LUSTR ON TOUR

LUSTR embarked on its exhibition tour in 2017, starting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and has since continued its journey around the world. Following a successful showcase at the Czech Centre in Berlin, exhibitions were held in various cities. Subsequent exhibitions took place at the LokArt Gallery in Broumov, at the Czech House in Jerusalem, at the MORS Festival in Moscow, at the Ravenstein Gallery in Brussels, at the Czech Centre in Munich, at the Moving Station Gallery in Pilsen, at the Dobra vaga gallery in Ljubljana, and then once again at the Moving Station Gallery in Pilsen in 2022. Towards the end of the same year, two simultaneous LUSTR ON TOUR exhibitions took place, one as part of the Gran Salón Mexico festival in Mexico City, and the other in London at the Vitrínka Gallery. In spring 2023, in collaboration with the Czech Centres, we presented a selection of the most intriguing illustrators from the last LUSTR festival at the Jerusalem Cinematheque in Israel.

In 2023, we signed a three-year agreement with the Taipei Illustration Fair for mutual reciprocity among exhibitors. Based on this agreement, Czech illustrators selected by the Taiwanese organizer and curator of the fair showcased their work at the Taipei Illustration Fair 2023 during their visit to the LUSTR illustration festival in Prague.

In 2024, thanks to the support of the European Union through the National Recovery Plan and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, we will have the opportunity to attend the Taipei Illustration Fair as organizers and curators from the LUSTR festival. We will present works by five Czech exhibitors from this year’s illustration and comics festival in Prague. In addition to the exhibition in Taipei, we also plan to present a special Czech edition of the Kuš! anthology and hold a lecture on design in Eastern Europe in collaboration with Polish Graphic Design. The Taipei Illustration Fair will take place from December 6 to 8, 2024.

For 2025, we aim to secure support for the participation and presentation of three Czech illustrators or comics creators in Taipei. Interested individuals can register for portfolio consultations with Andy Yen from the Taipei Illustration Fair, which will take place on September 23 and 24, 2024, as part of the accompanying program for the LUSTR illustration and comics festival at the Holešovice market in Prague.

Scratchy Lines, Missing Bubbles

Showcase of Contemporary Czech Comics

What comes to mind when you say comics? For some, American superhero universes, for others, classics of the Francophone world like Tintin. For those who are more familiar with contemporary work, one of the many adaptations of historical events, perhaps an adventure story, an adaptation of a famous novel, or a comic biography inspired by the work of David B., Alison Bechdel, or Marjane Satrapi, might spring to mind. But you won’t find anything like that in this exhibition.

The fact that in the comics scene in the Czech Republic, which this exhibition introduces, you will find a number of creators with an approach completely different from globally established genres and aesthetics, can be understood as proof that the Czech scene has really flourished in recent years. However the big publishing houses rather stick to genres such as adventure, historical and autobiographical stories and esthetics derived from classical Anglo-American and French-Belgium comics schools, here and there, even in ordinary production, some kind of experiment appears. The scene surrounding independent magazines, small publishers and risograph studios producing comics in small editions is significantly richer in terms of expression and topics. Here you will find comics from genres such as fantasy, diary and reportage-documentary entries, educational, dreamlike or surrealist, horror, science fiction and queer graphic stories, sitcoms, or (perhaps a little difficult to classify) pieces of visual poetry.

A number of the exhibited works can also be found simultaneously in the Latvian comics anthology, Kuš!, which is currently publishing a special Czech issue in cooperation with festival of illustration and comics LUSTR based in Prague. Many thanks to David Schilter, who has been managing this extremely bold, playful, and varied content of Kuš! for years! Under David’s leadership, Kuš! has been tirelessly sparking enthusiasm for non-mainstream comics around the world, helping to raise the profile of what shouldn’t be lost, encouraging comics creators from all over the world not to shy away from creating something new, unusual or even weird. And that is exactly what this exhibition is all about. Enjoy our selection of contemporary Czech comics with scratchy lines and missing bubbles.

With the financial support of the European Union, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Czech Recovery Plan.

Exhibition will be in Kalnciema galerija, Kalnciema Iela 35, Riga, Latvia

18. 10. -2. 11. 2024

Opening 17. 10. at 18:00

Opening hours:

Mo-Fr 10:00-18:00

Sa 10:00-16:00