Villa Formose 2025 Exchange Activities and Presentations：The Matchbox in the Night

The Taiwan_Literature_Base and the Bureau_Français_de_Taipei (French Office in Taipei) are collaborating on the upcoming "Villa_Formose" artist residency, set to launch in March! This year, we are pleased to invite Ivan_Gros, a French artist who has taught in Taiwan for over ten years and holds multiple roles as a scholar and comic artist, to be the resident writer at the Muse_Garden. We invite you to join us in a series of activities where you can engage in deep conversations with the artist, and immerse yourself in the imaginative worlds of printmaking, graphic novels, and documentary comics!

Free admission! The event consists of four sessions. Don't miss this opportunity—register now!

Registration link｜https://reurl.cc/A6vXrE

French will be main language in this activity (Mandarin interpretation available on-site).

 

Artist-in-Residence

葛尹風（Ivan Gros）

Born in France in 1974, Ivan Gros is a scholar in the humanities, a printmaking artist, and, more recently, a comic book author.

He holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature and is an associate professor. He taught in Taiwan for about twelve years, at Fu Jen Catholic University (2008–2011) and National Central University (2013–2021). During this period, he published numerous academic articles as a researcher. His latest edited volume, Le Procès de Civilisation à l'œuvre à Taïwan《台灣文明進程的落實》, co-edited with Professor Hsu Chi-lin, was published by National Central University Press in 2021.

He has been practicing printmaking for over twenty years and has frequently visited Firebox Printmaking Studio in the Shilin district of Taipei, run by Cheng Hua-Chun. His printmaking works were compiled into a monograph published in Taiwan under the title 《版畫狂想》 (幸福文化, 2016).

His first comic book/graphic novel is a graphic adaptation of Kinderzimmer, a novel by Valentine Goby. It tells the story of a pregnant woman deported to Ravensbrück, the largest women's concentration camp of the Third Reich. The graphic novel will be published by Éditions de la Bibliothèque Sud at the end of August 2024. He is currently working with the same publisher on the adaptation of Je suis ici pour vaincre la nuit, a novel by Marie Charrel. These two graphic novels share a common theme—they both draw inspiration from extensive archives of drawings created by deported women themselves.

 

【Session 1】

Présentation du roman « Kinderzimmer »
Graphic Novel Nursery in the Concentration Camp Presentation

Date｜03/07（五／Fri.）19:30 - 21:30
Place｜Librairie le Pigeonnier（1F., No. 9, Ln. 97, Songjiang Rd., Taipei City）

Kinderzimmer is a multi-dimensional graphic novel. It is primarily an adaptation of a novel by Valentine Goby. It also showcases a large number of drawings by deportees and serves as a tribute to the female artists who testified about the concentration camp experience at Ravensbrück. Finally, it offers a critical reflection on concentration camp art and the possibility and necessity of transmitting a testimony despite a series of prohibitions.

 

【Session 2】

Petite histoire de la gravure à Taïwan
The Unknown Small History of Taiwan Printmaking

Date｜03/16（日／Sun.）14:00 - 16:00
Place｜Joy of Reading Hall, Taiwan Literature Base　

The lecture will focus on the history of printmaking in Taiwan, as well as the particular history of Chen Hua Chun's Firebox (火盒子) Print studio and my personal experience within the studio. It will outline the major points of this history, showing, from a lesser-known perspective, the exemplary connections with Taiwan's history and identity. Printmaking is an art that runs against the current, and its survival is not a given. By choosing this mode of expression, artists have also chosen a way of life that breaks from commonly followed social success models.

 

【Session 3】

Projet d'essai graphique : « Une boîte d'allumettes dans la nuit »
Villa Formose: The Matchbox in the Night Work Presentation

Date｜03/23（日／Sun.）14:00 - 16:00
Place｜Joy of Reading Hall, Taiwan Literature Base

Beyond the theme of printmaking in Taiwan, I will present during this lecture the formal writing principles that are important to me and govern the graphic novel writing project. I will explore literary connections with authors such as Stéphane Mallarmé, Claude Simon, Tahar ben Jelloun, David Foenkinos, and Art Spiegelman, in order to establish a truly unique form of narrative. I will present examples of my ongoing work and research, both literary and graphic.

 

【Session 4】

La bande dessinée documentaire francophone
Introduction to Francophone Documentary Comics

Date｜03/29（六／Sat.）14:00 - 16:00
Place｜Muse Garden, Taiwan Literature Base

Francophone documentary comics is a genre that has primarily developed since the 2000s and has radically renewed the global landscape of comics and the positioning of comics within both literary and media production. The lecture will present the main characteristics of the genre, major works, recent successes, key figures in Taiwan, and the connection to my own work.

 

 

主辦單位｜國立臺灣文學館、法國在台協會
Organisateurs | National Museum of Taiwan Literature, Bureau français de Taipei

協辦單位｜信鴿法國書店
Co-organisateur | Librairie le Pigeonnier

福爾摩沙藝術駐村－書籍創作駐村計畫 ／ Villa Formose - livre 獲得法國藝文推廣總署支持，隸屬「駐地創作」計畫一環。
Avec le soutien de l'Institut Français, dans le cadre de La Fabrique des Résidences.

 

Source：Taiwan Literature Base