Comics as Intimate Testimony
The comics part of this year’s City of Women Festival
presents three of the most talented and successful contemporary European female
comic book authors. Caroline
Sury from Marseilles, Dominique Goblet from Brussels, and Anke Feuchtenberger
from Hamburg, will confront us with an exhibition of works that tell their
autobiographical and intimately fictitious stories.
They all have academic backgrounds; they all started working in comics in the
nineties; in addition to comics, they all do illustrations; they all frequently
exhibit their work at festivals and in art galleries; they all conduct comics
workshops and are successful at printing their own comic book albums; and they
all share a rather unusual lyrical narration. What made them leading figures in
the contemporary comics world is their original graphic styles. From this point
of view, Caroline’s is the wildest and most systematically chaotic; Dominique’s
style involves gentler lines, bordering on avant-garde expressionist paintings;
while Anke’s line is the purest of the three and even more expressionistic than
Dominique’s. If Caroline and Dominique focus more and more on autobiographical
subjects, Anke remains firmly in her own oneirically symbolic world. Apart from
their graphical styles, they are just as different in their use of colour,
although all of them also excel in the aesthetics of black and white. The
specifics of silk-screening makes Caroline again the loudest; Anke is a master
of warm layering; while Dominique feels most at home in a world of grey with
outbursts of bright red. And this is where I end my attempt at comparative
analysis. In conclusion, I would like to underscore the most important fact:
Anke Feuchtenberger, Caroline Sury and Dominique Goblet have each done a great
deal for the development of comic-book language by experimenting with
expression in comics. If anybody still doesn’t understand, let me put it like
this: the names of the authors presented at the festival are written in block
letters in the history of contemporary art. Don’t miss this unique opportunity
for a personal confrontation with their works and words!
(Igor Prassel)
Programme:
7. 10. : 20.30 – opening of the exhibition
8. 10. : 17.00 – interview with the authors
9. 10. : 15. -19.00 – Comics as a reporting medium (with Caroline Sury,
Dominique Goblet and Anke Feuchtenberger)
10. 10. : 15.-19.00 – Comics as a reporting medium (with Caroline Sury and
Dominique Goblet)
11. 10. : 11.00-14.00 – Silk-screen workshop (with Caroline Sury)
organised by: Mesto žensk/City of Women
project coordinator: Igor Prassel
in cooperation with: Mednarodni graficni likovni center – MGLC, Stripburger
