Illustrator Asisko Urmeneta to represent Basque comics in Brussels

Basque comics will visit la Fête de la BD – Strip Feest, the great European comic festival, from September 13^th to 15^th in Brussels. The event offers an extensive programme of workshops, presentations, roundtables, conferences, exhibitions and a space where European editors can show their catalogues and new releases of graphic narrative. Over 100,000 visitors and 250 authors attend the festival every year and joining them this year will be Basque illustrator Asisko Urmeneta.

Basque comics will visit la Fête de la BD – Strip Feest, the great European comic festival, from September 13^th to 15^th in Brussels. The event offers an extensive programme of workshops, presentations, roundtables, conferences, exhibitions and a space where European editors can show their catalogues and new releases of graphic narrative. Over 100,000 visitors and 250 authors attend the festival every year and joining them this year will be Basque illustrator Asisko Urmeneta.

Basque participation at the fair is organized through the EUNIC network (European Union National Institutes for Culture), which the Etxepare Basque Institute has been part of since 2015, and in collaboration with the Basque Delegation for the European Union. Visitors to the EUNIC stand, located at the International Pavilion, will find a wide range of publications from the Basque Country, either in Basque or Spanish, as well as other titles from other EUNIC member countries such as Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Israel, Finland and Portugal. Visitors, professionals and editors of this sector will have the chance to become more familiar with Basque production.

Basque illustrator Asisko Urmeneta has been invited this time to the festival. Urmeneta will participate in two events on Saturday, September 14^th. At 11:00 a.m. he will offer a workshop in French titled “Caricature, graphic design and sequential art”. At 4 p.m. he will lead another workshop, this time alongside Portuguese illustrator and EUNIC member Paulo Monteiro: “Creating comics when you don’t know how to draw”, in English and French.

Several works by Urmeneta will be exhibited in a space attached to the stand, along with other works by the rest of the EUNIC country guest artists, to show the diversity of graphic works of the member countries. All the EUNIC guest artists will be signing sign their books at the fair; the book Urmeneta will be signing is AztiHitza (2018).

Ever since it has been a member of EUNIC Brussels, the Etxepare Basque Institute has worked together with the Basque delegation for the European Union to promote cultural diversity. The Institute has actively participated in transnational projects such as the Brussels Comic Strip Festival or Fête de la BD, and the Transpoesie poetry festival, also held in Brussels and starting this year on September 26^th.