After 40 days the Kickstarter campaign to publish an English translation of L'Enfant Penchée has been successfully funded. Steve Smith, the publisher of Alaxis Press started the campaign at May 21, 2013.

The campaigned was backed by 499 people who pledged $34,595 towards the initial $30,000 goal.

The campaign had a encouraging start reaching 40% of the goal in a few days time. Afterwards the campaign stalled for days until it reached its goal a week before the deadline. During the campaign updates were published.

With the funds collected during the Kickstarter campaign Alaxis Press will publish the English translation of L'Enfant Penchée. The publication will be in a normal trade edition and a special hard cover edition. The books will be printed in Italy at the same printing company responsible for the recent French and Dutch editions of L'Enfant Penchée. The target date for publication is October 2013.

Backers who joined the campaign will receive, based on their pledge, the trade edition or the hard cover edition of the Leaning Girl and a postcard, bookmark, poster, t-shirt, a three track CD and a mystery gift. There is also the limited fine art print ”The Gazebo” for those who pledged $250+.

Le Dernier Plan (The Last Shot, in the cinematographic sense) is a fresco by Desombres, done in 1903 AD on the theme of movies, which were then at their very beginning ¹.

Although the Obscure people have a notion of cinematography which is quite different from ours, it may somehow be linked to the Fixorama.

• Cité des Ombres

Le Dernier Plan is full length film (90 min) 35 mm colour directed by Benoît Peeters, and in which François Schuiten is an actor. The movie, subtitled in English, has been part of a strange auction in Los Angeles, on March 3, 2000. It was also at the festivals of Locarno, Cairo, Cottbus, and Brussels.

The story of a man who wanted to forget his life and to whom another man comes to recount it…

Virgil, a young Roumanian film maker, arrives in Paris with his little camera. He has come to follow the trail left by his fellow countryman, the famous writer Constantin Dolinescu, who, after numerous books and several years in prison, has exiled himself in France with the idea of making a film. But this project had turned into a fiasco ; the script was revised endlessly, one producer remplaced another, and Dolinescu himself, incapable of directing the actors, completely fell apart.

Virgil uncovers all these escapades little by little, via interviews with the parisian intelligentsia: Pierre Arditi, Erik Orsenna, Jean-Michel Jarre, all of whom were involved in the affair. But as to the fate of Dolinescu, nobody can - or will - say anything. And Virgil adds a strange sort of fervour to the quest - implying strongly personal reasons for his actions.

It is finally Sonia, the leading lady of the unfinished film, who enables him to track down the writer. But from then on, the search and its filming are revealed as nothing more than pretexts, obscuring family dramas, complex romantic attachments, not to mention several broken lives. Virgil, having come to make a film about someone else, has succeeded in telling his own story.

• Dolinescu
• Iancu
• IMDB page of Le Dernier Plan

Bruno Letort is a prominent figure on the contemporary French music scene. Formally trained in composition and harmony, his work is characterized by a deliberate indifference to sylistic boundaries. His orchestral pieces, his numerous string quartets and a ground-breaking interactive opera are evidence of an open-minded sensibilty as much to the American repetitive movement as to Eastern European tradition or ambient and electronic music. He has composed interactive inter-disciplinary works for stage, film and ballet. An educationalist, artistic director and writer, he has been a producer at France Musique since 1994, where he founded the National Radio label “Signature”. As producer, he has collaborated with Pierre Henry, Fred Frith, Hector Zazou, Jean-Luc Godard and Elliott Sharp.

He has accomplished the tour de force of being able to interpret the partitions found in the papers of Augustin Desombres, despite the fact that they had been judged impossible to play. See L'Affaire Desombres.

IMMEMORIES Elégie radiophonique by Bruno Letort. With Mike Ladd (vocals), Daniel Ciampolini (percussion) and Bruno Letort (electronics, guitars)

Some music made by Bruno Letort for the Obscure Cities world.

Videos with the music of Bruno Letort.

• Bruno Letort on Soundcloud
• Bruno Letort on MySpace
• Lollipop with music by Bruno Letort
• LIGNES création musicale sonore et visuelle
• Requiem pour Chernobyl
• Brunot LETORT, E(a)st

Some albums of the Obscure Cities are translated in Italian.

Alessandro Editore is an Italian publisher based in Bologna.

• La Teoria del Granello di Sabbia - 2009 AD - 112 pages soft cover
• Brüsel - 2011 AD - 126 pages soft cover, including preface on Brüsel
• L'Amata - 2012 AD - 88 pages hard cover

• Le Mura di Samaris
• La Bambina Che Pende

• Le Mura di Samaris - April 1983 - 46 pages softcover. Released as album #10 in the Collana Umanoidi series

• La Bambina Inclinata

On behalf of SNCB Holding Sum designs Trainworld, the new National Railway Museum at the Princess Elizabeth Square ¹. The site of Schaerbeek station will get a new destination ².

Both historic station buildings (one from 1887 and the other from the year 1920) will be restored and will be an important part of the new National Railway Museum Trainworld. The new museumhal will structure the historic station buildings, public space surrounding structure and the adjacent rail infrastructure.

In the initial restoration phase, the old station building in its original function as a passenger station to be repaired. The existing facilities currently scattered across the drive, will be reorganized and improved. The passenger counters get back to their original place in the ticket hall of 1887.

A second restoration phase aims at transforming the station from the 1920s. The Salle des Pas-perdus' (the current passenger terminal and adjacent areas) will be restored in the spirit of the 1920s. Here comes the reception and lobby for the new museum. The space will also be used for exhibitions and service facilities. The former waiting rooms are transformed into a new restaurant, which is accessible to both museum visitors and external visitors.

The third stage involves the construction of the new museumhal where the main exhibition spaces will be accommodated. The new building is situated along the tracks at the site north of the old railway station and integrates the former guard house. Due to its siting close to the protected station and given the great hall of the station building is also part of the museum, there is a public intermediate space between the station building and the new museumhal. That makes a weaving between passenger terminal and museum possible.

The museum holds one hand the historical exhibits of the SNCB Holding and offers a vision of the train of the future. The scenography is done by the Expoduo team, led by François Schuiten. The new museum will get the name Train World³

François Schuiten: ”It will be in no way a dusty old museum, no matter of simply aligned pretty locomotives in a hangar. No, today we must look beyond, to challenge in some ways. In Train World, I want that one is surprised, amazed, piqued people's curiosity. We must constantly renew the interest of visitors. I wanted this ambitious and even audacious. An emotional experience. A railway Opera!” ⁴

The project started at September 14, 2012 AD with the first stone. Later in October the real works started. The project is estimated for 20.5 million euros ⁶, a lot more as the 14,5 projected costs. The main hall of 8,000 square meters costs 8 million and will hold 12.004⁷.

The submission folder is made by Bart de Vuyst, Kroost ⁸

CLIENT: François Schuiten & Expo Duo
AGENCY: Exelmans Graphics
DESCRIPTION: François Schuiten is a famous Belgian (comic book) drawer. Together with exposition professionals ‘Expo Duo’ he made a submission file for an exposition contest of the Belgian Railways, NMBS. Kroost did the graphic design of this file. Mister Schuiten requested something sober that would honour his work… ⁹.

• Train World official site
• Train World on Twitter
• Information booklet (French) (Dutch)

Most of the Obscure Cities albums are translated in Spanish.

• Las Murallas de Samaris - 1983 AD - #9 of Coleccion Vertigo - Softcover 52 pages

• La Fiebre de Urbicanda - 1985 AD - #23 of Coleccion Negra. Translation by José Antonio Vidal - softcover 96 pages
• La Torre - 1987 AD - #26 of Colección Negra. Translation by José Antonio Vidal - softcover 106 pages

• El Archivista - 1991 AD - large edition
• Brüsel - April 1993 - Softcover 120 pages. Translation by Fco. Pérez Navarro.
• La Chica Inclinada - April 1996 - Hardcover 120 pages. Translation by E.Abulí.
• La Chica Inclinada - 2005 AD - Enhanced edition. Hardcover 152 pages. Translation by E.Abulí.
• La Sombra de un Hombre - February 2000 - Hardcover 88 pages. Translation by Enrique S. Abulí.
• El Archivista - Ocotber 2001 - New edition 64 pages
• La Frontera Invisible volumen I - October 2002 - Hardcover 72 pages. Translation by Enrique S. Abulí.
• La Frontera Invisible volumen II - June 2004 - Hardcover 72 pages. Translation by Enrique S. Abulí.
• La Teoría del Grano de Arena - 2010 AD - Integral version of 112 pages
• The Book of Schuiten, June 2004 - Hardcover, 152 pages

• Las Ciudades oscuras at Tebeosfera

All pages related to 2001:

Some albums of the Obscure Cities are translated into Portugese. The albums are published with several publishers.

• A Febre de Urbicanda - 1987 AD
• A Torre - 1989 AD

• A Fronteira Invisível Vol.1 - 2002 AD
• As muralhas de Samaris - 2003 AD - 56 pages

• Brüsel - 1993 AD - 120 pages
• A Menina Inclinada - January 1999, 152 pages
• A Sombra de Um Homem - February 2002, 88 pages
• O arquivista - 2003 AD - 62 pages

• A teoria do grão de Areia tomo 1 - 2009 AD - 109 pages
• Teoria do Grão de Areia - Tomo 2 - 2010 AD
• Bruxelas, Percursos - February 2012
• 12 - A Doce - 2012 AD - 88 pages

• The Great Walls of Samaris 1987 AD
• Fever in Urbicande - 1990 AD - 96 pages soft cover
• The Tower 1993 AD
• Brüsel 2001 AD - 120 pages hard cover
• The Invisible Frontier 2002 AD
• The invisible frontier volume 2 - 2004 AD - Hard cover. Translated by Joe Johnson.

See also: Obscure Cities (English)

The original Les Cités Obscures series were published in French and Dutch. The series has been translated in many languages:

the albums are also translated in:

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2013 in London is designed by multi award-winning Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto.

Sou Fujimoto is the thirteenth and, at 41, youngest architect to accept the invitation to design a temporary structure for the Serpentine Gallery. The most ambitious architectural programme of its kind worldwide, the Serpentine's annual Pavilion commission is one of the most anticipated events on the cultural calendar. Past Pavilions have included designs by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei (2012), Frank Gehry (2008), the late Oscar Niemeyer (2003) and Zaha Hadid, who designed the inaugural structure in 2000.

Widely acknowledged as one of the most important architects coming to prominence worldwide, Sou Fujimoto is the leading light of an exciting generation of artists who are re-inventing our relationship with the built environment. Inspired by organic structures, such as the forest, the nest and the cave, Fujimoto's signature buildings inhabit a space between nature and artificiality. Fujimoto has completed the majority of his buildings in Japan, with commissions ranging from the domestic, such as Final Wooden House, T House and House N, to the institutional, such as the Musashino Art Museum and Library at Musashino Art University.

Occupying some 350 square-metres of lawn in front of the Serpentine Gallery, Sou Fujimoto's delicate, latticed structure of 20mm steel poles will have a lightweight and semi-transparent appearance that will allow it to blend, cloud-like, into the landscape and against the classical backdrop of the Gallery's colonnaded East wing. Designed as a flexible, multi-purpose social space - with a café sited inside - visitors will be encouraged to enter and interact with the Pavilion in different ways throughout its four-month tenure in London's Kensington Gardens.

Julia Peyton-Jones, Director, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director, Serpentine Gallery, said:

Describing his design concept, Sou Fujimoto said:

“For the 2013 Pavilion I propose an architectural landscape: a transparent terrain that encourages people to interact with and explore the site in diverse ways. Within the pastoral context of Kensington Gardens, I envisage the vivid greenery of the surrounding plant life woven together with a constructed geometry. A new form of environment will be created, where the natural and the man-made merge; not solely architectural nor solely natural, but a unique meeting of the two.”

Mania Oikonomou was the first who found out that Sou Fujimoto is not only inspired organic structures, such as the forest, the nest and the cave but showed that the structure looks a lot to the Reseau that happened to Urbicande.

The Pavilion will be a delicate, three-dimensional structure, each unit of which will be composed of fine steel bars. It will form a semi-transparent, irregular ring, simultaneously protecting visitors from the elements while allowing them to remain part of the landscape. The overall footprint will be 350 square-metres and the Pavilion will have two entrances. A series of stepped terraces will provide seating areas that will allow the Pavilion to be used as a flexible, multi-purpose social space.

The delicate quality of the structure, enhanced by its semi-transparency, will create a geometric, cloud-like form, as if it were mist rising from the undulations of the park. From certain vantage points, the Pavilion will appear to merge with the classical structure of the Serpentine Gallery, with visitors suspended in space.”

• Robick, Eugen
• Urbicande
• Cube
• Lampe Urbicande
• Fièvre d'Urbicande (La)

The 14 and 15 chapter of the Chronicles. Together they are one story. The books are in black & white on silver paper. This makes the white parts of the page very bright. The original books are in oblong format. The large format and 2013 edition are in a normal format.

• August 23, 2007 - First French & Dutch edition of album one by Casterman
• October 6, 2008 - First French & Dutch edition of album two by Casterman
• October 7, 2009 - Large French album with complete story by Casterman
• April 24, 2013 - New integrated album by Casterman, including a postface with a lot of documents.

Gholam Mortiza Khan comes to Brüsel to sell some jewelry to Elsa Autrique. Before the sell can be closed, Khan dies in an accident. This is the start of some events that are investigated by Mary von Rathen: accumulation of sand in the apartment of Kristin Antipova, accumulation of stones in the house of Constant Abeels and Maurice who is loosing weight by the day. The events have a catastrophic effect on Brüsel. Time is of the essence.

With the release of the first album, Casterman made an introduction video.

This photo brings together the models of the main characters of La Théorie du Grain de Sable. Claude Diouri at the first row on the left, makes a brief appearance in the album. Beside him, Cecile Jodogne aka Elsa Autrique. On the second row, Alain Goffin alias Maurice and Eric de Kuyper alias Constant Abeels. Bernard Clerfayt, mayor of Schaerbeek, was very supportive of the purchase and renovation of the Autrique House, another key figure in the album. Only Mary von Rathen is missing on this picture …

The press dossier made for the release of this album. dossier-de-presse-la-theorie-du-grain-du-sable.pdf

Some examples of the normal format pages used in the large edition and 2013 edition.

François Schuiten, l'Horloger du rêve (François Schuiten, the Watchmaker of dreams) is a book about François Schuiten. L'Horloger du rêve will have 400 pages, with many illustrations from e.g. movies and exhibitions.The text is written by Thierry Bellefroid.

L'Horloger du rêve is scheduled to be released by Casterman on October 30, 2013.

There will be two versions of L'Horloger du rêve. A normal version at 59 euros and a deluxe version.

Schuiten

L'horloger du rêve

ISBN 220306305X

EUR 56,05

Schuiten

L'horloger du rêve

ISBN 2203083069

EUR 142,50

Book by Jacques Abeille with drawings by François Schuiten.

TED2013 speaker Martin Villeneuve studied film at Concordia University and graphic design at Université du Québec à Montréal. In 2002, he received a grant from the happening local advertising agency Sid Lee for the quality of his portfolio. In the years that followed, he worked as an artistic director with this agency, especially for Cirque du Soleil. In this capacity, he helped create award-winning advertising campaigns for shows like Zumanity, KÀ and Corteo.

He also directed the TV spots for the Cirque du Soleil shows DELIRIUM and Saltimbanco, as well as the website for the MGM Mirage’s CityCenter real-estate project in Las Vegas. As an author, Martin Villeneuve has written and created the comic book La voix du tonnerre (Les 400 coups, 2004), as well as the two graphic novels Mars et Avril (Sid Lee & la Pastèque, 2002-2006), which received enthusiastic acclaim and won many awards.

In 2012, he completed his first feature film as writer-director-producer, Mars et Avril, based on the graphic novels of the same name. This science fiction film, starring Jacques Languirand, Caroline Dhavernas, Paul Ahmarani and Robert Lepage, premiered at the 47th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Czech Republic. Mars et Avril was released in Canada in Fall 2012 and continues its tour of international festivals. Martin Villeneuve was nominated for best adapted screenplay at the 2013 Canadian Screen Awards for Mars et Avril.¹

Martin Villeneuve is currently working with European comic book masters Benoît Sokal and François Schuiten on the script of Aquarica, an animated fantasy feature film.²

Filmmaker Martin Villeneuve talked at TED2013³ about Mars et Avril, the Canadian sci-fi spectacular he made with virtually no money. In a charming talk, he explains the various ways he overcame financial and logistical constraints to produce his unique and inventive vision of the future.⁴

Prior to his talk, the opening sequence of the film was shown, as well as a three minutes overview of the steps leading from the green screen to the final images:⁵⁶

Martin Villeneuve's talk, “How I made an impossible film,” was released on TED.com on June 7, 2013, and a month later was added to TED's prestigious movie magic list, featuring famed directors such as James Cameron and J.J. Abrams!⁷

• French wikipedia
• English wikipedia
• IMDB
• LinkedIn

Mars et Avril is a Canadian science fiction film starring Jacques Languirand, Caroline Dhavernas, Paul Ahmarani and Robert Lepage.¹ The feature film, based on the graphic novels of the same name published by Sid Lee & la Pastèque, is written, produced and directed by Martin Villeneuve.²

Almost entirely shot on green screen, this independent film has a significant amount of visual effects. The project is being financed by Telefilm Canada, SODEC, Les Productions du 8e Art and the Harold Greenberg Fund, and is distributed in Canada by Alliance Vivafilm.³

Mars et Avril was selected at the 47th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, in the section “Another View” (films displaying a unique artistic approach in both form and content). The World premiere took place on July 2nd, 2012 in Czech Republic.⁴ The film opened in theaters in Canada on October 12th, 2012.⁵

In 2007 AD, Villeneuve contacted Belgian comic book artist François Schuiten— best known for drawing the series Les Cités Obscures published by Casterman— who agreed to create the visual design of the film.⁶ Working together, Villeneuve and Schuiten conceptualized a futuristic Montreal, shot mostly on green screen.⁷ Here’s a matte painting depicting Montreal in the future, designed by Schuiten for the movie.⁸

See more matte paintings and read the full interview with François Schuiten on Mars et Avril’s official website, in the FUTURISTIC MONTREAL section (available in French & English). You can also read a short interview with Martin Villeneuve in the INTERVIEW section (in French & English). In-depth interviews with the director are available in French on Z-télé and Cinephilia. You can also watch this interview on SciFi Universe. English interviews are available on Quiet Earth and eFilmCritic. And here's Martin's first podcast appearance on Producer’s Pal.

These pictures were taken when Schuiten first came to Montreal in September 2008 AD.⁹

Martin Villeneuve visited Brussels on several occasions between 2007 and 2011 to work with François Schuiten. Here are a few pictures taken in Schuiten’s beautiful workshop.¹⁰ From December 7th to 11th, 2011, the famous illustrator came to Montreal once again to approve the 550 VFX shots involved in the film, work on the poster and give a few interviews.¹¹

Upon his return to Brussels, Mr. Schuiten sent a message to the Montreal crew: ”Thanks again for your hospitality. This was a real pleasure to share this moment and see the quality of your work.” Thanks to Vision Globale’s VFX supervisor Carlos Monzon for this beautiful picture, taken during Mr. Schuiten’s memorable visit. – From left to right: lead actor Jacques Languirand, production designer François Schuiten and director Martin Villeneuve.¹²

Here are the costumes of the cosmologists inspired by the comic book Fever in Urbicand by Schuiten & Peeters (Casterman, 1985). But who exactly are the cosmologists? A powerful brotherhood of illuminati? Cybernetic Templars? Or just some passionate celestial (or divine) scientists? For now, they remain a mystery.¹³

The costume of the Marsonautes, from François Schuiten’s first sketch and Mariane Carter’s design to the final model! The costume is made out of a fabric with a tan semi-gloss finish and a textured patina. There is a front light on the torso, and small reflectors inside the collar and helmet. The shell and antenna on the back act as solar energy (or brain waves) panels! An electromagnetic field has also been added to the helmet in post-production.¹⁴

A setting of Fever in Urbicand, cult album in The Obscure Cities series, will appear in the movie Mars et Avril! As a matter of fact, François Schuiten kindly agreed to have a 3D model made out of his futuristic auditorium, for a scene taking place inside the Temple of Cosmologists. It is on this impressive set that Eugene Spaak (the character portrayed by Robert Lepage) will give his conference! For the record, the author of Mars et Avril had this image in mind when writing his books, a few years before Schuiten joined the team.¹⁵

On December 9th, 2011, a brainstorming was held concerning the film poster, involving production designer François Schuiten, artistic director Jonathan Nicol (from the Sid Lee Agency), conceptual artist D. Jeevan and director Martin Villeneuve. About 40 concepts were outlined during this working session, and 3 were selected to proceed to more advanced illustrations.¹⁶

Here are 2 poster designs that were considered, but ultimately rejected.¹⁷

And here’s the final concept, approved by the Canadian distributor, Alliance Vivafilm, that was revealed on Mars et Avril’s official Facebook page on March 11th, 2012!¹⁸

Art direction: François Schuiten, Dhamindra Jeevan, Martin Villeneuve, Jonathan Nicol (Sid Lee) / Graphic design: Dhamindra Jeevan / Prepress: Graphiques M&H — MARS ET AVRIL INC. & ALLIANCE VIVAFILM © 2012.

Thanks to Quiet Earth for the subtitles.

A series by Renaud Plante & Bruno Pucella unveiling the creation of the film.

Official “making of” (22 minutes, French)

Teaser “making of” (5 minutes, English subtitled)

Interview with François Schuiten (2 minutes, French)

Filmmaker Martin Villeneuve talked at TED2013¹⁹ about Mars et Avril, the Canadian sci-fi spectacular he made with virtually no money. In a charming talk, he explains the various ways he overcame financial and logistical constraints to produce his unique and inventive vision of the future.²⁰

Prior to his talk, the opening sequence of the film was shown, as well as a three minutes overview of the steps leading from the green screen to the final images:²¹²²

Martin Villeneuve's talk, “How I made an impossible film,” was released on TED.com on June 7, 2013, and a month later was added to TED's prestigious movie magic list, featuring famed directors such as James Cameron and J.J. Abrams!²³

• IMDb
• Facebook
• Official website

The Mars et Avril DVD was released on March 19th, 2013 and contains tons of bonus material! Here's an overview of what you'll find:

• Brainstorming with François Schuiten: As an audio commentary, an exclusive recording of a work session that took place in Brussels in spring 2008. Duration: 90 minutes.
• The Mars et Avril Experience: Official “making of” directed by Renaud Plante and Bruno Pucella for ARTV. Duration: 22 minutes.
• Web Featurettes: Interviews with Jacques Languirand, Caroline Dhavernas, Paul Ahmarani, Robert Lepage, François Schuiten and Benoît Charest. Duration: 12 minutes.
• Creating the Visual Effects: An overview of the steps leading from the green screen to the final images, created by Vision Globale. Duration: 3 minutes.
• Visions of the Future: A 42 images gallery, featuring François Schuiten's original sketches, the final “matte paintings” and a few storyboards.

For now the DVD is distributed through selected Canadian shops and Amazon. Amazon.ca also ships to Europe.

Martin Villeneuve

Mars et Avril

91 minutes

CDN$ 22.09

September 5th 2010 was the World Suicide Prevention Day. The Centre for Suicide Prevention, in partnership with the Mutualités Chrétiennes and Mutualités Socialistes and Dargaud Lombard plans to release an album of awareness against suicide in all healthcare settings in Francophone Belgium from November 2010 It will then be distributed from February 2011 in the usual bookstores.

Francois Schuiten realize the cover and the other participating authors are Cedric Hervan Dimitri Piot, Cedric Channel Swysen Bernard, Jean-Marc Dubois, Marianne Duvivier, Johan De Moor, Collin & Vincent Zabus Renaud, Xavier Lowenthal, and Romain Renard Maxime de Radiguès .

Benoît Sokal was born in Brussels in 1954 AD. He studied at the École Supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc in Brussels, together with many contemporary Belgian comic artists like François Schuiten. He began drawing for À Suivre in 1978 AD. He created the Inspector Canardo series, featuring a depressed anthropomorphic duck detective with a penchant for cigarettes, alcohol and femmes fatales, before working on other titles.¹

Later he joined the software developer Microïds and designed the adventure games Amerzone, Syberia and Syberia II. He then founded his own game company, White Birds Productions, where he created the adventure game Paradise published through Ubisoft.²

Benoît Sokal is currently working with Martin Villeneuve and François Schuiten on the script of Aquarica, an animated fantasy feature film ³.