Alessandria pays tribute to Mario Bortolato, known by his pen name Bort, a cartoonist and humorist who spent 65 years in the Piedmontese city, elevating it to a symbol of everyday Italian life. His drawings, which depicted the habits, vices and virtues of ordinary, everyday men and women, immortalized in the celebrated cartoon series "Le ultime parole famose" (Famous Last Words) published in La Settimana Enigmistica, drew inspiration from his own daily life. "Il secolo di Bort" (Bort's Century) is the title of the exhibition to be held from September 4 to October 4 in the Sale d'Arte on Via Machiavelli, featuring original drawings, films and extremely rare, hard-to-find materials. Bortolato was born in Salzano (Venice) in 1916. After graduating, he found employment in a public office in Alessandria, where he died in 2019 at the age of 92. The year before, he had cut the ribbon at #SaveBorsalino, an exhibition for which he had created several illustrations, staged to draw attention to the crisis facing the hat-making factory.
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