Tinta Comics Festival
Le Dernier Cri: Mondo DC
exhibition of prints and comics
Alkatraz Gallery, AKC Metelkova mesto, Ljubljana
OPENING: Friday, 6 October 2023, at 21.00 (until 3. 11. 2023)

As part of the Tinta festival, we will be hosting the famous French graphic underground publishing house, Le Dernier Cri. With its domicile in Marseilles, Le Dernier Cri is focused on publishing various graphic monographs (including comics) and all kinds of prints, wherein it occasionally produces animated and feature films. In terms of the program, the publishing house is powered by the rich tradition of the underground and so-called brut art as well as various subcultures. Its main protagonists mostly came from French or Parisian punk scene of the 1980s and 1990s, but later, numerous authors from the international environment were also included in the program. The publishing house specializes in silkscreen prints; its publications are characterized by the use of extraordinarily lively colours, peculiar sensuality and interest in details – it consciously relies on the tradition of art brut aesthetics, applied in the area of comics, illustrations and animation. The characteristic iconography that originates in this publishing house is based on images that are both seductive and repulsive, which, ultimately, holds true also for the content itself, which is not lacking in provocation.

The exhibition in the Alkatraz Gallery shall feature a wide selection of works from the rich artistic heritage of the Le Dernier Cri, where, since its foundation in 1993, they have published over 300 literary titles as well as an innumerable amount of various other prints, mostly graphics (posters), audio carriers and animated films. The opening of the exhibition will also be attended by one of the founders and a driving force of the Le Dernier Cri, an author of comics and graphic artist, Pakito Bolino.

The publishing house, which also publishes the magazine Hôpital Brut, collaborates with numerous artists from Europe, both Americas and Japan; among its protégés is also the Slovenian artist Vasja Lebarič, who will support the opening of the exhibition with a unique event in the nearby Grejpfrut studio.

Alkatraz Gallery opening times: Monday—Friday: 11.00—19.00.

photo: DK

production: Stripburger / Forum Ljubljana
co-production: KUD Mreža