Johan Deprez
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designed by Johan Deprez
Designed by Johan Deprez
Johan Deprez was born July 3, 1978 in Oostende, Flanders and now resides in Brugge. He started the Say no to the gnome paté petition.
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[edit] Projects
As the initiator of the Say no to gnome paté petition, he is also the administrator of TravellingGnome.net and co-creator of Jerome Angus Graham III, a gnome that plans to to every continent and one third of all countries in the world. He is also affiliated with several other websites.[citation needed]
[edit] Inspiration
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Ever since childhood Johan Deprez has been creative in bringing his imagination to life. As a child he was fascinated by all sorts of comics wich inspired him in his choice of studies: he went for (and got) his degree in Art. From drawing Superman, Donald Duck and Batman it was only a small step to creating a Travelling Gnome. One night Johan and Sibby started to imagine how they could do something fun with the garden gnomes their neighbours seemed to collect. The plan was to switch two gnomes from two gardens, to have them trade places, and see what the reactions would be. Of course then they would've had to sit outside somewhere and wait until the prank was noticed. Since it was november, and thus: cold, that wasn't such a good idea. So what if they just 'borrowed' a gnome for a night to give it a complete make-over. Turn the little man into a little black man or something like that. Again they would have had to wait outside to see what the reaction would be. So exit that idea as well. The final idea turned out to be the best: Buy a gnome, re-paint it so it doesn't look like it was bought in some discount gardening center and send it on a tour around the world, just to see how people would respond and how far they would agree to go along in a fantastic story like Jerome's.
So they bought the gnome and while Sibby gave him a paintjob Johan started working on the gnome's background story. If he didn't have a good reason to travel the globe, why would people invite him in the first place? As the story progressed Jerome became an ex-fugitive from a slavecamp for opressive gardening looking for a place where Gnomekind could be free forever. To empathise the drama of being an ex-slave they made the Gnomecamp Revisited docu-video in a burned down pigfarm in Beernem with the music of Joris Hermy.
By the time the site was ready to go live so was Jerome. He shipped off for what would turn out to be a never-ending vacation starting in Sidney, Australia. But it wouldn't end there. Being a vegetarian Johan Deprez frequently shops in so called 'bio-shops' that sell all kinds of healthy and biological food. You can imagine his shock when Johan discovered that a company called "Food for Freedom" produced 'Kabouterpaté' (Dutch for Gnome Paté) and sold it trough those bio-shops. Feeling forced to speak up on behalf of their gnome friend Johan and Sibby came up with the Say no to gnome paté petition. Intrigued by what seemed to be an absurd idea the media picked up the story and brought it to everybody's attention. This resulted in even more visitors and invitations for Jerome and, even better, an invitation from Food for Freedom for Jerome to inspect their producing facilities so that it would be clear to all that they did not commit Gnomocide for the production of their products.
While the Travelling Gnome is maybe Johan's most well-known project other stuff Johan Deprez came up with involve a parody on shop-TV, a movieclip on how Sinterklaas uses public transportation to go to work and Brugopolis, a brandname/portalsite under wich all Johan's projects, and those of his brother Peter 'Funky Fry' Deprez and his cousin/housemate 'M' are presented to the world.
[edit] Memberships
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[edit] References
- 05/12/2006 - Radio 538
- 01/12/2006 - V-radio
- 01/12/2006 - Krant van West-Vlaanderen
- 28/11/2006 - vrtnieuws.net
- 28/11/2006 - Focus TV
- 28/11/2006 - Het Laatste Nieuws
[edit] External links
Projects by Johan Deprez
Other related projects
