Chroniques de géo’ virale by Michel Lussault

On March 17, 2020, a strict lockdown of the French population started, in order to prevent Covid-19 from spreading. Suddenly, everything stopped: travels, exchanges, tourism, schools, universities, shopping malls, airports, factories, cinemas, theatres…

In this unprecedented context, geographer Michel Lussault decided to produce a series of video chronicles called “géo’ virale”, in order to “not be stupidly locked down” and to share thoughts out loud. One needs to “think the world with the virus”, as the spread of the virus highlights the main characteristics of globalisation, particularly the generalised urbanisation of the planet. The pandemic reveals how the world evolve in a system, and how vulnerable it is, underlining social inequality.

Chroniques de géo’ virale designed by Bureau 205 transcribes the ten chronicles posted from March 23 to May 11, 2020 (when total lockdown progressively ended). The author added commentaries, which puts each episode in critical perspective, as well as a conclusion that considers the pandemic as a “total fact of the anthropocene era”. In order of offering a different view on the text, illustrator Lou Herrmann designed a graphic journey through the chronicles, to enrich the reading.

The headlines are set in Plaax Sathonay LightB. Continuous text uses Thelo Text, and its Micro style is used for captions.