Overview

For this 10th edition, the Foundation is honouring comic books as a sensitive and powerful tool for humanitarian testimony, welcoming three authors whose works echo with their humanity and commitment: the anthropologist and project manager for gender equality at the Haute-Garonne Departmental Council, Catherine Monnot-Berranger (L’appel des bouts du monde. Une vie d’humanitaire) and the illustrators Kek (Un coin d’humanité) and Nicolas Wild (À la Maison des femmes). All three of them chose to tell, through comic bubble and illustrations, journeys, encounters, glimpses of life experienced or observed in the field of solidarity work. Through their eyes, comics and humanitarian work become accessible to all, capable of conveying the complexity of reality with emotion, modesty and clarity.

Drawings and texts combine to convey a powerful message that is both intimate and universal. Highly prized in the humanitarian field, comics make it possible to tell the untold stories, to give a voice to those who are rarely heard, and to raise awareness on a large scale without ever losing sight of the human dimension.

This meeting will be an opportunity to revisit the intentions, journeys and stories behind each comic album, and to reflect together on the growing role of comics in sharing humanitarian causes.

Catherine Monnot-Berranger will tell us about her work L’appel des bouts du monde. Une vie d’humanitaire.

Young nurse in Cherbourg in the mid-70s, Joëlle discovers by random chance the contact details of Doctors without Borders in a magazine at the hair salon. Three weeks later, there she is, enfer the fires of war-torn Beirut. It’s a shock,and it is now impossible for her to resume to a “normal” life. In fourty years, Joëlle has experienced all of the major crises of the late 20th century : Congo, Haïti, Afghanistan and many mores… A life of tarmacs and major international aid organizations like the Red-Cross or Aide Médicale Internationale. During her travels, she sees her volunteering activity structuring and the birth of humanitarian careers, just like hers, that she looks back at with emotions but without sentimentality.

Kek will share his experience as a volunteer with Restos du Cœur, which he recounts in Un coin d’humanité.

We’ve all got lost at some point in our lives, but for some, that lasts a little too long. For those people, 70,000 volunteers at Restos du Cœur are there all year round, offering the warmth of a meal, a chat or a helping hand at a time when social interaction is limited. In this comic album, begun during the suspended time of lockdown in spring 2020, Kek shares his experience as a volunteer, sketching engaging and moving portraits throughout his chronicles, filled with humour, tenderness, and much more than just a glimpse of humanity.

All royalties and the publisher’s margin are donated to Les Restos du Cœur.

Eventually, Nicolas Wild will recount his encounters at the Maison des Femmes in Nanterre, which he describes in A la maison des femmes.

Ghada Hatem, doctor, Inna Modja, singer, two destinies that align for the cause of women. They, and so many others, bring life to a house dedicated to them. Nicolas Wild went to meet them. Violent acts against women are more visible than before. However, these advances are fragile, and there are still fears that the effect won’t last. Wills were gathered at the Maison des femmes at the plaine Saint Denis, who persists in helping those in needs. Nicolas Wild, a true emotional sponge, went to interview them. His report is powerful and inspiring…

Schedule

• 1:00 p.m – 1:05 p.m : Welcoming speech
• 1:00 p.m – 1:50 p.m : Talks by the three authors Catherine Monnot-Berranger, Kek and Nicolas Wild
• 1:50 p.m – 2.30 p.m : Q and A and discussion.

The speakers

Catherine Monnot-Berranger is a project director for gender equallity at the Conseil départemental of Haute-Garonne. Graduate in anthropology, she wrote in 2009 Petites filles d’aujourd’hui. L’apprentissage de la féminité, published by Autrement. In 2016, she published Gabriela, Rom de France (published by Le Vent se lève), the testimony of a rom woman living in a slum outside Toulouse, of whom she collects the story through ethnographic interviews. It was through her husband, a former humanitarian worker, that she met Joëlle, whose story she recorded in order to write L’Appel des bouts du monde, a realistic and sensitive comic album on the developments in the humanitarian field.

You can find her book here.

Kek was born in Dunkerke in 1979. He started to create websites and videogames as a freelance IT developper. It is during an intership at the Psikopat magazine, and then by creating games for some papers (Fluide Glacial, Spirou, Charlie Hebdo…), that he entered the world of comic books. He learned a few tricks to be able to draw and launched on his blog his first illustrated story : Virginie. The comic album is shortly after published thanks to Lewis Trondheim, who gave him the best advice : no need to draw nicely to tell beautiful stories.

His comic book Un coin d’humanité is available here

Nicolas Wild is a french comic books author which explores various themes related to contemporary geopolitics. He published graphic novels on various subjects like urbanism in Phnom Penh, reconstruction of Afghanistan, the Zoroastrian religion in Iran, War in Ukraine, Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal or domestic violences in France. He also co-directed for the TV channel Arte, a documentary on the israeli-palestinian conflict and another on the profession of press cartoonist in the USA.

His comic book A la maison des femmes is available here 

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Top of the page photo : ©Miika Laaksonen on Unsplash