Bienal de Quadrinhos de Curitiba

Bienal de Quadrinhos de Curitiba is a Brazilian comic book festival held since 2011 in Curitiba.

History

In 2011, the event Gibicon nº 0 ("Gibi" is an informal way of calling comic books in Brazil) took place, with the subtitle "Curitiba's International Comics Convention", organized by Quadrinhofilia Produções Artísticas with Znort Ilustradores. They were invited by Curitiba's Cultural Foundation. There were several events, such as meetings, debates, lectures and exhibitions, held in different places in Curitiba (Gibiteca de Curitiba, Museum of Photography, Memorial de Curitiba, Goethe-Institut, Alliance française, Instituto Cervantes, Sesc Paço da Liberdade and Jokers Pub), with 32 Brazilian guests and seven international guests: Hervé Bourhis, Fabio Civitelli, Lucio Filippucci, Jens Hardes and Salvador Sanz. The event, which was made as a pilot project in anticipation of the 30th anniversary of Gibiteca (which would take place in 2012), had as main objective to assess the receptivity of the local public to this kind of event.^[1][2][3]

Gibicon reached about 10 thousand visitors in the "test" edition, so the event became regular from 2012 with Gibicon nº 1, this time effectively celebrating the 30th anniversary of Gibiteca de Curitiba. The event, whose periodicity was defined as a biennial for the subsequent editions, continued to be held in several locations around the city and increased the number of guests and related activities. The main activity was the exhibition Tesouros da Grafipar, in honor of Grafipar, a historic publishing house from Paraná.^[4][5][3]

In 2014, Gibicon nº 2 stopped being held in several places, concentrating its activities in the Municipal Museum of Art (MuMA). Exhibitions were held in honor of artists Solda (who also won the first edition of the Claudio Seto Award, started this year), David Lloyd, Kim Jung Gi, among others. This edition reached 20 thousand visitors and had more than 30 booths, in addition to several tables of independent artists.^[6][7][8]

With the end of the partnership between the event's organizers and Quadrinhofilia, which owned the name "Gibicon", the event was officially renamed the Bienal de Quadrinhos de Curitiba (Curitiba Comics Biennial) and had a mixed curatorship, formed by Mitie Taketani (owner of Itiban Comic Shop), by journalist Heitor Pitombo and by comic artists André Caliman, Lobo and Rafael Coutinho, in addition to consulting with Ibraim Roberson and Antônio Éder. With a project approved by the Rouanet Law, this edition received about 30 thousand people and brought as a novelty the availability of a space of 1,000 m² in three areas of the event for the Comics Fair, a space destined for artists, publishers and exhibitors to present and sell comics and related works. In addition, the following year, Curitiba's Cultural Foundation made official the intention to intersperse the Bienal with the event Traços Curitibanos, which is focused only on local artists and whose first edition, in 2015, also took place at MuMA.^{[9][10][11][12][3]}

In 2018, the Bienal had as its theme "The city in comics" (with the proposal to discuss the relationship between the urban environment and the body in different cultures) and curated by Mitie Taketani and journalist and translator Érico Assis. With more than 300 exhibitors and more than 60 invited artists, the event received about 30 thousand people. One of the main highlights was the exhibition of works of visual arts by architect Key Imaguire Jr., produced since the 1970s but until then unknown to the public. The works were presented at the insistence of Mitie, who had met the production when she invited the architect to be honored at the event.^{[13][14][15][16][17]}

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 edition of the Bienal was postponed to the following year, but an online edition of the event was still held in August with similar characteristics to the in-person event, with exhibitions, lectures, workshops, chats and debates (all carried out with the support of the event's social networks and digital platforms such as Zoom). The event was curated once again by Mitie, this time with the comic artist Fabio Zimbres and with the special curatorship of the musician and producer Vadeco Schettin on account of the event's theme: "Comics & music: the relationship and the mutual influences of these two forms of artistic expression".^[18][19][20]

In 2021, however, with the maintenance of restrictions for face-to-face events in Curitiba, the sixth edition of the Bienal was online again, but this time during five months, from August to December. It had the same theme as the 2020 online edition, "Comics & Music". In addition to having 140 national and international artists invited, the event also brought the launch of an unprecedented collection with works by Luiz Gê, artist honored in the edition, an online comics fair, lectures, debates, workshops, co-creation of works and actions aimed at to the public of cities in the metropolitan region of Curitiba.^[21][22]

Awards

In 2013, the then Gibicon received two of the most important Brazilian comics awards: the Jayme Cortez Trophy (which is part of Prêmio Angelo Agostini and aims to reward great contributions to Brazilian comics) and the Troféu HQ Mix for Best Event.^[23][24][25]

In 2020, the Bienal was again awarded at the Troféu HQ Mix, this time as Best Exhibition for "Angola Janga de Marcelo D'salette em Angola/Moçambique". The traveling exhibition was part of the "Brasil em Quadrinhos" project, a partnership between the Bienal and Itamaraty, and took the works of comics artist Marcelo D'Salete (especially the graphic novel Angola Janga) to Angola and Mozambique the previous year.^[26][27]

Locations and dates

No.	Date	Location	Notes
0	July 15–17, 2011	Many places	^[2]
1	October 25–28, 2012	Many places	^[5]
2	September 4–7, 2014	MuMA	^[7]
3	September 8–11, 2016	MuMA	^[11]
4	September 6–9, 2018	MuMA	^[14]
5	August 20–23, 2020	On-line	^[19]
6	August–December, 2021	On-line	^[21]

Prêmio Claudio Seto

In 2014, Bienal de Quadrinhos de Curitiba started the Prêmio Claudio Seto (Claudio Seto Award), in honor of the comic artist of the same name. Artists are awarded for their body of work, receiving the Maria Erótica Trophy (a famous character by Claudio Seto) and winning exhibitions, lectures and debates on the life and work of those honored.^[28][6][29]

Winners

• 2014 - Solda^[6]
• 2016 - Benício^[30]
• 2018 - Key Imaguire^[31]
• 2020 - Luiz Gê^[32]

References

1. "Gibicon 2011 - Conheça a programação" (in Portuguese). Omelete. June 17, 2011.
2. "A capital dos quadrinhos por três dias" (in Portuguese). Gazeta do Povo. July 13, 2011.
3. Aguiar, José (2019). Narrativas gráficas curitibanas: 210 anos de charges, cartuns e quadrinhos (PDF) (in Portuguese). Curitiba: Paraná Public Library. pp. 333–342. ISBN 978-85-66382-34-1.
4. "Gibiteca de Curitiba completa 30 anos de fundação nesta segunda-feira" (in Portuguese). G1. October 15, 2012.
5. "Gibicon já é uma das maiores convenções de quadrinhos do Brasil" (in Portuguese). Omelete. October 29, 2012.
6. "Gibicon de Curitiba vai reunir oficinas e exposições a partir desta quinta" (in Portuguese). G1. September 4, 2014.
7. "Exposições, palestras e performances movimentam a Gibicon 2" (in Portuguese). Curitiba City Hall. September 5, 2014.
8. "Nas entranhas do mercado editorial" (in Portuguese). Gazeta do Povo. September 8, 2014.
9. "Ex-Gibicon, Bienal de Quadrinhos de Curitiba terá Laerte e Jaguar em setembro no MuMA" (in Portuguese). Curitiba City Hall. May 10, 2016.
10. "A Bienal de Quadrinhos de Curitiba começa em menos de uma semana: "A ideia é colocar as HQs a serviço de uma possibilidade de transformação"" (in Portuguese). Vitralizado. September 2, 2016.
11. "Está chegando a Bienal de Quadrinhos de Curitiba" (in Portuguese). Universo HQ. September 5, 2016.
12. "Bienal de Quadrinhos começa nesta quinta (8) abordando questões sociais e políticas" (in Portuguese). Gazeta do Povo. September 7, 2016.
13. "Bienal de Quadrinhos discute HQ e cidades com artistas, palestras, debates e exposições" (in Portuguese). Bem Paraná. September 4, 2018.
14. "Começa na 5ª (6/9) a Bienal de Quadrinhos de Curitiba 2018" (in Portuguese). Vitralizado. September 5, 2018.
15. "'O Corpo é uma Cidade' na 5ª Bienal de Quadrinhos de Curitiba" (in Portuguese). A Escotilha. September 8, 2018.
16. "Exposição revela o arquiteto Key Imaguire que não estava no Google" (in Portuguese). Gazeta do Povo. September 9, 2018.
17. "Bienal de Quadrinhos teve 30 mil visitantes durante o feriado" (in Portuguese). Curitiba City Hall. September 10, 2018.
18. "Bienal de Quadrinhos de Curitiba é adiada para 2021" (in Portuguese). Omelete. May 13, 2020.
19. "Bienal de Quadrinhos de Curitiba terá versão on-line em 2020" (in Portuguese). Plural. August 3, 2020.
20. "Bienal de Quadrinhos Online Começa AMANHÃ!" (in Portuguese). Revo Space. August 19, 2020.
21. "Bienal de Quadrinhos reúne 140 artistas em evento gratuito e online" (in Portuguese). Jovem Nerd. August 11, 2021.
22. "Bienal de Quadrinhos terá 5 meses de programação cultural gratuita" (in Portuguese). Curitiba Cult. August 13, 2021.
23. "Divulgados os vencedores do 29º Prêmio Angelo Agostini" (in Portuguese). Universo HQ. January 14, 2013.
24. "Os vencedores do 25º Troféu HQ Mix" (in Portuguese). Universo HQ. July 19, 2013.
25. "Bienal de Quadrinhos em Curitiba termina com recorde de público" (in Portuguese). Medium. September 11, 2016.
26. "Quadrinhos brasileiros desembarcam na África" (in Portuguese). Rede Pará. July 11, 2019.
27. "Troféu HQMix 2020 anuncia vencedores; confira lista" (in Portuguese). Omelete. November 26, 2020.
28. "Convenção de Quadrinhos reúne mestres nacionais e internacionais no MuMA" (in Portuguese). Curitiba City Hall. September 3, 2014.
29. "Bienal de Quadrinhos de Curitiba 2018 - um evento à altura do quadrinho brasileiro" (in Portuguese). Raio Laser. October 1, 2018.
30. "Gibicon vira Bienal e celebra crescimento do setor" (in Portuguese). Gazeta do Povo. May 10, 2016.
31. "Bienal de Quadrinhos de Curitiba divulga lista de artistas convidados" (in Portuguese). Tribuna do Paraná. May 22, 2018.
32. "Traços & Notas: Luiz Gê é o homenageado da edição" (in Portuguese). Bienal de Quadrinhos de Curitiba. 2020.

External links

• Official website