With sharp pencils, around ten French and foreign designers respond to the call from the Pont-en-Royans water museum, the weekend of June 29 and 30. Against a backdrop of music and meetings with the public, some 200 drawings on the theme of the fragility of water resources will be exhibited. A serious subject, made even more concrete by a few touches of humor.
“Humor, even dark humor, sometimes, there is nothing like it to get messages across”. For more than 20 years that it has existed, the Pont-en-Royans water museum has done everything to send “Bottles in the sea” on the fragility of the natural resource that surrounds it.With the Bourne nearby, where two thirds of the water in the Vercors massif flows, we are surrounded by water here”explains Jean-Christophe Berrux, the director of the museum.
This is not the first time that the museum of the small Isère town has relied on a group of designers to get its message across. It benefits from a choice ambassador to unite them in the person of Pierre Ballouhey. A fine pen from Saint-Marcellin, who is also president of the “France-Cartoons” cartoonists association.
“The idea of organizing a mini-festival allowing cartoonists to meet their public comes from a long way back“, explains the man whose signature “Ballouhey” scratches each of his caricatures, sometimes with vitriol. “I was explaining one day to an elected official in the city that I was returning from a very nice festival south of Bastia (Upper Corsica), where cartoonists and the public met against the backdrop of an exhibition of drawings and world music. He then said to me: ‘but why don’t you do it here?’“
The first edition of “Cartoons sur le pont” was born. With, from Saturday June 29 in the morning, the opening, with a musical background, of an exhibition of some 200 humorous and press cartoons in large format, signed by some thirty great authors of the genre. Locals, like the Albertvillois Million or the Grenoblois Cambon, but also foreigners like the Italian caricaturists Marinela Nardi and Marco de Angelis.All friends from France-Cartoons“, summarizes Ballouhey, whose association has spread beyond the Alps.
Friends again, the 12 designers staying in the city at the foot of the Vercors until Sunday evening. “There will be few speeches from elected officials during the opening, we promise,” adds the Isère designer in a caustic tone. “Instead, we will propose ‘battles’ of pencil strokes between designers. And then, on the large sheets of paper of a ‘paper board’, we will be able to challenge each other in the style of ‘Tac o Tac’.“, inspired by a famous television show from the 1970s.
“Welcoming these drawings and these designers is a real breath of fresh air for us.“, enthuses the museum director, between two hangings of large-format drawings. A sip of cold water would undoubtedly have been more appropriate for Jean-Christophe Berrux. He who has strived, since the creation of the museum, to “preach” to its 25,000 to 30,000 annual visitors, that water is a fragile heritage of humanity.
A drawing by Tignous, (one of the members of the Charlie Hebdo team assassinated by terrorists on January 7, 2015) presented in the exhibition “Cartoons on the bridge”. Until March 31, 2025
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© Courtesy of “France Cartoons”
However, in 200 drawings, everything is said. The scarcity of water,Drought, floods, pollution, climate change, overfishing, oil spills… Everything that makes us fear the worst for humanity’s food supply is summarized in a few lines.
“With the many schoolchildren who will visit the exhibition, we will be able to associate a study theme with each drawing and train little whistleblowers.”, welcomes the director. With efficiency, and humor to boot.
“Water drawing is much more beautiful“, proclaims the subtitle of the event. But for the palate of these cartoonists, in organized comic strips, there is no doubt that wine has more taste. “We are lucky that the same weekend, in Pont-en-Royans, a group of winegrowers are organizing their annual fair of natural and living wines. explains Pierre Ballouhey, delighted. “We have every reason to get along well, each on our bank of the Bourne.”
Two banks which apparently have nothing impassable. The poster above, signed by the Isère designer, is proof of this. A festive spirit that will last until Sunday afternoon. “But not too lateexplain the designers, because we will have to go and vote“.
