Illustrators lead peaceful response to Brussels attacks
Artists, designers and illustrators have responded to the latest terror attacks in Brussels by posting drawings on Instagram and Twitter under tags including #JeSuisBruxelles, #JeSuisBelge and #PrayforBrussels.
The images started to appear on social media hours after the twin explosions at Zaventem airport and another explosion at Maelbeek metro station yesterday. More than 30 people are thought to have died in the attacks, and dozens injured.
More illustrations have appeared today, including drawings of iconic Belgian cartoon character Tintin and various versions of Brussel's Manneken Pis statue of a little boy peeing on bombs and guns under the tag #pisandlove.
Illustrations shared on social media are increasingly becoming a focus for peaceful responses to terror attacks.
An image by designer and director Jean Jullien that turned the Eiffel Tower into a peace sign became a symbol of unity following the Paris attacks in November 2015.
Another drawing by Jullien, featuring a pencil plugging the barrel of a gun, also led the responses to the attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January last year.
The Charlie Hebdo attacks had particular resonance with editorial illustrators, after a number of cartoonists were killed. The #JeSuisBruxelles tag was born out of the #JeSuisCharlie created in the aftermath of that attack.
Among the #JeSuisBruxelles and #Belgium images are a recreation of the Belgian flag in Pantone swatches by Italian illustrator and graphic designer Margherita Urbani, a picture of Tintin's silhouette in black on a red background with a yellow tear by Montreal art director Sylvain Grand'Maison, and an image of the Mannekin Pis curled up with its head in its arms by Spanish illustrator Nardo Ferrer Torres aka Narduo.
Other images included the iconic Atomium building, a relic of the 1958 Brussels Expo designed by engineer André Waterkeyn and architects André and Jean Polak.
But other terror attacks, like those in Istanbul last week, have not perceived to have attracted the same response – a fact that was reflected today in the posting of altered versions of an image by French illustrator Plantu of the French and Belgian flags crying.
The illustration was originally posted by French newspaper Le Monde and has become one of the most shared following the attacks, but a number of Instagram users have also been uploading doctored versions of the image to include the Turkish flag.
US illustrator Christopher David Ryan initially posted an image of the three colours of the Belgian flag hugging each other, but followed this with an drawing of the crescent moon and star of the Turkish flag also hugging.