20.—28. September 2024

Holešovická tržnice, Prague

The main exhibition of the 11th edition of the festival in 2024 focused on contemporary comics, which had always been somewhat secondary at LUSTR. The exhibition, entitled Out of the Stream, presented comic book artists from Czechia and abroad; they devoted themselves to ten different genres, most of which you won’t find in the publishing plans of large publishing houses. Visitors could enjoy, for example, the documentary comics of rising German comic star Mikael Ross, the quirky sitcoms of world-famous Anna Haifisch, or explore the Covid diaries of Portuguese artist Ana Margarida Matos, who approached the medium of comics with great ingenuity. Foreign guests at the exhibition also included Ivo Puiupo, whose playfully fierce comics traveled all the way from Brazil, and Zhenya Oliinyk, who brought her war reports with her from Ukraine. Most of the works by Czech exhibitors in this section could also be found in the new special Czech issue of the prestigious Latvian comic anthology Kuš!, which was published during the festival and which we were very happy about! It featured comic stories by twenty contemporary artists, whose work certainly convinced readers that comics are not just about superheroes, historical stories, or adventure literature for teenagers.

The traditional Showcase exhibition section once again presented the most interesting illustrators, comic book authors, and creative collectives who responded to the open call from around the world. We hoped that, like us, visitors would discover new names and enjoy seeing the most interesting developments in illustration and comics over the past year. For the fifth year in a row, we selected only authors who had not yet exhibited at our festival for this section, and every year we were amazed at how many new faces (portfolios, sketchbooks, and boards) came our way! The jury’s selection in 2024 was nicely diverse, and hopefully everyone found something they liked.

The National Salon was curated by American illustrator David Huang, whose work visitors could see at LUSTR last year. David has prepared a selection of contemporary illustrations from New York for us, and we are very grateful to him for giving us a glimpse into the local illustration scene through the eyes of an insider! Another international exhibition was prepared for us by Ukrainian illustrator and curator Anna Sarvira. Under her guidance, four Ukrainian illustrators created works on the theme of the future during a two-week artistic residency in the center of Prague from the beginning of September. The fruits of their labor could be seen in an exhibition entitled Future for Ukraine.

The interactive exhibition for children in 2024 was prepared by the popular creative duo Alžběta Zemanová and Martina Kupsová, who work under the name NAPOLI. And just like last year, the festival expanded beyond its main venue at the Holešovice Market. As part of the OFF program, visitors could also enjoy the exhibition Gardens of Eden, Gardens
Desolate. Nature and Landscape in Historical and Contemporary Illustration, in which masters of illumination and graphic art decorating late medieval herbariums or early modern cabinets of curiosities engaged in artistic dialogues with contemporary illustrators who had a soft spot for their drawing styles and drew inspiration from them.

A total of 4,200 visitors attended the festival at the main venue in Holešovice Market Hall (plus others at the Klementinum Gallery).

Festival Director:

Naděžda Bilinová

Curators:

Bára Müllerová (Out of the Stream:)

Jana Jarošová (Showcase)

David Huang (The New York salon)

Anna Sarvira (Future for Ukraine & Yellow and Blue)

Andy Yen (Taiwanese section)

Visual:

Graphic design: Alexandra Šliková

Illustrations: Nikola Logosová

Animation: panika.xyz

Architecture: RUINA office