This great interview took place on May 30, 2019 at La Criée – théâtre national de Marseille, as part of the 3rd edition of the festival Oh les beaux jours!

With Enki Bilal and Julien Serres. Interview hosted by Tewfik Hakem (France Culture). Much more than a comic book artist, Enki Bilal is a visionary artist. Through his stories that mix science fiction, philosophy and poetry, this child of all the wars in Europe transports us into post-apocalyptic universes that are not without reminding us of the flaws of the present. His latest series, Bug, in which he imagines a near-future in the face of the sudden disappearance of the digital world, shows that “science fiction no longer exists”…

Since his first collaborations with the scriptwriter Pierre Christin, at the end of the 1970s, through Partie de chasse or the mythical Nikopol Trilogy, to his recent comeback with Bug, Enki Bilal has conquered several generations. A polymorphous artist, he is a draughtsman, painter, scriptwriter, but also a director of feature films and music videos. He has worked for opera, theater, cinema and dance, creating costumes, sets and posters (notably with Alain Resnais and Angelin Preljocaj).

For his own stories or for others, Enki Bilal draws everywhere the beauty that illuminates dark worlds. Human or hybrid, executioner or victim, we never forget his characters. Past and future, pencils and brushes, childhood nightmares and adult dreams… Enki Bilal tells us about his “beautiful days” on the stage of La Criée.

During this interview, he will discuss with a researcher specialized in biorobotics, Julien Serres, will evoke his link with the cinema (he is a member of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival this year), will present us his bedside books… Without forgetting other surprises that this visionary poet may have already drawn in his albums, he who predicted the end of the communist bloc, evoked religious fundamentalism, or the advent of transhumanism well before they happened!

Article published on 30 May 2019

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