Zeina Abirached
{{Short description|Lebanese illustrator}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
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| name = Zeina Abirached
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| caption = Zeina Abirached in 2019
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| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1981}}
| birth_place = Beirut, Lebanon
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| nationality = Lebanese
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Zeina Abirached (born 1981 in Beirut, Lebanon) is a Lebanese illustrator, graphic novelist and comic artist. She studied at the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts ALBA and the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs. Her books are based on autobiographic narratives related to her childhood within the Lebanese Civil War and on the history of her family, including the story of her grandfather who invented a new kind of piano.{{Cite web |date=17 December 2020 |title=Stéphane Tsapis: Le Piano oriental |url=https://spellbindingmusic.com/stephane-tsapis-le-piano-oriental/ |access-date=21 June 2023 |website=Spellbinding Music}}
Work
Zeina Abirached was born in 1981 and was raised in a war-torn Beirut.{{cite news|url=http://madame.lefigaro.fr/societe/zeina-abirached-lhirondelle-de-beyrouth-250108-24615|title=Zeina Abirached, l'hirondelle de Beyrouth|last=Rolin|first=Gaëlle|date=25 January 2008|work=Le Figaro|language=fr|access-date=21 January 2012}} In 2002, she produced a little comic book composed of black and white drawings within the Atelier de Recherche ALBA.{{cite web |url= http://www.bnf.fr/documents/biblio_beyrouth.pdf
|title=Beyrouth. Capitale du Monde du livre, 2009 |year=2009 |publisher=Bibliothèque Nationale de France |access-date=21 January 2012}} Her training as a commercial designer brought a decorative approach and inventive graphic solutions to her black-and-white comics.{{cite web |url=http://www.paulgravett.com/index.php/articles/article/zeina_abirached/ |title=Zeina Abirached: A Game for Swallows |author=Paul Gravett |date=15 January 2012 |publisher=Art Review |access-date=23 January 2012}} She later moved to Paris and continued producing comics based on individual and collective memory and on archival documents.{{cite web |url= http://www.lexpress.fr/culture/livre/zeina-abirached_813223.html |title= Dossier Zeina Abirached |author= Julien Bisson |date=1 November 2007 |publisher= L’Express|access-date=20 January 2012}}
She finds her inspiration in old photographs and TV footage, and in the work of comic authors such as David B and Jacques Tardi.{{cite web |url= http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2008/from-our-continental-correspondent-child-in-a-time-of-war-zeina-abirached-about-the-joys-and-sorrows-of-lebanon/ |title= From Our Continental Correspondent – Child in a time of war: Zeina Abirached about the joys and sorrows of Lebanon |author= Toon Horsten |date= 11 December 2008 |publisher= Forbidden Planet |access-date= 20 January 2012 |archive-date= 11 February 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120211055552/http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2008/from-our-continental-correspondent-child-in-a-time-of-war-zeina-abirached-about-the-joys-and-sorrows-of-lebanon/ |url-status= dead }}
Abirached's memoir Mourir, partir, revenir - Le Jeu des hirondelles was the first graphic novel to be awarded the FACE French Voices Grant for publication of a contemporary French-language work in English, given by the PEN American Center and the French Embassy. It was published by the Graphic Universe division of Lerner Publishing Group in 2012 under the title A Game for Swallows: To Die, To Leave, To Return. Through her works, she portrays not just the memoirs of the civil war in Lebanon, but also reclaims a history that has been either ignored by official accounts of the war or been forgotten completely. I remember Beirut, one of her graphic novels which have been translated into English, was inspired by the famous French author Georges Perec.{{Cite web|url = http://arablit.org/2015/08/12/graphic-novelist-zeina-abirached-on-remembering-and-forgetting-beirut/|title = Graphic Novelist Zeina Abirached on Remembering and Forgetting Beirut|last = mlynxqualey|website = Arabic Literature (in English)| date=12 August 2015 |access-date = 5 March 2016}}
The Centre Belge de la Bande Déssinée (The Comics Art Museum) in Brussels included Zeina Abirached and her book Le Piano oriental in a permanent exhibit called "The Art of the Comic Strip."{{Cite web |title=The Art of Comic Strip — The Belgian Comic Strip Center - Museum Brussels |url=https://www.comicscenter.net/en/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/the-art-of-comic-strip |access-date=21 June 2023 |website=www.comicscenter.net}}
Publications
- Le piano oriental (Casterman, 2015){{cite web |url=http://www.casterman.com/Bande-dessinee/Catalogue/albums/le-piano-oriental |title=Casterman - Le piano oriental |year=2015 |publisher=Casterman |access-date=31 January 2017}}
- Agatha de Beyrouth (Cambourakis, 2011)
- Je me souviens (Cambourakis, 2009)
- Mourir, partir, revenir - Le Jeu des hirondelles (Cambourakis, 2007) traduction : A Game for Swallows: To Die, To Leave, To Return (Graphic Universe/Lerner Publishing Group, 2012)
- 38, rue Youssef Semaani (Cambourakis, 2006)
- Beyrouth Catharsis (Cambourakis, 2006)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.cambourakis.com/spip.php?article80 Editions Cambourakis: Zeina Abirached] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180905214859/http://www.cambourakis.com/spip.php?article80 |date=5 September 2018 }}
- [https://www.lernerbooks.com/products/t/12453/9781575059419/a-game-for-swallows Graphic Universe/Lerner Publishing Group: A Game for Swallows] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160322052711/https://www.lernerbooks.com/products/t/12453/9781575059419/a-game-for-swallows |date=22 March 2016 }}
- {{LCAuth|no2010049616|Zeina Abirached|3|ue}}
- [http://arablit.org/2015/08/12/graphic-novelist-zeina-abirached-on-remembering-and-forgetting-beirut/ Zeina Abirached on Remembering and Forgetting Beirut]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Abirached, Zeina}}
Category:Lebanese comics artists
Category:Lebanese female comics artists
Category:Lebanese women illustrators
Category:Lebanese illustrators
Category:Date of birth missing (living people)
Category:Lebanese emigrants to France