The art of comics was exhibited at BilBolBul – Francesco Boille

One of the most original, if not the most original and cultural, festivals of Italian comics is back, the Bolognese BilBolBul (2-5 December 2021), now in its fifteenth edition. There are many worthy appointments, but that dialogue with contemporary art, underlining and reasoning about the boundaries of comics with it, as well as about comics itself, as the festival directed by Emilio Varrà and the Hamelin association manages, is really rare. .

After the near suspension of last year, replaced by a more restricted and above all virtual edition, it was therefore a real pleasure to find ourselves already on the first day at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna where we talked about the graphic novel in this country. The title of the meeting, “Yesterday, today, tomorrow. Twenty years of graphic novels in Italy “, says a lot about the topics discussed by authors, critics and publishers such as Igort, Daniele Brolli, Fumettibrutti, Elettra Stamboulis, Enrico Fornaroli, Matteo Stefanelli, Alessandro Bilotta (the screenwriter of Mercurio Law), Alice Milani, Sara Colaone, Daniele Barbieri, Otto Gabos, Paolo Bacilieri, but also the French David B – who has lived in Bologna for years and is married to an Italian – and with some absentees of the last hour but fully justified, like Vanna Vinci who, however, sent a statement.

Bologna was in fact the forge of the graphic novel in Italy, because many of the publishing houses that determined it were born here, starting with Coconino press, founded in 2000 by Igort with others. Various ideas and lines emerged, expressed clearly also for the public. Among these is the question of the marginalization of female authors in the past. Refuted by Daniele Brolli, who recalled that there were already many in the seventies and eighties, even if, it must be said, not majority or numerically equal. And we add that the percentage inevitably drops when we move on to the masters of comics: among the few figures certainly Claire Bretécher, the brilliant author of The frustrated, which, however, knew how to be universal and not very gendered. Less teachers than the masters, therefore, the notable authors were however many: from Anna Brandoli to Cinzia Ghigliano, passing through Grazia Nidasio, to name three Italians. However, emergence was not always easy for them in those days.

But before continuing we want to say that we would like to see a greater commitment by the municipality of Bologna, towards this now historic and unique festival, born when Sergio Cofferati was mayor of the Emilian capital. For one reason or another, many elements that gave visibility and centrality to the festival both towards visitors and towards citizens have been suppressed: from the location once spring and now winter to the disappearance of the exhibition panels in Piazza Maggiore, passing through the ” elimination of the prestigious seat of the Archaeological museum, which housed the exhibitions dedicated to the masters of comics, until the disappearance, this year, of the usual meeting, information and bookshop point in the Borsa room, also located in Piazza Maggiore and now in the much less central space Das (Experimental arts device), albeit well set up. Whatever the reasons, the problems underlying these choices, we cannot fail to note the progressive drift and the fact that nothing really compensating has been put in place.

This has not prevented the festival from being a success again this year and from having long queues at the inaugurations of the exhibitions located at the Academy of Fine Arts and especially in private galleries (some of these have a longer duration than that of the festival and in this sense we invite you to go to the site to check) and the rooms full of public for interviews or meetings with the authors. In total there are nine main exhibitions, twenty-five meetings, twenty-four exhibitions Off. The authors, especially the younger ones, certainly played a significant role in this success. Today one gets the impression that they are on a par on a quantitative level, perhaps even in the majority, even if it is difficult to accurately determine a state of the places, taking into account that the schools of comics and visual arts around the world are constantly changing numbers.

Certainly this is especially true of exposure Invisible lines (a project co-financed by the Creative Europe program of the European Union in collaboration with Institut français Italia, Czech literary center, Goethe institut Rome, academy of fine arts of Bologna), which sees, out of the twelve talents from all over Europe, the presence of only three men. The rest are all authors. Beautiful exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts, which allows you to appreciate the original drawings by the Belgian Lode Herregods and Lisa Ottenburgh, the Polish Barbora Satranská and Katarzyna Miechowicz, the French-Brazilian architect Clara Chotil, the German Mia Oberländer, of the Italian Elena Pagliani, from the Czech Lucie Lučanská. From walking through the Brumov wood in the Czech Republic to investigate the changes in the landscape and what it means for those who live there, to telling about the refugees from the Bernanos reception center in Strasbourg, a strong ability to transfigure the forms of reality emerges. and in particular the architectures. Without forgetting the Swedish Bim Eriksson, of which Internazionale in the issue currently on newsstands proposes her Venetian excursion with a postcard from Venice.

But even the men, few but excellent, defended themselves well: from the French Léopold Prudhon, one of the revelations of this festival who recently published a book for the French Association, to the Italian Marco Quadri, collaborator of prestigious publications such as the New Yorker, passing through Omar Cheikh, who graduated in animation film and illustration at the School of the book in Urbino. It should be remembered that the path of these young authors was accompanied by Stefano Ricci, one of the most significant artists of comics and illustration and well known to the readers of Internazionale, by the French Yvan Alagbé, with family origins from Benin, another important author of whose Canicola edizioni edited the fundamental in 2019 Yellow niggers and other imaginary creatures (Internazionale published a large excerpt), and by the illustrator and designer Juraj Horváth of the Baobab editions, while the exhibition was curated by Hamelin together with Elena Pagliani. Noteworthy, also for the quality of the edition, the two volumes published on this occasion, Comic pilgrims, published by Baobab, e Invisible lines, instead, published by Squadro graphic editions in the Sigaretten series. We recommend the reader to purchase these two hidden and limited edition jewels.

The exhibition of Zuzu is very remarkable. Just arrived at her second book, she is not only a revelation as an author but as a new star of comics tout-court. The original drawings of his new book are housed in the Squadro art gallery from which the homonymous editions derive. Happy days (Coconino press), one of the best of the year. After surprising everyone with Cheese, his debut work, is now relaunching with a book over double the length and all in color. We wrote about the great good that we think of this festival of color (and much more) in our column for the print magazine. However, the other exhibitions that we let you discover here are no less interesting.

The meetings with the authors are also important. A teacher of comics, and not only of illustration, like Gabriella Giandelli, a collaborator of our newspaper for years, but absent for too long with her stories, speaks very well and with depth of gaze on life and work. Each of his drawings, even the smallest, and in a partly mysterious way, expresses a deep, sweet feeling, even if perhaps sad or melancholy. As the American Anders Nilsen speaks in depth in his talks (in the second David B was also present to ask him questions). Author of some postcards for Internazionale in the space of graphic journalism, he is one of the great poets of the new generation of international comics. His Big questions – “one of the most important graphic novels of the last decade”, to put it in the press release of the festival – was premiered at the festival by Eris edizioni who will send it to bookstores in January. If it had come out this year we would have elected it graphic novel of the year, but it’s also in a great position for 2022.

The Swiss Frédérik Peeters, author of this year’s BilBolBul manifesto, is a pop artist, as he humbly likes to define himself, who works deeply on the unconscious and, within the architecture of the genre system (science fiction, crime, western ), speaks of serious issues: illness, death, misfortunes. But also of the little-big happinesses of life; the Frenchman Antoine Cossé, who tells reality as if it were magic, through a soft sign made of voluptuous stains and expertly managed graphic subtraction; all meetings on Invisible lines which was attended by a leading author such as Manuele Fior. Dating now all online here.

Invisible lines, abstraction, graphic subtraction. Historically, much of the essence of comics lies here. As shown by the great exhibitions on the masters of comics (the one of 2019 dedicated to the Argentine giant Alberto Breccia is memorable). This year absent for the first time but with the fervent hope of finding them again next year.