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Le monde selon Topor

Collective

Twenty years have gone by since he died, but like other troublemakers who stepped down too soon, such as Reiser, he is still very present. His caustic sense of humour continues to sting us, as he is continues to be as subversive as when he was with us. Roland Topor (1938-1997), the son of Polish Jewish immigrants, never forgot the years of collaboration with the Nazi invader and during which he had to hide with his family. They taught him to maintain a healthy mistrust of the human race. As a drawer he practiced among the best, at the satirical magazine Hara-Kiri, but he did not find his vocation in current issues. His work, which was cruel, Surrealist, dreamlike and mostly “panic” – according to the term invented by Jean-Michel Ribes - shows the absurdity of man’s existence. For him the injured, deformed, lecherous human beings in small pieces are destiny’s miserable toys. This beautiful catalogue (exhibition at the Bibliothèque nationale de France until 16 July 2017), unfortunately deprived of an index, reminds the viewer that Topor, a true jack-of-all-trades also delved in theatre, cinema (la Planète sauvage with René Laloux), or simply in literature and he saw creation as a project of collective friendship. The list of his accomplices - from Pol Bury to Jacques Sternberg, from Jodorowsky to Ribes – is proof of this.


Le monde selon Topor, BnF Editions/les Cahiers dessinés, 2017, 242 p., €42.

Le monde selon Topor - Collective


Review published in the newsletter #468 - from 13 April 2017 to 19 April 2017

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