21.—26. September. 2023

Holešovická tržnice, Prague

The tenth edition of LUSTR was a gathering of ten illustration and comic book festivals from around the world. Illustrators, comic book creators, and curators from Hong Kong, Spain, Slovenia, Belgium, Germany, Taiwan, France, Greece, and Hungary met in Prague to create a “meta-festival”—a festival of festivals that survived the COVID era. This time, the national salon featured an atypical recap of Czech artists who have shone the brightest at LUSTR over the past ten years. The exhibition also included an exhibition by the illustrator duo Tomski&Polanski, who celebrated their tenth anniversary, and the Prague premiere of the exhibition Kdo vypráví komu o čem (Who Tells Whom About What), with which David Böhm and Jiří Franta scored a hit in London. In addition, as every year, the festival prepared a Showcase section for young talents, presenting undiscovered talents in illustration and comics.

The LUSTR Festival celebrated its tenth anniversary in the fall, so this year’s edition was marked by a festive spirit. At the same time, the organizers prepared a number of changes. The first and most significant was the relocation of the festival to the Holešovice Market Hall, where the festival occupied several halls. However, as every year, the program had something for everyone interested in illustration and comics, whether professionals (creators or publishers), students, or the general public, including families with children.

The main exhibition, entitled Metafest, presented foreign illustrators and comic book artists selected in their regions by ten curators from similar foreign festivals. To celebrate its tenth anniversary, LUSTR brought guests from all over the world: the German scene was presented by curators from the Comics Festival Hamburg, Slovenian artists were selected by Tanja Skale from the Tinta festival, Belgians were represented by the Grafixx festival, and the curatorial team of the Irudika festival sent their selection from the Basque Country. Greek illustrators were selected for the Prague exhibition by Rafaela Karagianni from the Illustra Days festival in Athens. Overseas guests at LUSTR included artists selected by the Taipei Illustration Fair and IFVA, organized by the Hong Kong Arts Centre. Artists from the alternative scene were presented by Germany’s Snail Eye, Hungary’s Ukmukfukk, and France’s Future Off festival, which focuses on alternative comics. The tenth edition of Prague’s LUSTR thus became a kind of “meta-festival” celebrating cultural events that survived the COVID pandemic.

In recent years, the festival has regularly devoted part of its exhibition program to individual national scenes. Following exhibitions of Mexican and Japanese illustration in this salon, this time Czech artists were presented. The director and co-founder of the LUSTR festival selected the artists who had shone most brightly at the festival over the past ten years. The Czech salon then offered viewers their new, contemporary work. Among the exhibitors were Nikola Logosová, Barbora Idesová, Martin Lacko, the creative duo Jan Šrámek and Veronika Vlková, Juliána Chomová, and Patrik Antczak.

In addition to LUSTR, the illustrator duo Tomski&Polanski also celebrated their tenth anniversary, to which part of the exhibition program was also dedicated. Visitors thus had a unique opportunity to see a broader overview of the work of Lukáš Tomski and Ilona Polanski, who are among the most successful creators of contemporary Czech illustration. Among the established names contributing to this year’s exhibition was the creative duo David Böhm and Jiří Franta, whose exhibition Kdo vypráví komu o čem (Who Tells Whom About What), created for the Vitrínka gallery in London, had its Czech premiere at LUSTR.

The last traditional part of the exhibition program was the Showcase of young talents, a free exhibition of the best work produced in the studios of young illustrators and comic book artists over the past year. Through this section, the festival wanted to offer the very latest from the illustration scene and also introduce new names. The showcase was again divided into two separate sections: comics and free illustration. The exhibitors were selected by a professional jury, which this time included publishers Ivana Pecháčková and Michal Štěpánek, illustrators Barbora Tögel and Jakub Bachorík, and editor-in-chief of the cultural magazine A2 Lukáš Rychetský. The role of juror for the comics section was taken on by publisher Michał Słomka, comic artists Marek Rubec and Klára Zahrádková, Václav Šlajch, a teacher at the Pilsen Faculty of Design and Art, and Klára Vöröšová, director of the Frame festival. The festival also prepared an accompanying program consisting of lectures, workshops, presentations, live comic book readings, and discussions with festival guests. Visitors could look forward to personal meetings with illustrators, comic book artists, publishers, screenwriters, and foreign curators, both in practical workshops for children and adults and during a series of talks and presentations.

The authors of the visual style were illustrator Alžběta Zemanová, one of last year’s LUSTRU audience award winners, and graphic designer Alexandra Šliková.

Festival Director:

Naděžda Bilinová

Curators:

Bára Müllerová (Metafest)

Jana Jarošová (Showcase)

Naděžda Bilinová (Czech salon)

Andy Yen (Taiwanese section)

Visual:

Graphic design: Alexandra Šliková

Illustrations: Alžběta Zemanová

Animation: panika.xyz