Animate Europe
Animate Europe “Restart! – The Streets of Europe” Award Ceremony: And our winner is…
We are very proud to announce Torben Siebert as winner of this year’s Animate Europe comic competition round! His comics are a philosophical reflection about the Europe we want to live in and which path to go. His stories and style convinced our international jury composed of the comic experts Mathieu Diez, Kalle Hakkola, Julie Tait, Lucie Lomová and Judith Vanistendael.
The 5th Animate Europe award ceremony took place on the 12th of June at the prestigious Lyon BD comic festival in the presence of our finalists Stefan Hahn, Torben Siebert, Kristýna Plíhalová, our jury member Judith Vanistendael, our board member Anne Brasseur and German Consul Christiane Rump.
Anne Brasseur handed over the first prize to Torben Siebert on stage, in the court of Lyon’s town hall, while German Consul Christiane Rump congratulated the finalists. TV presenter Paul Satis moderated the event.
Anne Brasseur emphasized that “this comic competition is a fantastic mean to animate young people in order to think about Europe and also to tell their stories not just by writing but also through pictures.”
Being asked about his comic, Torben Siebert highlights that ”the (European) project gives freedom, possibilities, which especially the young people maybe forget”.
From 8th to 18th of June, the interested public also had the chance to visit our open air exhibition, featuring past and current Animate Europe finalists, in front of Lyon’s town hall at the Place des Terreaux.
The topic of this year’s competition was “Restart! – The Streets of Europe”. The competition took us back to where it all begins: the citizens of Europe, their realities and priorities. We asked what kind of restart would they stand up for? Which vision of Europe do they and would they represent? To examine this more closely, we studied citizens where they interact with each other and where true participation occurs: in the Streets of Europe!
In 2013, we launched our biannual international comic competition Animate Europe. Through Animate Europe, comic artists and graphic novelists from all over the world are invited to explore, reimagine and express their thoughts and ideas about Europe – past, present and future. Over the past years, numerous artists from all over the world have submitted their creative outputs. Our comics travel throughout Europe and overseas, they are published in our comic book, showcased on our website, publicly exhibited and even animated as short films. This year, our fifth Animate Europe competition set out to collect another round of comics that inspire conversations about the ideas and values of Europe through storytelling.
Discover all the works of our five finalists Stefan Hahn, Maria Konstantinova, Kristýna Plíhalová, Torben Siebert and Mattias Ysebaert in our 5th Animate Europe comic book edition! Wishing you a good read.
