Turning pages into a playground
Pioneering author creates immersive exhibition that reflects his interactions with children, Wang Qian reports.
This philosophy pulses through the exhibition hall where his iconic characters, including the mischievous Turlututu, shape-shifting blop, and playful dots and lines, transform into immersive playgrounds.
Drawn in an archetypal manner with a crowned head and a heart shaped like an eye, Turlututu is a character created by Tullet, who claims it is himself. The exhibition's Turlututu-themed section includes a pool of yellow balls that invite visitors to play with the character and unleash their imaginations.
Coming in many colors, blops are Tullet's unique visual language for exploring concepts such as numbers, colors, art and friendship. A blop is similar to a four-leaf clover, a flower, or a butterfly that can run wild through a colorful circus of abstract ideas.
Visitors can experience how Press Here dissolves language barriers like magic and makes dots "jump "across pages to sing and dance.
Tullet insists: "You don't read my books. You play them. You give them voice."
Looking back on the start of his career as a children's book illustrator after working in the advertising design industry, Tullet credits parenthood for his creative transition. "My first child's birth returned me to innocence."
His first children's title was released in 1994. Four years later, he was awarded the Non-Fiction Prize at the Bologna Children's Book Fair.
All of his books are designed as experiences. Each line, point and color is intended to capture the attention of young readers. He trusts children's intrinsic intuition and allows them to visualize and live literary universes with artistic narratives beyond words.
He says his creative process mirrors a fisherman's patience. "I wait for ideas to surface, then layer impressions like cast nets."
His notebooks, filled with "freshly painted" moments, eventually become books deliberately designed as open invitations.
For Tullet, his story doesn't end when you finish the book; it lives through the children's retelling.
"My work is perpetually in progress; once released, it expands organically. That's the beauty of sharing — it takes on new life through others," he adds.
