Kubuni - Talk about African comic culture

Table of contents

1. 1. 1. To the interview
      2. About the exhibition
      3. Photo impressions November 8, 2021

To the interview

A new art world meets Dresden. Discover the francophone comics in the Kubuni exhibition in conversation with the director of the comic festival from Brazzaville, where the project originated.

"Kubuni" is a word in Swahili, the most widely spoken language on the African continent, and means drawing: this is the name of the next traveling exhibition of the Institute français d'Allemagne, which focuses on the diversity of African comic art and makes it tangible for the German public.

The original exhibition was conceived for the "Cité de la BD d'Angoulême" museum and was on display there from January to September 2021. After Berlin, the exhibition is now coming to Dresden.

OnNovember 8 at 7:30 pm, the art of Kubuni was presented in the Central Library, followed by a tour of the exhibition.
After a welcoming address by Lord Mayor Dirk Hilbert, Joëlle Epée Mandengue, curator of the original francophone exhibition and director of the "Bilili BD Festival" comic festival in Dresden's twin city Brazzaville, presented African comic culture in conversation with Prof. Dr. Karen Struve ( University of Bremen) and offered an introduction to the foreign visual worlds of the exhibited authors.

An event organized by the Institut français Dresden as part of the Dresden-Brazzaville city partnership of the state capital of Dresden - in cooperation with the Central Library and the Centrum Frankreich | Frankophonie of TU Dresden.
In French with German translation.

November 8, 2021, 7:30 pm

Conversation between Joëlle Epée Mandengue and Prof. Dr. Karen Struve
Welcome: Lord Mayor of Dresden, Mr. Dirk Hilbert (Cooperation City Partnership Dresden-Brazzaville)
Moderation: Sylvia Kindelberger (Municipal Libraries DD)
Translation into German: Dr. Matthias Kern (CFF, TU Dresden)

Central Library
Schlossstraße 2
01067 Dresden
Dresden, Germany

Admission free with advance registration at zentralbibliothek[at]bibo-dresden.de.
Admission: According to the applicable corona regulations

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About the exhibition

The exhibition Kubuni. Comics from Africa is a roadmap dedicated to the discovery of comics from sub-Saharan Africa from the past, present and future.

In view of the fact that comics from the African continent are the fruits of a very different historical and cultural heritage, is it even possible to speak of "the African comic"? Even the status of comics and their authors varies from one country to another: While in some regions it is considered "drawn literature" for children, in others it is counted among cartoonist works, if not merging with caricatures, illustrations, animated films and video games to form a common whole.

Even if it is therefore not possible to speak of THE one and indivisible African comic with a uniform graphic style, there are still aesthetic and thematic similarities between the various works. The French-, English- or Portuguese-speaking colonial heritage, but also the influence of manga as a result of the worldwide spread of Japanese culture, play an important role in this context. These different external influences, combined with a genuine return to local cultures and Afro-centric themes, have favored the emergence of comics that clearly show their belonging to the continent.

This traveling exhibition is a bilingual adaptation of the exhibition at the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l'image in Angoulême, curated by Joëlle Epée Mandengue (director of the Bilili Festival in Brazzaville) and Jean-Philippe Martin (Cité de la BD). The adaptation was coordinated by the Office for Books and Publishing of the Institute français Germany.

November 01, 2021 - November 30, 2021
Admission: free
Central Library
Schlossstraße 2
01067 Dresden
Dresden, Germany

Photo impressions November 8, 2021