German rowing champion in
1992, ZElba,
now a graphic designer based in France,
depicts the meeting with
those who,
more than an iron curtain,
a whole world separates her from.
When the Berlin Wall fell on
NOVEMBER 9, 1989,
you were either not born,
or you remember exactly where you
were.
Wiebke Petersen, 16, was
living in Essen, West Germany,
and she was rowing with her older sister,
Britta.
The two rowing champions were then more concerned about their sports results and about their first love thrills.
And yet, reunification would change everything for them.
With chiseled lines,
rewarding us with a few pedagogical pages on the technicality of rowing,
Wiebke,
under the pseudonym of ZELBA,
tells with a lot of humour about the OSSIS,
these East German
sportspeople
with whom she had to compete in the 1992 Olympics,
about the
organized doping in the GDR
or about the international political meetings
which
marked her adolescence.
This is not a comic strip
like others.
"Dans le meme bateau”
(In the same boat)
plunges us into a pivotal period for her author and her
country.
Another way to read history,
without ever losing ground.
By Giulia Dobre
DANS LE MEME BATEAU by ZELBA,
BD, Futuropolis 2019, 160 pages.
