Canvases of contrast

Enki Bilal says whether people like his works or not is not important to him. What he really cares about, he says, is "freedom". Provided to China Daily

French comic book artist challenges Beijing with exhibition of extremes

Who would have thought chess and boxing could be brought together in a hybrid sport that would gain worldwide attention? The French comic book artist Enki Bilal, that's who. he conceived the almost contradictory activity in his graphic novel The Cold Equator in 1992, although it was not until 2006 that another artist, Dutchman Lepe Rubingh, brought the concept to life with competitors slugging it out to the bell in the ring and over the chessboard. now the 61-year-old Bilal has returned to chessboxing as the central theme for his latest work Oxymore, a series of 15 paintings depicting scenes of a contradictory or opposing nature.

Before they go under the hammer at an art auction in Paris this month, Bilal exhibited them for two weeks recently at the Hadrien de Montferrand Gallery in Beijing's 798 Art Zone. The reaction, it seems, was as unclear and bemusing as the subject matter on the canvases - and, given the title, probably a natural one.

"The world is made of many contrasts, and the oxymoron is important in it," says Bilal, who took 18 months to create the series. "So I decided to do some paintings, with different themes, about men and women, sensuality, the nature of animals, and different forms of opposition."

These contrasting forms are mostly revealed through chessboxing, which pitches "noble thoughts, mathematics, concentration, self-control and silence" against overt physical brutality, disorder, violence and noise.

"When I first thought of the combination, I treated it like a joke," Bilal says. "But it was interesting to explore.

"I used the chessboxing like a metaphor, trying to imagine a sport that would be the most intelligent and the strongest. It's a principle of competition, about how to be the best."

That was while Bilal was writing and drawing graphic novels. Since then, chessboxing has sprung onto the canvass in reality.

Championships take place around the world in arenas where competitors take on each other in alternate rounds of chess and boxing. Checkmate, knockout or points total determines the winner.

Chessboxing, however, has not yet made it to China, where perhaps Bilal's renown as a veteran comic book artist was more of a drawing card.

Chinese comic strip writer Benjamin Zhang is considered the first in his field to have had his books published in France, and he knows Bilal's work well.

"Bilal's works are rich in imagination and highly skilled," comments Zhang of the Oxymore series. "It looks like he draws in a casual way, but every stroke is very impressive."

But Chinese readers, who are greatly fascinated by Japanese manga comics, are not familiar with Bilal's drawing and narration styles, he says.

Li Wanran, 26, is one such comic book fan who visited the Beijing exhibition. She says she did not really understand Bilal's paintings.

"The scenes look cold and bloody, not as warm and gentle as those in Japanese comics," Li says. "The characters in the paintings look like they're struggling and miserable. It seems they want to be strong, but are easily getting confused."

However, Bilal, who shot to fame in his 20s, and has enjoyed success in the West over the past 30 years, says that he has no intention of catering to the market.

"I have no target audience when creating works. The target is myself, to be in harmony with myself. That's the most important part of freedom, not to do things for certain people, for some market. So whether people like my work or not, it's not important. It's my freedom."

Bilal has not suddenly or even gradually gone all deep and meaningful. His comic book art has always been dark and perplexing compared with most, and this largely stems from his upbringing.

Born in Belgrade in 1951, the son of a tailor, Bilal moved to France with his family when he was 10 years old. He learned French, combining the language with his passion for drawing into creating comic strips. His art supported him during the struggle to adapt to the cultural and social differences in his new country from that of his old, the former Yugoslavia.

It would be another 10 years before his talent was recognized, when he began working for the magazine Pilote.

"When I came to France to learn the new language, understand the new country, meet the new people, this became my cultural wealth," he says. "I think this is the most important stage in my life."

His early works focused on science fiction and fantasy, but developed into a form with more historical and political meaning, which many believe was inspired by the turmoil taking place in his homeland, dealing with subjects such as the Spanish Civil War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the collapse of the Soviet bloc.

Bilal says that his works are inspired by current events, world news, mostly relating to conflict and political unrest, which he projects into future scenarios.

"I think speaking about the future is like a mirror," he says, in the contrary manner of Oxymore. "It's a mirror for people to see themselves in their past lives, which makes them question their future.

"I think imagination is very important. The projection of the future is the key to our success.

"I don't want to do comics or works that are only for entertainment. I hope that when people read my works, they will also ask some good questions about what they are doing in their lives, where they are living now, what could be the future."

Bilal has also drawn on his talent to work in film, theatre and ballet. He adapted his first Nikopol story for the film Immortal, starring Charlotte Rampling, in 2004, but he found the movie-making process too industrial and that it curtailed his creative freedom.

"If you have to make money for your producer and company, you lose freedom as an artist. But I'm still very free in my comic book thoughts. My publishers never say 'Don't do that, that's no good, because people want this or that'."

But he also found that this art form was also restrictive, and that is why he turned to painting and the large canvas.

"In the comic books, you are constrained by the small squares, by the stories, and by many things. I wanted a format in which to be freer and to better express myself.

"And for me it's a new job, like a rebirth."

Bilal says that his creation relies on having a declic - French for a sudden intuitive understanding, when something clicks, makes sense, in the artist's conception. He says he added some strokes or colors to the Oxymore paintings before the exhibition in Beijing because of a declic or two, mostly regarding colors.

"For me the color is like a language, it's part of the narration. There's a story, a dialogue, comments sometimes. The color says something; it's very important."

But in his mind, his works can never be finished. It's the people who look at the paintings that finish them.

"Everyone has their own understanding of a painting, so the painting is never finished, because it is never understood in the same way by everybody."

chenyingqun@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 10/12/2012 page29)