Architecture & Comics - The City, Illustrated
07.06.2010 - 28.11.2010
Palais de Chaillot 1 place du Trocadero 75016 Paris, France
A general introduction
From the beginning of the 20th century, with authors like Winsor McCay (Little Nemo), George McManus (Bringing Up Father), Frank O. King (Gasoline Alley) and Alain Saint-Ogan (Zig et Puce), comics have explored the city, fascinated by the emerging world that they represent. This theme does not only cover the city itself, but also the elements directly related to it including architecture, urban development, design, history and politics. It became an ideal format for aesthetic descriptions and reflections on the modern world with authors such as Fran?ois Schuiten, Beno?t Peeters, Enki Bilal, and Moebius. The exhibition will portray representations of the city in comics and does not aim to be exhaustive.
Works will be arranged chronologically from the 1900s to the present day, with special projects presented at the end of the exhibition: the imaginary city of Villemolle by Requins Marteaux, the Herge museum, the Maison de Verre, an order from Jean Nouvel to comic book authors.
This chronological display includes references to different cities. New-York, Paris and Tokyo will be observed through the prism of authors like Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, David Mazzuchelli and Riad Sattouf for New York; Blutch, Tardi and Dupuy-Berberian for Paris; Jiro Taniguchi, Osamu Tezuka, Toiyo Matsumoto and Maoki Urasawa for Tokyo. This international dimension will be supported by the presence of Chinese and Korean authors.
The exhibition will also investigate the close relationship and affinities between authors of different generations, like the ligne claire of the end of the 1970s (Joost Swarte, Ted Benoit, Floch) which draws inspiration from the Belgian comic book masters of the 1950s and 1960s: Andre Franquin, Maurice Tilleux, Will.
A diverse array of works and creators with original scenography
The Archi & BD exhibition will portray a vision of the artistic and cultural depth of comics to the general public through a century of creation. The scenography is designed by Projectiles and makes original use of light and space to highlight the presented works.
This exhibition includes a total of 150 international authors and 350 works and aims to show how modern comics are pushing the boundaries of creativity, with comic authors closely linked to contemporary art such as Jochen Gerner, Ilan Manouach, Dominique Goblet, Thierry Van Hasselt, and Christopher Hittinger.
Architectural representations and urban fiction
This exhibition is a dialogue between architecture and comics. Models, sketches, town plans and creations, public buildings and villas, utopias drawn by the greatest architects reminding us of the familiarity of these imagined realities.
In contrast to the plates of the comic authors where the city is heroine, architectural works reveal how they in turn have been influenced by the 9th art. This section of the exhibition focuses on the way architecture and the city are represented and attempts to explore the closely linked illustrated worlds from the 1910s (Sant Elia) to the present day (BIG, Herzog & De Meuron and Andre Jaque), not forgetting the 1970s (Archigram, Coop Himmelblau and Jean Balladur).
The many visions of the city reveal a tendency to imagine the future and a desire to explore new ways of life. To London, Vienna, Madrid or Paris; it is an invitation to journey through urban fiction and the most fantastical metropolitan scripts.
In order for the marriage between architecture and comics to be a success, the Cite de l Architecture has decided on a joint-curatorship between Jean-Marc Thevenet, director of the Angouleme International Comics Festival from 1998 to 2006, and Francis Rambert, director of the Institut Francais d Architecture. |
September 2010
