Parsley and the Secret of the Foul Street
Our legends, crossed gestures

Persil et le secret de la rue fétide
Nos légendes, gestes croisés

As part of the Saison de Lituanie en France programme, run in partnership with Le Salon du livre et de la presse jeunesse en Seine Saint-Denis and the “School Improvement Center” association (Vaikų žemė, Vilnius, Lithuania), the “Nos légendes, gestes croisés” mentoring and publishing project, put 6 Lithuanian artists in the spotlight, accompanied in their creations by 3 French comic book authors and under the artistic direction of Thomas Gabison.

The fruit of an artistic residency in Vilnius and numerous exchanges between the artists, 6 leporellos have now been published to keep track of these stimulating dialogues around the ancient and more contemporary legends that nourish Lithuanian history and culture.

I tell the legend of the Vilnius Basilisk in a new, rather comic light. Visually inspired by 17th-century Basilisk engravings and historical drawings of Vilnius, I recreate a double landscape in which a plucky little girl seeks to unravel the mystery of missing people and demystify the shamanic rituals of the town's wise person.