Mœbius-Transe-Forme

An icon of incomparable stature in the world of comics, an inventor of extraordinary forms and a brilliant cartoonist, Mœbius is an artist who goes beyond the traditional boundaries of the discipline. Following the artist’s wishes, this exhibition explores the theme of metamorphosis, a leitmotif that runs throughout his comics, drawings, and film projects. In relation to this theme, the exhibition also presents the first 3-D animated film directed by the artist, La Planète encore, along with the stories from the original comic boards. With landscapes and characters in perpetual transformation, his drawings explore the boundaries of the unconscious and reveal an imaginary and fantastic world. Through often sudden and disturbing metamorphoses of a character or a setting, Mœbius reveals a world where appearances are not as stable as they may seem.

The exhibition Mœbius-Transe-Forme arose from a long collaboration between Mœbius and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, who presented his work for the fi rst time in 1999 as part of 1 monde réel, an exhibition that explored the connections between reality, fiction and science fiction. At that time, two unpublished notebooks of the artist, which are now part of the Fondation Cartier collection, were on display. The exhibition also provided the opportunity for the artist to converse with the philosopher and urbanist Paul Virilio, as well as with the astronaut Jean-Pierre Haigneré at the Mir space station.

Born in 1938, Jean Giraud (alias Mœbius ou Gir) is a legendary author and comic strip artist. In 1963, under the name Gir he and Jean-Michel Charlier, then director of Pilote, created the series Blueberry. Following the death of Charlier, Jean Giraud continued this series, which currently counts about thirty albums. As co-creator in 1975 of the magazine Métal Hurlant and the publishing house Les Humanoïdes Associés, Jean Giraud developed the unique style which he signed Mœbius, publishing such groundbreaking works as Arzach (1976) and Le Garage hermétique (1979) that revolutionized the art of comics. In 1980, he collaborated with Alejandro Jodorowsky on a new series L’Incal and later worked on numerous films. In 1997, he and his wife Isabelle founded the publishing house Mœbius Production / Stardom where together they publish books including, most recently, volume six of the Inside Mœbius series, which was released in January 2010. They also make prints and organize exhibitions of his work throughout the world.