50e Angoulême, 50 regards. Sonia Deschamps, Fausto Fasulo and Julian Misserey. Angoulême. Espace Franquin. January 26-29, 2023.
The Angoulême International Comics Festival continued the celebration of its 50th edition with an exhibition of 50 poster-sized images drawn by 50 artists from different countries, generations, and comics traditions. Situated in the main exhibition hall at the Espace Franquin, the images offered a wide variety of illustrative takes that expressed each artists' individual perception, memories and experiences of the festival itself. Arranged in alphabetical order by artist in a right-to-left arrangement starting at the entrance, the images were not accompanied by any captions or identifying information. The only text available for visitors was located on a column in the entrance zone featuring a panel with introductory text from the Festival's artistic directors, and two panels listing all of the participating artists.
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As the introductory text explains, these "regards" (translated as 'views') were left open to the artists to avoid imposing temporal parameters that could have favored a gaze upon the Festival that was historically retrospective or stylistically contemporary. Even the selection of participating artists for this project was wrought with anxiety, as any list would surely be remembered for who was not selected just as much as for who was selected. In the end, a broad variety of artists were chosen so that the biodiversity of international comics (and their relationship to the Festival) could be represented and celebrated. The very internationalism that the Festival is meant to embody was evoked in the first poster drawn by Hugo Pratt for its inaugural edition in 1974 and recalled for this anniversary as the poster image for the exhibition.
The 50 celebratory images also circulated outside of the Espace Franquin, echoed in several local exhibitions in the regions near Angoulême. As well, the 50 images were also featured as large-scale reproductions in train stations across France during the duration of the Festival. Should a printed souvenir of this exhibition be of interest to the completist collector, all 50 images are reprinted individually and collected in a handsome slipcase book published by the Festival that is available on their online boutique.
Photos of all 50 images are presented below in the alphabetical order that they appeared in the Espace Franquin, each with a caption identifying its artist.
-Nick Nguyen
All photos taken by Nick Nguyen
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| Zeina Abirached |
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Benjamin Adam
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Inio Asano
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Derf Backderf
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Denis Bajram
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Conrad Botes
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| Boulet |
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Cholé Cruchaudet
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Dorothée de Monfreid
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Florence Dupré la Tour
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Inés Estrada
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Marion Fayolle
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Pierre Ferrero
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Tom Gauld
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Émilie Gleason
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Juanjo Guarnido
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Anna Haifisch
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Juliana Hyrri
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Shinichi Ishizuka
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Camille Jourdy
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Atsushi Kaneko
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Joe Kessler
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Oriane Lassus
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Suehiro Maruo
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Hiro Mashima
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JL Mast
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Pierre Maurel
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Maurane Mazars
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Anto Metzger
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Rutu Modan
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Minetaro Mochizuki
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José Munoz
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Léa Murawiec
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Anders Nilsen
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Ayako Noda
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Sole Otero
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John Porcellino
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David Prudhomme
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Marcello Quintanilha
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Trina Robbins
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Miroslav Sekulic-Struja
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Andrea Serio
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Keigo Shinzo
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Anne Simon
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Julien Solé
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Hervé Tanquerelle
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Naoki Urasawa
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Sansuke Yamada
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Masaaki Yuasa
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Makoto Yukimu
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