Beeld Beeld

Beeld Beeld was founded in 1999 with the key objective to convince the general public of the artistic possibilities of the comic book. The first realization of Beeld Beeld, the double-exposition "Pioneers in the American comic world : Daniel Clowes/Chris Ware", was an instant success. More than three thousand people visited this exposition in 3 Flemish cultural centres in Leuven, Mechelen and Sint Niklaas. But that was just the start. Still in 1999 Beeld Beeld presented the dossier "Subsidy and the comic book in Flanders" and participated in talks with Flemish minister of culture Anciaux. This has led in the mean time to the first concrete steps to subsidise the comic book in Flanders. Beeld Beeld also publishes the SAC collection. This "Sequential Art Collection" consists of one-paged, wordless comic stories. It are silk-screen prints in a limited edition. Until now four parts of this collection have been published. In 2001 we welcomed Lorenzo Mattotti, a passionate comic artist and world renowned illustrator, whose work is a permanent source of inspiration for other comic book writers and graphic artists. With innovative books as ‘Fires’ and ‘The man at the window’ Mattotti has proven again that comic books are much more than just ‘adventures in pictures’. The symbolic value and poetic strength of his work is striking. In 2002 we held the retrospective Dupuy-Berberian : "Common life in French comics", with more than 300 original works (comic illustrations, posters, covers, free work) from the oeuvre of Dupuy and Berberian. This exposition was made complete with sound pre-recordings, video projections, a reading corner and an autobiographical cartoon movie, that was made by the authors , exclusively for this retrospective. The very recognizable universe of Dave Mckean has also attracted great interest outside of the comic art world. He did the artwork of countless CD covers (including for Tori Amos, Alice Cooper and Counting Crows) and he also made his name with publicity campaigns for Nike, Kodak, Smirnoff and Eurostar.