CARTOON AFRICA AT WHITESPACE

CAIB2012 Press Release:

NIGERIA HOSTS CARTOON AFRICA INTL BIENNIAL

On the 23rd of November, 2012, at WHITE SPACE, 58 Raymond Njoku Street, Off Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos State, the first ever Cartoon Africa International Biennial (CAIB) festival and exhibition will open for the global public, with the central theme: “UNITED STATES OF AFRICA: Matters Arising”.

 The novel cartoon art event which is collaboratively put together by the African Press Cartoon Syndication Services, FICDATA and the BFIKBK is a multi-purpose, all-inclusive development education platform to drive innovation, productivity and sustainable development in the African continent, while promoting cultural diversity and African cartooning culture in a global context.

A press release by the organisers reads: ““Art is a universal lingua franca and the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words is not far-fetched: ‘One image can communicate more than dozens of pages of text or hours of speeches. One image can change the course of history. Editorial cartoons draw attention to important political, economic, and social issues like nothing else. Using symbols or visual metaphors, their reach transcends country borders and language barriers’”.

The CAIB2012 event will feature, among other things, presentation of certificates to all participants and prizes to the winners in each category of the biennial festival contest as well as cartoon workshop/paper presentations, fund-raising art and merchandise sales, etc.

“We are deploying cartoons and humour Art in general, as a creative education strategy to draw attention, fight societal evils, and spread awareness and inspire positive actions across Africa for progressive change of perspectives, retrogressive habits and the negative systemic status quo precluding sustainable development, and to drive productivity, equity, moral capital development and innovative human/cultural resources development across Africa in a global context. CAIB strategically aims at creating a strong platform to effectively promote African Cartooning, graphic communication and visual literature with an attitude” the statement said.

Follow-up travelling exhibitions, cartoon workshops and seminars, fund-raising Art auctions, merchandise sales etc, kicks off at the National Museum in Benin City, Edo State, home of the CAIB vision, on December 23rd 2012 and is expected to tour selected cities and towns across Nigeria and Parts of Africa, etc, spreading awareness, informing, educating and reorienting the public till December 2013 when the 2nd edition of the cartoon biennial is due.

For more information:

email: africanpresscartoon@gmail.com