On January 7th, Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Luz arrived late at the weekly editorial meeting of the newspaper because he was celebrating his birthday, and this is why he is still alive today. Luz was interviewed by the French magazine Les Inrocks in the wake of the terrible events of last week, and despite being obviously devastated, he made some excellent points. And I bet not too many people have thought about these…
‘All eyes are on us, we’ve become a symbol, just like our cartoons. Humanité headlined ‘Liberty has been assassinated”, he declared, ‘A huge symbolic weight, that doesn’t exist in our cartoons and is somewhat beyond us, has been put on our shoulders. I’m one amongst many who’s finding that difficult.’
‘In 2007, when the caricatures of Muhammad were published in the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten, we were considered as either troublemakers or white knights, defending the freedom of the press’, he continued.’ In 2011, when our offices were burnt down, we were yet again, white knights. In 2012, a completely idiotic film about Muslims was released (Innocence of Muslims), we had cartoons of Muhammad in Charlie, as usual. We were once again dangerous troublemakers whose cartoons resulted in the closing of embassies and spread terror amongst French citizens abroad. The media made a mountain out of our cartoons, when on a worldwide scale, we are merely a damn teenage fanzine. This fanzine has become a national and international symbol, but it was people that were assassinated, not the freedom of speech! People who sat in an office and drew cartoons.’
And Luz continues to explain that, what he considered like a little fanzine at the beginning, took over the world and became this huge symbol of freedom of expression mostly because of the internet and the ever-increasing social media power…. ‘Those stakes are laid on our shoulders. But we’re simply a newspaper that is bought, opened then closed. If people post our cartoons on Internet, if the media highlight certain of our cartoons, that’s their responsibility. Not ours.’ He adds.
‘We are being made to carry a symbolic responsibility that doesn’t figure in Charlie’s cartoons. Unlike the Anglo-Saxons or Plantu, Charlie fights against symbolism.’
And basically, these drawings, ‘sometimes goofy, other times crass, punk for sure’ have become symbolic and ‘the symbolic weight is exactly what Charlie has always worked against: destroying symbols, breaking down taboos, bursting bubbles of fantasy. It’s wonderful that people are giving us their support but it’s going against Charlie’s cartoons.’
May be it didn’t appear this way in the chaos that followed the attack, but the surviving cartoonists are truly the reluctant heroes, as they have become what they were fighting against. Luz says that Charb (one of the victims) ‘drew what was under the gloss’ while now they are ‘covered in gloss’ and he finds this very difficult to live, ‘Today, we are the symbol. How can you destroy a symbol when it is yourself?’
These people were punk rockers, anarchists and they could be now buried in the Pantheon with the national anthem, all the things they were opposed to! They may have become notorious for their Mohamed satirical cartoons but they were mocking everybody and everything!
And I wonder whether this is not the destiny for all punk rockers once they have made it. If punk is a revolt and a rebellion against establishment, how do you deal with this revolt when what you have created has escaped you and is recuperated by the establishment and the whole world you were rebelling against? Luz says he doesn’t have the answer, and I don’t either.
