Tetouan: Second edition of the International Comic Strip Festival

Tetouan: Second edition of the International Comic Strip Festival

Tetouan: Second edition of the International Comic Strip Festival. The northern Morocco city, Tetouan, is hosting the 2nd edition of its FIBD (from Thursday May 19 to Saturday May 21, 2005).

First, this is an initiative of the Institute National School of Fine Arts of Tetouan (1). In fact, the organizthation of the 2005 BD Tetouan Festival is part of its pedagogical project for the training of comics authors. Second, it aims to open new horizons for comics in MOROCCO.

So, what’s the Tetouan Comics festival program?

BD Festival Tetouan – Edition 2 Program:

Several activities are on the agenda, whether for comic book professionals or for the general public:

• workshops
• thematic exhibitions,
• films projections inspired by the comics
• reading spaces
• meetings with actors of the ninth art
• competition for artists
• and most importantly, two round tables bringing together national and international experts around the theme of this edition of Tetouan festival:
  • Intercultural comics
  • Distribution of comics in Morocco.

Above all, it was around these two round tables that the participants made several recommendations to support comics in Morocco (2).

Summary of the recommendations of the second edition of Tetouan festival

• first of all, to encourage the annual and regular organization of the BD Tetouan festival,
• then, ask for support for the Comic Strip Department at the INBA, (whether at the material, pedagogical level, or at the educational and artistic level),
• encourage young comics artists (project to organize a national comic strip script competition),
• appreciate the publication project of the magazine “CHOUF” specialized in comics,
• encourage the national press to take an interest in the ninth art, and sensitize companies, especially those in the field of advertising and communication, to the tremendous powers that comics provide in terms of communication,
• encourage young people and INBA laureates to publish their work, and to submit their publishing projects to the competent services of the Ministry of Culture (the Publishing Support Fund),
• invite Moroccan publishers to encourage the publication of albums inspired by comics,
• sensitize Ministries and governmental and non-governmental sectors to adopt this tool as the medium of choice for their communication campaigns (or even coordinate their actions with the BD department at the INBA),
• Finally, ask the Ministry of National Education to include comics in the teaching program within the Regional Training Centers specializing in the visual arts, in coordination with the INBA Administration.

Then, we suggest you to read this useful informatios about the Tetouan BD festival.

About FIBD Tetouan 2005

• Edition: 2
• Period: from May 19 to 21, 2005.
• Theme: Intercultural comic strip
• Place: Tetouan
• Organizers:
  • National Institute of Fine Arts of Tetouan
  • Ministry of Culture of Morocco
  • In collaboration with the Delegation of Wallonia – Brussels in Rabat.