On the eve of the 47th Angoulême International Comic Strip Festival, Franck Riester, Minister of Culture, is delighted with the growing success of BD 2020, with more than 700 events already announced in France and internationally.
On the eve of the 47th Angoulême International Comic Strip Festival, Franck Riester, Minister of Culture, is delighted with the growing success of BD 2020, with more than 700 events already announced in France and internationally.
Announced by Franck Riester, Minister of Culture, in December 2019, BD 2020 aims to increase the visibility of comics by creating new initiatives and highlighting existing actions in France and abroad. At all ages and in all forms, from graphic novels to comics and manga, France loves the 9th art!
The Angoulême International Comics Festival will be the first event of the National Year of Comics, with exhibitions, round tables, the most anticipated awards of the comic book edition and the presence of the greatest authors of the sector. Among them, three of the four sponsors of BD 2020: Florence Cestac, Régis Loisel, Jul and Catherine Meurisse.
More than 700 events are already planned in France and abroad. More than 500 places are mobilized to support BD 2020, nearly 80% of them in the region. Many museums, libraries and media centres, schools and universities, bookshops and local authorities will offer throughout the year, all over France, meetings of authors, animations dedicated to the enhancement of comics. These events will be opportunities to witness the deep attachment of French people to comics.
Among the major events scheduled to date, the public will be able to discover, notably in Angoulême, the exhibition dedicated to the work of Lewis Trondheim at the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l'image from January 29 to May 10, 2020; a large exhibition at the Palace of Versailles, from May to September 2020, dedicated to the representation of the castle in the comic book; the first exhibition dedicated to the links between Pablo Picasso and the comic book at the Picasso Museum from 31 March to 26 July 2020; a symphonic concert drawn at the Philharmonie de Paris from December 1 to 5, 2020, and the presentation of comics from Africa, South America, Australia and Asia throughout the year at the Musée du Quai-Branly-Jacques Chirac.
Throughout France, BD fairs and festivals will also mobilize to offer exceptional programming. Lyon BD and Quai des Bulles in Saint-Malo will propose, for example, initiatives throughout the year.
Internationally, the French cultural network abroad (Services culturels des ambassades, Instituts français à l'étranger and Alliances françaises) will offer several events in a dozen countries, like the French comic book tours organized in North America by the Service de coopération et d'action culturelle and the Toronto comic strip festival in partnership with the French embassies in Canada and the United States.
Many ministries and public and private partners are, moreover, invested in ensuring that the BD is present as widely as possible and reaches all audiences with, notably, BD exhibitions in several SNCF stations in France via a partnership with SNCF Gares & Connexions and events organized on motorway areas thanks to the Fondation d'entreprise Vinci Autoroutes and Vinci Airports.