Titi FAUSTIN (Ivory Coast)
Titi Faustin was born in 1971 in Ivory Coast. He studied painting at the Abengourou Art Centre (Ivory Coast). He worked for the Communication Agency Nelson McCann and for Ivory Coast magazines and reviews such as: Liberté, Ter, Ivoire-Pied, Kabako and La Gazette. Furthermore he created advertising and educational comic strips for Ivory Coast enterprises. He won the Calao Prize in 1990, in the 1999 Festival Cocobulles (which was organized in Ivory Coast) he won the prize for best comic strip, with his " Gris-gris d’amour ", on Christophe N’galle Edimo scenario. His story Le flic de Gnasville (scenario by Eyoum) won the 1st prize in the 2003-2004 edition of the Africa e Mediterraneo Award, “Human Rights” section. In 2005 Titi published the album "La reserve" - Lai-momo editions - within the European project Common Values.
His comic strip : Une éternité à Tanger
The original 46 boards of this album have been included in the 52nd Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition "Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense". Venice, Corderie dell'Arsenale June 10 - November 21 2007
"Titi and Nganguè address with wit confrontational and provocative aspects of everyday life in Africa, often softening through the watery evanescence of ink wash the potential blow of their imagery in otherwise highly detailed drawings.
Une éternité à Tanger positions itself within the tradition of the bande dessinée subverting it from within. It gives voice and dignity to an overlooked narrative, the tragic experience of displacement lived by African people who flee their home countries to escape economic, political, or social ordeals. Fanciful and realist at once, it tells the story of a young African boy, Gawa, who leaves home, the imaginary Gnasville, seeking a better future, a journey of hope and disillusionment marked by the failed crossing from Tangeri to Europe. Speaking of Africa from the African point of view, this work counterpoints the exoticized images and the stereotyping gaze of much of the bande dessinée exemplified by Hergé’s Tintin in the Congo."
Catalogue La Biennale di Venezia 52. International Art Exibition "Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense", Marsilio 2007
Technical description
Work features: realistic drawing
Pages : 48
Colour
Scenario : Eyoum Ngangué (Cameroon)
More info
The album, available in French and Italian in the Lai-momo Editions, has been translated into Swedish by Trasten publishing house, and was presented at the Serieteket in Stockolm in March 2007.