Animate Europe: Coming Up: Animate Europe Award Ceremony

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.

The topic of this year’s competition is “Restart! – The Streets of Europe”. This takes us back to where it all begins: the citizens of Europe, their realities and priorities. We asked what kind of restart would they advocate? 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! But – in which kind of streets do we see this interaction taking place? At the crossroads, where different paths unite? In murky back alleys, hidden from plain sight? Where do roads end, where do new ones begin? These were the kind of questions we hoped to be explored by the artists.

The number of entries that we received from all over the world overwhelmed us! Let’s have conversations about the Europe we wish to live in! And why Europe? We, at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, believe in a unified Europe and the potential of the European Union for freedom and peace. Europe is more than just the European Union. Europe represents peace, democracy, human rights and freedom.

On 12th of June we will host our Animate Europe Award Ceremony at the prestigious Lyon BD comics festival in the presence of our finalists and our board member Mrs Anne Brasseur!

From 8 to 18 June you also have the chance to visit our open air exhibition, featuring past and current Animate Europe finalists at the Place des Terreaux in Lyon.