released by the writing and the theme. Inebriated by the dream of the nib, I simply went along with the lines, trying to leave them as free as possible to play with compositions and colours. To me, this is the essence of my work”.
Igort’s illustrations, paired with fragments of Buffa’s text, were presented in an exclusive, unpublished leporello, printed in a limited edition and given to all participants who warmly attended the event.
Some quotations from Federico Buffa and images by Igort are also featured in the Burgo Calendar 2025, the inside pages of which are printed on 250 gsm Respecta 100 Satin recycled paper.
The Burgo Group Calendar turns 28 years old. This annual tradition, renewed every year since 1997, strengthens the unbreakable link between paper, art, words, culture and beauty.
After the debut of the first collection in 2017, Collezione Burgo is back: a new, precious volume that collects the works from the last five editions of the Burgo calendar, signed as always by great artists of illustration.
Find out moreIgort
Igort, the stage name of Igor Tuveri, is a multifaceted artist. Prolific author of award-winning graphic novels, director, illustrator and editor, he also writes short stories, novels, and music. He was the first Westerner to draw manga in Japan, and his works have been featured in prestigious Italian and international magazines.
Having spent long periods of time in Japan and in former Soviet Union countries, he has developed an expressive style that combines the peculiarities of graphic novels – of which he is an acknowledged master – and graphic journalism, and went on to become one of the most original voices on the international art scene.
Among his awards, we highlight the title of Best Cartoonist at Comicon 2016 and Best Author at Lucca Comics in the same year.
His Comics Lessons have gained immense popularity on the web, with a huge following on YouTube and social media.