“
# I accuse…!
was born from the desire to stage public debate.
The initial idea was not to tell the Dreyfus affair specifically.
In particular, I wanted to explore the workings of an initially anecdotal event that managed to divide a society around a great conflict of values. ”
To discover
Digital event of the literary Figaro: "How to get published?"
In the secret of publishing houses ”
Jean Dytar carried out pharaonic research work to complete this process. No less than 300 sources from 48 different newspapers were used in the development of his album. A UFO,
"a hybrid object halfway between comics, the illustrated press of the nineteenth century and contemporary media devices
", as he himself defines it.
In an original staging that integrates extracts from articles in the contemporary media environment, the author plays on anachronism, skilfully combining historical rigor and creativity. Fake news, buzz, like, conspiracy theory ... Everything was already there in the Dreyfus Affair. If the Internet and YouTube have supplanted the written press and social media posts have beaten the pawn to readers' mail, the mechanics remain the same.
“What brought me to the Dreyfus Affair,
explains the author
, is
Zola's
J'Accuse
which, for me, embodies the media buzz.”
Between questioning and decryption, the author does not neglect emotion.
The press articles are interwoven with extracts from testimonies of major actors including those of Mathieu Dreyfus, the obstinate brother who fought to the end to exonerate the hated captain of civil and military society.
By sharing the horrors of the family, Jean Dytar plunges the reader into a more intimate sphere:
“These testimonies allowed me to tell things from the shadows before they became public.
"
Fascinating by its feuilletonsque dimension, dynamic by its staging, edifying by its content and the question which underlies it,
# J'Accuse ...!
is one of the brightest UFOs of this season.
The BD box: decryption of Jean Dytar
"In a single box, I represented the genealogy of a media gesture over three periods: from Antiquity to the 19th century, up to the present day" Delcourt / Jean Dytar
“This plate illustrates my interest in the genealogy of certain media signs. It is two-thirds of the way through the book. Georges Clemenceau speaks following an event which took place in the Chamber of Deputies. The then-newly appointed Minister of War showed documents damning Dreyfus to put an end to the affair for good - at least he believed so, as the documents turned out to be false or inappropriate. Clemenceau comments in the newspaper
L'Aurore on
the session.
"
“This text particularly interested me because Clemenceau evokes the gesture of deputies who put their thumbs down, in the manner, as he recalls, of the popular gesture of
'' supreme condemnation ''
practiced in Antiquity. When I read what he said, I immediately thought of the
''
likes ''
and
''
dislike ''
of social networks. Thus, in a single box, I represented the genealogy of a media gesture over three eras: from Antiquity, which I illustrated by taking inspiration from a painting by Gérôme, in the 19th century, until These days. This typical sign of our digital modernity is part of a long history and I was happy to have the
opportunity to suggest it allusively. "
"I wanted to stay as close as possible to the aesthetics of the press illustrated in black and white of the time, until the choice of paper whose texture resembles that of the pages of a newspaper"
Jean Dytar
“On the whole board, I staged an excerpt from Clemenceau's text as if it were a YouTube video. I used the vertical framing against the blurred background of the current videos recorded on a smartphone. This gives an impression of direct address to the reader, in an anachronistic present which does not however distort the initial purpose. Always in my desire to interweave eras, I play with typography, the transposition of signs or devices, like the small sound icon transformed into a phonograph or the URL bar of the computer used throughout. the album to reference the sources of the staged texts. "
“Graphically, I sprinkled the book with hatching in black ink in reference to the press engravings of the 19th century. I wanted to stay as close as possible to the aesthetics of the black and white illustrated press of the time, until the choice of paper whose texture resembles that of the pages of a newspaper. It is really an object straddling two eras, to make them reflect on each other. ”
#I accuse...!
, Jean Dytar, Delcourt Mirages collection, 29.95 euros.
