The Angoulême International Comics Festival is going through mounting controversy and rising public outcry – and two petitions – following the announcement of a Bastien Vivès exhibition as a part of its January 2023 programming. Bastien Vivès, lengthy often known as the “bad boy” of bande dessiné, is a large get however a few of his extra provocative work has been criticised for selling incest and paedophilia.
Embed from Getty Images
Entitled “From the Eyes of Bastien Vivès“ (“Dans les yeux de Bastien Vivès”) the exhibition will give the artist “carte blanche to design his own exhibition” at Angoulême. It will open the weekend of the competition (26 to 29 January, 2023) and run to March 12. To obtain an exhibition of your work there may be a enormous honour and excessive profile – different exhibitions in 2023 embody the work of Marguerite Abouet, Julie Doucet, Ryōichi Ikegami, Junji Itō, and Philippe Druillet. Unfortunately with this publicity previous scandals and controversies are liable to re-emerge.
Bastien Vivès is finest identified in English for the graphic novel Polina and the Lastman collection – which Skybound is within the means of rereleasing in full. He rose to fame within the 2000s, first getting recognised by main publishing home Casterman with 2007 e book Elle(s) as a part of its Editions KSTЯ imprint. In 2009 he acquired Angoulême’s newcomer prize (Prix Révélation) for Le Goût du Chlore (A Taste of Chlorine). His 2011 e book Polina acquired the ACBD Critics Prize and has been tailored into a film. The twelve-book Lastman collection (Casterman, 2013-2019) created in collaboration with Balak and Michaël Sanlaville, proved a hit as effectively, additional elevating his profile. While he has seen immense success for extra mainstream, public-friendly and critically acclaimed works he has additionally one other considerably provocative facet – and that is what has landed him in bother, with some saying they’re akin to youngster pornography and selling incest. His previous public statements have additionally not helped him. With the announcement of the excessive profile carte blanche Angoulême exhibition, his critics have returned in drive on social media and petitions have emerged with rising signature numbers calling for the exhibition to not go forward.
The largest petition is by Arnaud Gallais began on December 8, 2022 on MesOpinions.com. It has accrued over 90,000 signatures. According to his Twitter bio Gallais is a cofounder of sexual violence NGO Prévenir et Protéger [tr: Prevent and Protect] and a Be Brave France member. Roughly translated the petition is entitled “Pedocriminality: For the Removal of the Bastien Vivès Exhibition from the Angoulême Comics Festival” (“Pédocriminalité: Pour La Déprogrammation De L’Expo De Bastien Vivès Au Festival De La BD D’Angoulême”). It says [translated via DeepL]:
“We denounce the trivialization and the apology of incest and pedophilia organized by the cartoonist Bastien Vivès through his works and his dangerous comments.”
The petition is directed each at the competition and at the sponsors and companions who they really feel immediately or not directly condone the exhibition.
“The International Comics Festival of Angoulême has many personal and public companions: https://www.bdangouleme.com/partenaires-fibd
“We ask them to react shortly and we remind them that the safety of kids ought to be a precedence.
“Alongside Be Brave France, we ask the International Comics Festival of Angoulême to withdraw the exhibition of Bastien Vivès, which is an apology for paedophilia and incest, and to ensure that the programming takes into account the fight against sexual violence.”
Be Brave France is a a part of the Brave Movement which goals to globally battle sexual violence against minors and adolescents.
A second, smaller petition organised by Angoulême artwork college students on change.org has amassed over two thousand signatures. This one is condemns his work for youngster pornography and misogyny and likewise requires it to be eliminated.
Vivès has beforehand been in scorching water on this very topic in 2018 with the discharge of his graphic novel Petit Paul (Glénat), which is about a 10-year-old boy with a very giant penis, because the Beat reported at the time. It was launched as a part of the writer’s Porn’Pop line of comics erotica. While it was probably meant extra as farce than titillation, the outcry led to main French bookstores eradicating it from cabinets. This appears to be the primary supply of the controversy however will not be the one one. Another a lot smaller work La Décharge mentale (tr. Mental Discharge), revealed by Les Requins Marteaux, options incest. There are additionally comparable complaints about implied incest in Une sœur (The Sister) and the hypersexualisation of girls in Le Chemisier (The Blouse) – revealed by Casterman in French and Ablaze in English.
The story has caught the eye of the mainstream French press. On Friday Libération, one among France’s largest newspapers, lined the story in some important element. More French media shops adopted go well with on Monday and Tuesday.
In the Libération piece, which interviewed and quoted quite a few topics on the problem, it mentioned that:
“The author as well as his publisher [Casterman] are convinced: these attacks are perhaps to be framed as part of the post-#MeToo era but especially in the post-Charlie [Hebdo] era, which is formidable towards caricatures on forbidden subjects. In any case, they indicate that yesterday’s obvious boundaries seem to be threatened today: the difference between representation and adherence, between transgression and exaltation, between the ethics of the author and the [fictional] character.”
Casterman editor Benoît Mouchart is quoted as saying:
“There is still a distressing confusion between what a character, a narrator and an author think … I feel like we are reliving the trial against Flaubert for Madame Bovary, or that of The Flowers of Evil of Baudelaire!”
Vivès within the piece mentioned that in his controversial works:
“I represent them in a comical way but I have zero incestuous or paedophilic fantasies.”
and,
“me, my fantasy is the enlargement of the body, both male and female”.
The writer has additionally posted a ten-panel cartoon on his Instagram lampooning the controversy.
For Angoulême, it’s as soon as once more at the receiving finish of controversy and is averse to backing down – seeing the battle as one about defending inventive freedom. Fausto Fasulo, co-artistic director of the competition advised Libération:
“Considering what he does – that is to say, just expressing himself artistically – it seems to me to this day [the controversy is] disproportionate.” With eradicating the exhibition being: “obviously out of the question. It would be a huge philosophical defeat”.
In the comics scene Bastien Vivès has change into a divisive determine, whose want to impress to be provocative displays poorly on the craft. Cartoonist Boulet mentioned on Twitter [translated], after being infuriated by Vivès’ attendance at a Les Crayons Solidaires charity occasion:
“My position has been the same for years: I think that Vivès makes despicable comments, behaves like shit on the networks and that he made drawings to be puked on. I told the orga[nisation] that I was disgusted that he was there tonight and that it pissed me off to be associated with him.”
Ma place est le même depuis des années: je pense que Vivès tient des propos abjects, se comporte comme une merde sur les réseaux et qu’il a fait des dessins à gerber.
J’ai dit à l’orga que j’étais dégoûté qu’il soit là ce soir et que ça me faisait chier d’être associé à lui.— -Boulet- (@Bouletcorp) December 1, 2022
Sophie Guerrive posted on Facebook [translated]:
“It goes with out saying that I’m, like many, fairly disturbed by the choice of the Fibd Angouleme to exhibit Bastien Vivès this yr.
“The man is sadly consultant of a entire fauna of male authors who confuse comedian e book storytelling with selfish sexual fantasy. It seems that he goes a bit additional than most, as Emma explains right here.
“I’m not comfy with militant motion and I believe the very best factor we are able to do as writers to counteract this nonsense is to attempt to make good comics to make it go away like the pc made the Minitel disappear. I do know that new generations of authors will succeed as a result of they’re actually nice.
“In the meantime, we can’t just say nothing.”
Other newer complaints levied against the competition have additionally resurfaced – calling out the collection of one other man with a historical past of manufacturing controversial materials for a carte blanche exhibition (the place he will get free rein to design as he needs) whereas solely two girls – Margeurite Abouet and Julie Doucet – are being given such headline remedy. Cartoonist and commentator Emma, posted on Facebook [translated]:
“If I inform you all this, it’s as a result of exterior the feminist sphere, everyone seems to be silent.
“[Social] Networking compels, the influential artists of the competition don’t converse out, or else very discreetly.
“Dear colleagues, it’s time to converse out clearly, publicly and visibly about this character and his unlawful productions.
“And to @bdangouleme: frankly, SHAME. Deprogram.”
Things proceed to warmth up and this story appears to solely be constructing.
Discussion about this post