Ca Balà - magazine of graphic humour and political satire

Ca Balà was an independent, self-produced magazine of graphic humour and political satire, published from April 1971 to January 1980, for a total of 50 issues, monthly or quarterly. It was founded in Compiobbi (Florence, Italy) by Graziano Braschi, Berlinghiero Buonarroti and Paolo Della Bella, members of the art collective Gruppo Stanza. The Florentine writer Piero Santi was its first editor and suggested its name, taking inspiration from a Venetian street called 'Fondamenta Ca Balà'. 

The magazine emerged from a shared ideological foundation rooted in workerist and student movements—the legacy of Italy’s '68 movement, the French May, and the American underground. Within the broader landscape of Italian satire of the 1960s and 1970s, often defined by elegant, allegorical, and populist nineteenth-century illustration styles, Ca Balà distinguished itself with its irreverent humour and its sharp, multi-layered verbal-visual language, drawing inspiration from noir and Surrealism.

Employing techniques of citation, decontextualization, and the reappropriation of multinational brands and advertising campaigns—then emblematic of the dominant global order—Ca Balà targeted systems of power and the status quo, as well as the giants of capitalism and consumer culture, both Italian and international. Notable examples include three cover illustrations in which the corporate identities of the ENI Group, Coca-Cola, and Chiquita are reimagined through a satirical lens.

The cover of issue no. 7 (Year I, October 1971) [FIGURE 1], created by Gruppo Stanza, reproduces a version of an advertisement [FIGURE 2] from the American multinational United Fruit Company, now known as Chiquita. The iconic blue label—guaranteeing quality since 1947—appears in its 1972 version, still featuring the anthropomorphic banana prior to its redesign in 1973 into the female figure “Miss Chiquita” by Oscar Grillo.

Using the technique of détournement, the original slogan “Chiquita the banana summa cum laude” is subverted into “Students, the bosses want you summa cum laude”. Moreover, the advertising message is accompanied by a “translation” that triggers a bitter and provocative analogy between the model student and the blue-label banana. The ideal banana becomes better at the expense of the others—cut off from the tree to leave more nourishment for the few remaining ones; similarly, the model student rises because “capitalist society has no place for everyone.” Just as “in a CHIQUITA the pulp is much tastier than in any banana,” so “a MODEL STUDENT is a much more usable person than any other person.” The cover thus delivers a sharp critique of the educational and social system of the time, which, rather than promoting “collective maturation” by fostering the potential of each individual, sacrifices the many in order to produce a few dominant subjects, functional to the capitalist system.

On the front cover of the double monthly issue no. 35/36 (Year IV, March 1974) [FIGURE 3], created by Paolo Della Bella, we find a satirical cartoon of AGIP’s (Azienda Generale Italiana Petroli, part of the ENI Group) famous six-legged dog, redesigned in 1972 by Bob Noorda’s team at Unimark International. The cartoon's key is found in its title Il sesso in Italia: le amicizie particolari (Sex in Italy: Special Friendships), which recalls Ettore Scola’s slogan: “Il cane a sei zampe, fedele amico dell’uomo a quattro ruote” (“The six-legged dog, faithful friend of the four-wheeled man”). These “special friendships” allude to the energy agreements brokered by the ENI Group on behalf of AGIP, which, in response to the oil crisis (1973–79), sought out new deals and investors.

The woman depicted is Minnie Minoprio—pseudonym of Virginia Anne Minoprio—the poster girl for Superissima fuel [FIGURE 4]. The advertising slogan of the time, created by the Masius agency, read: “Run away with Superissima! The new Super BP with Enertron that ‘ignites’ your engine’s heart.” The girl’s typical pose—reclining with the petrol hose in hand [FIGURE 5]—is exaggerated and rendered unnatural by the animalistic embrace, as she converses with the iconic dog beside her: “Darling, what binds us?” she asks. “A hose!” the dog replies. An answer that might seem dismissive is, in fact, meant literally: the hose symbolises the relationship between AGIP and its business partners—a bond driven by economic, not emotional, interests.

In March 1976, Ca Balà launched a New Quarterly Series, no longer printed on loose or stapled sheets, but bound as glued paperbacks. The numbering restarted from 1, and the contents began alternating satire with historical and theoretical articles on humour, under the direction of the Florentine poet, essayist, and journalist Franco Manescalchi. Berlinghiero Buonarroti designed the front cover of issue no. 7 (New Series, December 1978) [FIGURE 6], where the Ca Balà header is reimagined with a fluttering typeface, white on a bright red background, evocative of the 1969 Coca-Cola logo featuring the updated Dynamic Ribbon.

The Ca Balà's Little Man, like a collector’s mascot, appears inside the serrated bottle cap of the drink, replacing the hyphen between the words “Ca-Balà.” The cap reads “HUMOUR IS EXPLOSION” [FIGURE 7], underscoring the effervescent and irrepressible nature of humour. Below the header, an oval frame—reminiscent of an antique engraving—depicts two bourgeois chairs in the foreground, whose positioning and interlocking recall the nude bodies of lovers in the erotic 69 position, shown in the background. A similar panel [FIGURE 8] was later exhibited in black and white among the works in HUMOUR MON AMOUR: Rassegna sull’umorismo grafico 1940–82, held in Fiesole (Florence, Italy) in 1982.

-----------------------

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES:

• Berlinghiero Buonarroti, Ca Balà: L’Umorismo come arma politica, Humour Mon Amour - Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, Florence 2019;
• Lido Contemori, COLPIRE IN ALTO Viaggio nel disegno satirico dal ‘68 ad oggi, Edizioni Il Pennino, Turin 2019;
• Paolo Della Bella, Laura Monaldi, Claudia Paterna, Uno sguardo profondo. Viaggio nello humour e nella satira, Edizioni Cadmo 2018;
• Michele Galluzzo, Logo In Real Life. Note per una storia sociale della visual identity, Krisis Publishing, 2024;
• Gruppo Stanza (edited by), Il crudele e il politico. Antologia di Ca Balà, Milan: Ottaviano, 1977;
• Centro Studi Politico Sociale / Archivio Storico “Il Sessantotto” di Firenze (Political and Social Studies Center / Historical Archives “Il Sessantotto”, Florence).