To tell us about Leonardo’s successes but also his difficulties, is Elena Russo Arman who, like a storyteller, traces his existence through a pop-up book that she has entirely designed and created and that perhaps Leonardo himself would have enjoyed, always attentive to entertain and surprise his audience.

Leonardo da Vinci certainly needs no introduction. Painter, architect, engineer, researcher, philosopher, musician, inventor. But also director, fashion designer, event planner, set designer, war machine designer, hydraulic engineer, kite builder… and so on. For us, used to dividing knowledge by putting labels on talents and professions, it is very difficult to define a multi-faceted personality in one word.

Perhaps “genius” is the only way to define a man, myth in his time and today, who has continued throughout his life to research, to observe nature with curiosity, and to amaze the world.

Written, directed and interpreted by Elena Russo Arman, Leonardo, What a Genius! aims to tell young audiences the fascinating and tormented story of the greatest Renaissance man who, ever since he was a child, was never afraid to make mistakes in his relentless drive to always go a little further.

“Leonardo,” says Elena Russo Arman, “is one of the most famous characters in the world but also one of the most complex. He was inquisitive, elegant and nonconformist, in short, a very charming man. I completely fell in love with it.” And why a pop-up book to tell his story? “Because pop-up books generate amazement, and astonishment is what Leonardo wanted to arouse in his interlocutors. He was also theater man–he designed theatrical machines and automatons to entertain and surprise spectators. Furthermore, the pop-up book is a small paper architecture, precise rules are needed, calculations for angles and folds. I think Leonardo would have had a great time. ”

A great pop-up book that, like fairy tales with happy endings, keeps all enchanted!

October 7, 2019 | 5:00pm | San Francisco
Fugazi Hall, 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd
Free Admission | RSVP Required