First ‘abROAD to Japan’ workshops in Larissa

The first workshops of the ‘’abROAD to Japan’’ project took place this week in Larissa (on Saturday 6 and Tuesday 9 of April) organised by SMouTh in collaboration with LoudmouseCrew, an internationally acclaimed team of comic book creators.

Artists with diverse background -from music and theater to poetry and comics- met in Skinovatis-Ekphrasi premises, shared their first impressions from various travels and discussed the cultural stereotypes and sometimes potential misinterpretations that arise when we come across different cultures for the first time. Furthermore, the group delved into two selected texts of travel literature: the first excerpt was by Lefcadio Hearn “Texts from Japan” (Greek edition from Indiktos) and the second “The lady and the monk” by Pico Iyer (Vintage Departures, 1992) which describe the experiences of the authors – set in a different century – during their visits to the land of the Rising Sun.

In the second meeting, participants discussed about the Japanese comics, manga, and their international influence in comic arts while they created storyboards based on scenes from the studied literary texts.

The team renewed their appointment for the end of April in order to present their first artistic results and plan the next steps of the project.

Many thanks to the people who participated and shared their great ideas and to our host Skinovatis-Ekphrasi.

*The project ‘abROAD to Japan: A Post-Japonism Manga Project’ is implemented with the co-financing of the Japan Expo ’70 Commemorative Fund for the year 2024.