Indigenous comics to shine at French festival

2014-12-26

A theme exhibition of comic pictures depicting local indigenous cultures will be featured for the first time at the International Festival of Comics in Angouleme, Europe’s largest comics fair, according to the New Taipei City Government Dec. 23.

A total of 50 pieces by 15 artists from Taiwan will be showcased at the four-day event launched Jan. 29, 2015. The artworks cover a wide array of subjects such as harvest festivals, myths and legends, and tribal totems.

“We are proud to be invited to the prominent event and introduce the unique beauty of Taiwan’s aboriginal cultures to comics lovers worldwide,” an official from the Indigenous Peoples Department of the city government said.

“These brilliant works will open the eyes of graphic arts fans abroad to the fascinating heritage of these groups of people.”

According to the official, festival organizers Florian Rubis and Stephane Beaujean were impressed with the diversity and richness of local indigenous traditions during a visit to “Aboriginal Impressions,” an NTCG-organized art event held in New Taipei in August. The two immediately invited the city government to take part in the French event.

The creativity of the artists is sure to amaze festival goers, the official said. Though all of them possess an enormous amount of talent, illustrator Yu Han-yuan is especially outstanding.

“Yu excels at creating unforgettable pieces based on Taiwan aboriginal costumes. One of his works made the cover of the April edition of world-renowned digital arts magazine ImagineFX,” she said.

Another equally exceptional artist is Rita Liu. A 2012 communication design winner of the Germany-based design competition Red Dot Award, the artist specializes in telling moving stories and producing exquisite lines and shapes for comic book characters, as well as commercial advertisements, the official said.

Entering into its 42nd year, the festival is on par with the San Diego Comic Convention in the U.S. as the world’s two biggest art festivals for comics. It attracted 2,000 artists and 275 exhibitors from 48 countries and territories in 2014.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=225601&CtNode=413)