Search
Frédéric Coché
Resident
07.10.2024 - 08.12.2024
Medici residency with the Cité de la bande dessinée et de l'image and the ADGAP
Comic strip
Biography
Engraver, painter and draughtsman, Frédéric Coché (1975) is a graduate of the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Art in Nancy. He has taught engraving in Geneva and Biarritz. He took his first steps in the magazine Frigobox before publishing Hortus Sanitatis, his first book and the beginning of his engraved work.
An enthusiast of literature and medieval art, he has approached as an aesthete the forms of narrative in images across the centuries, often bringing together narrative universes borrowed from different eras and imaginary worlds.
Project
To create his latest graphic narrative, which will be produced in etching, Frédéric Coché will collect images: grotesques from the Domus Aurea, or those by Tiepolo father and son, Raphael’s frescoes, etc. These will compose a narrative articulated around the theme of the labyrinth and introspection. Geometry (in this case, the labyrinth) is once again confronted with formlessness, and the tension in the drawing, or in a series of drawings, is generated by the balance and imbalance between these two principles. The narrative travels underground, in the gardens and the city, in the air.
ADAGP,French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici and the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image (CIBDI – Angoulême) are committed to supporting the vitality and diversity of the comics industry through an annual creative residency program for an innovative comics writer. The selection committee, made up of comic book artist Nejib, Pili Munoz, director of the CIBDI authors’ house, and Frédéric Blancart, head of the fellows and residents’ office at Villa Medici, selected Frédéric Coché for his project.
About the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image
The Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image is a public establishment for cultural cooperation created by the Charente department, the French Ministry of Culture, the city of Angoulême and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, dedicated to comics and images. It brings together a comics museum, exhibition galleries, a heritage library, a specialized public library, a documentation center, an international authors’ residence (La Maison des Auteurs), a reference bookshop and an art-house cinema. La Cité holds Europe’s leading collection of comic strip heritage, and actively supports young creators by welcoming over 50 authors in residence, 60% of whom are foreign. The establishment welcomes over 200,000 visitors every year, and deploys a major socio-educational program to share the wealth of the 9th art with as many people as possible. The Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image is directed by Pierre Lungheretti.
About ADAGP
ADAGP is the French society of authors for the visual arts. It collects and distributes royalties for nearly 200,000 artists worldwide, including 15,500 in France.
In particular, it manages collective rights (photocopying rights, remuneration for private copying, cable, satellite and ADSL retransmission, library lending, educational uses, etc.) for over 1,000 comic and manga authors who are members of ADAGP. The authors’ society also collects droit de suite (resale rights) on the resale of original plates and drawings on the art market (auction houses and galleries). Through its cultural action program, ADAGP encourages the creative scene by initiating and/or financially supporting projects that enhance the visual arts and promote them nationally and internationally.
Medici Residency
with the Cité de la la bande dessinée et de l'image and the ADAGP
Comics and graphic literature have enjoyed a remarkable boom since the 90s, with a proliferation of aesthetics and sub-genres. The 9th art also feeds into several other disciplines, including cinema, video games, animation and virtual images. The French Academy in Rome - Villa Medici, the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l'image and the Société des Auteurs dans les Arts graphiques et plastiques (ADAGP), have decided to support this vitality and accompany the careers of singular authors to encourage their visibility, while creating opportunities for encounters with artists from other disciplines and new audiences.