Changing landscapes, imagined futures: LUSTR illustration and comics festival opens in Prague
The annual LUSTR festival of illustration and comics has got under way at Prague’s Holešovice Market. The 13th edition brings together more than a hundred Czech and international artists, with exhibitions, talks and workshops running until the end of the month.
The main theme of this year’s LUSTR festival is Landscape 2.0. It explores how the places we live in are being reshaped by human activity.
The festival looks at contemporary landscapes in the age of the Anthropocene, from mechanized and post-industrial cities to imagined landscapes of the future.
Barbora Müllerová, the festival’s main curator, explains why the theme was chosen:
“With LUSTR we always try to focus on topics that we feel to somehow be in the air – topics that are important for today's society. Because illustrators, as any other artists, of course, and comics creators as well, also focus on very important topics. It's not just about decorative art. And this special topic is very close to my heart for many years.”
One of the artists responding to the theme is Hungarian illustrator Attila Stark. His black-and-white series explores forests, mushrooms and birds, as well as the connections between trees and other plants, the role of dead wood in creating new life, and the impact of human activity such as logging.
“I studied graphic design, but besides that, I always made paintings and graphics for myself. Over the last eight years, I’ve really focused on nature and on different elements of nature, like forests, mushrooms, birds, anything. I try to mix in my work with elements from pop culture, like cartoons, comic books or other things from popular culture.”
Another regular part of LUSTR is the Showcase, an exhibition selected from an international open call. This year, the festival received nearly 800 submissions, from which the organisers had to select the artists whose work would go on display. Müllerová explains how they approached that task:
“There is a whole jury consisting of both people from the LUSTR organizing team, and in each section, illustration and comics, there is a jury of four other specialists from the field to have diverse perspectives. And here in the Showcase section, you can meet really leading stars from the international scene, as well as starting talents, students, and emerging artists, which is very dear to me.”
Among the younger artists featured in the Showcase is Marita Kelbu, whose diary drawings explore her experience of transition, and the thoughts and emotions that come with it.
“I’m an illustrator and apparently also a comic artist recently, because what I’m showing at LUSTR are my diary drawings. They show what’s going through my mind, what experiences I’m having through my transition, what I think about, what bothers me, and what I feel sad or joyful about. When I started putting these drawings online, I was quite surprised that people engaged with them and felt connected to them, so I continued.”
Swiss illustrator Fabian Meister is another artist selected for the Showcase. He is presenting short comics about ordinary people in unusual surroundings:
“This is my first time here in Prague. I sent these comics in to the open call, and I brought a collection of short stories about ordinary people in strange places. It’s about how their environment shapes their daily lives and their thoughts about the world.”
Visitors to LUSTR can also try their hand at different artistic techniques in a series of workshops, says Müllerová:
“The workshops are very playful. You can to try new techniques, like the printing by Risograph, with the Prague-based Risography studio Paper Can Dance, or to try stencil painting with Attila Stark.
“They are also workshop for kids. For example, one is led by designer Adriana Kolda, who created a Kids Corner exhibition for this year's LUSTR, which is like landscape created out of blocks of her block game Totemo. I think that will be very funny as well.”
Every year, LUSTR also gives space to an illustration scene from another country. This year, that country is Portugal. The dedicated exhibition presents five contemporary Portuguese illustrators and is curated by André Letria, an illustrator and founder of the internationally acclaimed publishing house Pato Lógico.
“There are five illustrators, very different from each other, but I think what connects them is this sense of modernity, of something that belongs to the present and can perhaps predict the future of Portuguese illustration. Portuguese illustration has been evolving a lot over the last 20 years, with a very multicultural scene that draws on references from very different countries and cultures.”
Alongside the exhibitions, LUSTR features lectures, discussions and other events for professionals and the general public.
The main festival runs at Prague’s Holešovice Market until September 30. A related LUSTR exhibition, Travel Diaries, Maps, and Guides: Illustration on the Road from the Renaissance to the Present, is already on at Letohrádek Hvězda and runs until October 20.
