THE EXHIBITION
The exhibition *Hugo Pratt – Imaginary Geographies*, to be held in Liège in 2026, follows on directly from a landmark exhibition of the same name hosted at the Palazzo delle Papesse in Siena in 2025. That Italian exhibition, produced in collaboration with the rights holders of Hugo Pratt’s work and leading cultural partners, was a major success with both the public and critics.
Thirty years after the author's death, it confirms Pratt's central place among the great European authors of the 20th century and the ability of his work to reach very broad audiences, far beyond the circle of comic strip enthusiasts.
The exhibition, staged in collaboration with the Swiss company Cong S.A. and the Italian company Opera Laboratori, offers a complete immersion into the world of Hugo Pratt, a humanist author, tireless traveller, and creator of the mythical character Corto Maltese.
The exhibition brings together: original drawings and authentic watercolours; archives, notebooks, objects and ethnographic artefacts that fed the author's imagination; audiovisual content; immersive scenographic displays; a screening of his first animated feature film; and an exclusive soundtrack illustrating the musicality of the author and his works.
The exhibition also features the largest bookshop dedicated to the author and their work, as well as a proper cafeteria that will pay homage to the author's Italian roots and tastes.
The exhibition is structured around several main themes – veritable «entry points» into the work – addressing, among others:
– travel and real and imaginary geographies,
– literary and cinematic influences,
– history and geopolitics,
– the place of women in Pratt's universe,
– the relationship between drawing, narrative, and freedom.
Through this cross-cutting approach, the exhibition goes beyond the strict confines of the comic strip to offer a cultural, artistic, and societal reading of the work.
THE PLACE
À Liège, l’exposition sera accueillie au Cadran, bâtiment emblématique de l’ancienne gare de Liège-Palais, temporairement réhabilité en espace culturel. Ce choix ne relève pas du hasard : la gare, lieu de départs, d’arrivées et de croisements, fait écho direct à l’univers de Corto Maltese. L’architecture du site évoque le voyage, le mouvement. La localisation, à proximité immédiate du centre-ville, favorise l’accessibilité pour tous les publics.
The scenography will fully exploit this symbolic dimension: entering the exhibition is like «boarding.» The visitor becomes a traveller, mirroring Pratt's hero, journeying across continents and imaginations.
A COLLABORATION BETWEEN INVENTIVES SRL & ENTRESORT ASBL
This project fits naturally into the comic book programme developed in the Province of Liège, particularly through the La BD festival and the ‘April 2026: Comic Book Month’ initiative, which prioritise local creativity, emerging artists, schools and community-based initiatives.
The exhibition Hugo Pratt – Imaginary Geographies acts as a complementary and structuring project:
– it brings an international counterpoint to a policy focused on local comics,
– it creates a spotlight effect that benefits the entire Walloon literary programme,
– it strengthens Liège's image as a major territory for the ninth art.
The presence of a world-class author allows for broadening audiences, attracting new visitors, and giving increased visibility to existing local initiatives.
And that is precisely our company's objective.
Launched in the summer of 2020, Inventives SRL offers a unique and blended vision of the tourism and event sectors. Our company is a place where nature and aesthetics, history and innovation, high-end creation and the general public, permanent exhibition and academic content meet and coexist.
We have decided to play a key role in the creation of experiential and spectacular content to fuel the tourism sector. For us, this means sharing new emotions, disseminating innovative visions, defining new working methods, driving bold projects, and writing new stories.
With Entresort ASBL, our partners and investors, we will focus our efforts on defining new relationships between humanity and nature, here, 120 kilometres from Brussels, in the heart of Europe.
Simply spectacular.
OUR PARTNERS – Our warm thanks to our partners and supporters.
