Mangas

The exhibition Manga at the centre national du graphisme features a selection of historical references as well as contemporary and experimental productions originating from the means used in Japanese comic strips. The etymology of the term manga highlighted by the Japanese and international works shown, emphasizing the idea strolling, exaggerating, drifting and the relation of language to cinema  (man)  as openings to ways of writing and designing graphically (ga).

The artistic form manga was created by Yasuji Kitazawa. He signed his caricatures Rakuten Kitazawa, and his comic strip based on the plot of the narrative film of the Lumière Brothers, l’Arroseur Arrosé, published in 1902 in the illustrated pages of the newspaper Jiji Shinpo, was the first manga. This close relationship to cinematographic language is fundamental. The narrative does not necessarily lead to the punch-line but to the relation to an environment that contributes to the construction of the narrative. Thus, the strips by the mangaka, with their the rhythms, sequences, strokes break free from the Anglo-Saxon standards disseminated in late 19th century Japan.

The exhibition at le Signe is designed  as an exploration of this primal character of the genre and seeks the contemporary feature of this historical affiliation, without meaning to be comprehensive. It highlights the characteristics that are typical of manga, an art of movement, an art of subjects, an art of the times, an invitation to consider the particularities of this art of sequencing through contemporary and experimental works regardless of the geographic origins.

You can discover and consult a selection of historical and popular documents, as well as contemporary creations by the Japanese artists Nagi Noda, Daito Manabe, Tetsunori Tawaraya and Yuichi Yokoyama, as well as the French artists Shoboshobo, Corentin Garrido, Helmo and M/M Paris.