The Association of Storyboarders of Benin (AS-Benin) launched the Vootoon festival, an event dedicated to drawing actors, this Friday, July 7, 2023.

Organized for the first time in July 2016, the Vootoon festival is a melting pot for cartoonists of all categories. According to the president of the Association of Storyboarders&èu of Benin (AS-Benin), Constantin Adadja, is to promote drawing as well as the actors who are dedicated to this profession. It is also about creating a design market where actors can come together to carry out projects together or even sell their content. Thus, at each edition, potential or talents in drawing are revealed to the general public

This year, the festival focuses on female designers (VOOTOON-ELLES). It is planned to shed light on women designers who, for a long time, have worked in the profession but have not managed to stand out in the field of design. Several activities are on the program of this meeting. These are the conferences-debates that will only receive women during the exchanges. Apart from this big encounter, there is the all-female battle, the winner of which will start with a SPIRO electric motorcycle. Comic book signing sessions, live performance, drawing concert headlined by Fat B and Djamile MAMA

These two artists will be accompanied by designers. Among the guests will be Christelle PECOUT (comic book author, vice president of the syndicate of comic book publishers of France), Lisa MANDEL (French publisher and comic book author), there will also be Carine ATOGUIMA who is a Togolese and excels in animation and Adrien FOLLY-NOTSRON, Togolese comic book designer. It is the first time that an edition of this festival highlights women designers in Benin

The editor and comic book author, Lisa Mandel, invited from France, expressed her joy at seeing an organization successful and furnished by rich interventions. “Comics are a way of telling stories and facts. It's information and it deserves to be developed,” she stressed. She did not fail to congratulate and encourage Benin to develop the comic book sector.

A total of four papers will be made around different themes as part of this edition. “Role of women artists in the feminist movement”; “Women designers and the digital world”; “Self-taught women designers: how to learn to train outside the academic framework” and “Women artists and their impact on the creative industries: fashion, advertising,