France to build the "European home for satirical and press cartoons"

Publicado: 13/01/2022 : 20:17 | Actualizado: 18/06/2023 : 19:44 |

Street Nicolas-Appert, Paris, where the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was based, a day after the killings. Photo Guillaume Galmiche. Licence CC BY 2.0.

The idea of a "house of the press cartoons" was first mooted in 2007 by the cartoonist, and then by his widow, the journalist Georges Wolinski and later by his widow, the recently deceased journalist Maryse Wolinskijournalist, recently deceased, who picked up the torch of the project in the wake of the attack of 7 January 2015 charlie Hebdo magazine

The "Wolinski mission" proposed a global action plan to promote press cartooning as part of the fine arts, including the preservation of archives.

In September, Maryse Wolinski, along with six other press cartoonists, asked Emmanuel Macron in a letter to commit to creating a "house of satirical and press cartoons" as he had promised in 2020.

Maryse Wolinski, he said in October 2021 that the European house of the press cartoon would serve "to defend the language of satirical drawing, which we don't always understand".

Macron has finally announced its creation. The house of the cartoon will be a reality in about two to three years and will be located in Paris. The municipalities of Saint-Just-le-Martel and Limoges were the candidate sites for its installation, but Emmanuel Macron confirmed the choice of the capital for its construction.

The "house" is intended to be a place for exhibitions and meetings and even a refuge for cartoonists persecuted in their own countries. It will work in a network, especially with the National Library of France, which keeps various cartoon archives, as France has a long tradition of press cartoons. A national press "conservatory" will open in Amiens in 2028, which will house some of the BnF's collections and should collaborate with the future centre.

For the moment, two million euros have been released for the latter. "The site will be modestly sized, 2,000 square metres, and will operate with a modest budget of about 2 million a year. It is estimated that around 8 million euros will be invested in the works", as told by Le Figaro quoted sources from the Elysée.