An apology and a clarification.
The designer Bastien Vivès, 38, published this Thursday noon a long text on his Instagram account, in response to the attacks he has been the subject of for almost a week.
Two petitions, accusing him of advocating incest and child pornography, had been launched to request the cancellation of the exhibition on his work scheduled for the next Angoulême festival (January 26 to 29, 2023) .
One of them had collected more than 110,000 signatures when, under pressure, the festival organizers announced that they were abandoning the event.
In the introduction, the author wants to be as clear as possible on the accusations that could relate directly to his person.
“I condemn pedocrime, as well as its apology and its trivialization.
I condemn rape culture and violence against women.
I want to express my sincere solidarity with the victims of incest and any other sexual abuse.
Under no circumstances should my books be read through the prism of complacency towards these crimes,” he wrote.
He also returns to the works that are at the heart of the controversy.
“My four so-called pornographic
books
are sold in bookstores in blister packs, with a warning and a ban for those under 18.
They are part of a humorous burlesque genre.
This provocative tone, it happened to me to take it again sometimes, in an awkward way, in my interviews.
It is sometimes said of me that I am without filter, but at no time did I want to hurt victims of crimes and sexual abuse.
And I obviously want, if my words may have offended these people, to offer them my most sincere apologies”, continues the author of “Polina”.
The author also returns to a few incidents on websites: “My presence on social networks was often childish.
Sometimes I used it as a stress reliever.
I sincerely regret some of my remarks, and more particularly those against the designer Emma posted on my Facebook wall to which I would like to apologize.
It was gratuitously violent, disrespectful and above all unworthy.
I left Facebook and Twitter some time after,” he explains.
Before concluding: “Today I realize that beyond my works, it is above all my words that shocked, I will now have the greatest attention when I express myself in public or in the media.
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