Two representatives of the vibrant, cutting-edge scene of comics and graphic novels in the Arab world will be giving this talk: Lina Ghaibeh, an illustrator and professor at the American University of Beirut, and Issam Smiri, a graphic designer, illustrator and author of comics. Through a dialogue guided by the exhibition’s curator, Pedro Rojo, we will get a first-hand account about the details in the creative process which these artists follow, the environment in which these works are produced and circulate within and around Arab countries, and the local audiences’ viewpoints and opinions on these stories.

Lina Ghaibeh (Lebanon) is an illustrator and author of comics. She has worked in television for 15 years as an animator and has taken part in many different festivals and exhibitions. She is a professor with the Architecture and Design Department of the American University of Beirut, where she founded the section on media and digital animation. She teaches courses on graphic design, stop motion, animation and interactive media design.

Issam Smiri (Tunisia) is one of the finest representatives of Tunisia’s comics scene, which is especially fertile compared with the rest of the Arab world in general, and the Maghreb region in particular. He works as a freelancer and is a regular contributor to the magazine Lab619, a reference among the publications in his country, having put out two issues every year since 2013. The magazine provides a space for all types of artistic styles and stories, in both French and Arabic. http://issamsmiri.daportfolio.com