Unveiled in 2020, during the President's wishes to the press, the project to create a Maison du Dessin de Presse seemed to have been forgotten. The government had announced that it wanted to create a unique place dedicated to caricature and press cartoons, in connection with freedom of the press. " It will be a house, not a museum. The aim is to make it a living place for teaching, media education and cartooning, as well as a refuge for cartoonists threatened in their own countries ", stated theÉlysée.
The project came about after the January 2015 attacks on Charlie Hebdo: the satirical newspaper had been targeted by terrorists, following the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. A few months after the project was announced, Samuel Paty was murdered. This press cartoon house is a tribute to the victims, but also to the journalists and cartoonists who continue to assert their freedom of expression.
On January 11, 2021, Emmanuel Macron declared that this house would be set up in Paris, in a former school on rue du Pont-de-Lodi, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, not far from Notre-Dame de Paris. Since then, no further news. The lack of progress on this project had worried associations promoting press cartoons.
On November 28, 2024, an official press release from the French Ministry of Culture gave hope to those involved in the project. Rachida Dati assures us that work will begin at the end of 2025, with a public opening scheduled for 2027. The Maison du dessin de presse finally seems to be taking shape.
This 1,500 m² space will be " dedicated to the knowledge, promotion and dissemination of the unique form of expression that is press cartooning, somewhere between art and journalism, politics and society, illustration and caricature".
The Maison du Dessin de Presse has been given three main missions: to conserve and exhibit works that retrace over 200 years of the history of press cartoons in France, and to showcase French and foreign drawings from different periods; to welcome press cartoon artists and give them a space in which to create; and finally, to pass on, learn about and help the general public, particularly schoolchildren, understand press cartoons and their importance.
The mayor of the 6th arrondissement, Jean-Pierre Lecoq (LR), commented: " Every day we see the need for a free press, as the various conflicts around the world and the political situation at home prove. This house will be there to defend freedom of expression, while at the same time being a place for culture, education and encounters."
See you in 2027 to discover this new Paris venue.
