Plog - the Puttbill_Blog
'Die Schraube' goes Hamburg
11 May 2017, 7 P.M.
Instituto Cervantes Hamburg
Chilehaus, Eingang B
Fischertwiete 1
20095 Hamburg
Tel: +49-40-530 205 29-0
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Exhibition Picnic Time
A picnic in the park, un déjeuner sur l’herbe – the activity of eating together in natural surroundings is popular all over the world.
People have been enjoying this pastime as far back as the Ancient Greeks, and with the invention of the picnic basket in England in the eighteenth century, dining en plein air became a social event. With the aid of photographs, films, installations and objects, this exhibition takes a closer look at our fascination with picnicking, traversing various epochs and cultural contexts. For instance, what is the nature of the lavish picnics during the Henley Royal Regatta in England? How do people picnic on the world’s highest mountains? How do they do it in the Middle East? And how did people picnic in Japan during the cherry-blossom season at the turn of the nineteenth century? Picnic utensils from a wide range of cultures and contexts – from the finest lacquerware, crystal glassware and silver cutlery to the pragmatic and practical plastic ensembles of the modern day – all tell tales of just how varied this popular cultural practice is. The exhibition is accompanied by numerous events and installations inviting museum-goers to come and picnic in the surrounding Metzlerpark.
Felix Pestemer will contribute a selection of documentary drawings of the Mexican Day of the Dead festivities taken from his graphic novel 'Dust of the ancestors' in the section Picnic on the graveyard.
Museum Angewandte Kunst
Schaumainkai 17
60594 Frankfurt
T + 49 69 212 44539 (Foyer)
T + 49 69 212 31286 / 38857 (Information)
www.museumangewandtekunst.de
opening hours
Mo closed
Tue, Thur to Sun 10 am to 6 pm
Wed 10 am to 8 pm
Average Hans
'Die Schraube'
An illustrated novel
Álamos Publishing, 2016
ISBN: 978-3-00-050480-8
148 pages / 17 x 24,5 cm
19,99 €
Robin Jahnke’s first novel is characterized by its lighthearted humor. If it was not for its setting under an overcast sky, 'Die Schraube' might pass off as a studio theater play. Jahnke sends his caricatures of essential German characters off into unexpected situations and develops – partly in page-long footnotes – a panorama of Germany which is strikingly precise in all its weirdness. The protagonists display a hodgepodge of human flaws: regarding their opposing characteristics and attitudes, compulsive Helena Knirsch can be considered the antagonist of Doro Schlüter, the latter a punk and chaos expert. In turn, the two female characters may be construed as two opposite poles of Hans’ inner life. Hans on the other hand is an open invitation for empathic embarrassment. He expertly fails in matters of his individual freedom, while tackling his own uncertainty with a virtue that presumably is the most typical among the German virtues: he functions. At least for as long as functioning functions.
Hans Knirsch looking for an emergency telephone (Illustration: Felix Pestemer)
The interplay of image and text is truly unique in this novel. Immediately after drafting its plot, Jahnke began the collaboration with Berlin-based artist Felix Pestemer. The duo managed to congenially interweave the novel’s scenes with Pestemer’s numerous detailed drawings. These illustrations accomplish more than merely a visual exemplification of Jahnke’s prose, they generate meaning in additional narrative layers as they playfully offer interpretations, sometimes they even take the story further than the text initially did. This way, the novel with each page further condenses a world so grotesque it "could not be more realistic", as the blurb puts it.
Designer Paul Bieri took care of the layout and is thus responsible for the book’s superb quality of print and production. The novel has been ordered as a contract work by Mexican publisher Lino Santacruz Moctezuma. He granted complete artistic license to Jahnke and Pestemer – as long as the novel would in the broadest sense represent their native country of Germany. For well over 15 years now, Santacruz has worked as a diplomat, spokesperson, editor, and not least as a patron of culture in Germany. In this vein, he looks upon the project as a contribution to the bilateral relations between the two countries. Jahnke’s and Pestemer’s approach of painting a picture of Germany inhabited by caricatures and satirized stereotypes puts a smirk on Santacruz’ face: "Typically German".
"Christian Gaul reads from 'Die Schraube' at the book presentation in the Berliner Akademie der Künste/Academy of Arts, Berlin"
The novel 'Die Schraube' has been published in November 2016 by newly established Álamos Publishing in both German and Spanish. An audiobook version of 'Die Schraube' is so far only available in German, read by actor and voice actor Christian Gaul. The novel has been created on the occasion of the Germany-Mexico-Year 2016-17, parallel to the collection of stories 'Potsom', a volume of twelve transcribed narratives of the indigenous peoples of Mexico.
Niels H. Blume, First editor of 'The Screw'
Biologistical Pest Control
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COMIC CULTURE CLASH - Book Release
Around the globe in 20 conflicts
The Berlin comic magazines Moga Mobo and Epidermophytie have let 40 comic artists fight out 20 conflicts on the drawing table. Single combat, comic-to-comic.
The result: a 264-page- long anthology with tales about misunderstood dictators, stranded refugees, cuddly AfD voters, paranoid drug lords and many belligerent people more. This handy reference book for current animosities will come into the world on September 30 th and will be FREE OF CHARGE.
The first editions, fresh from the press, are available at the public book launch where editors and artists will present their work and stand ready to answer questions. Subsequently, the accompanying, small but fine exhibition will be opened and hopefully war will be declared on one or another cold beverage at that occasion. Admission to both events is free.
Sometimes just stepping back will be enough to change one’s point of view. That is exactly what we want to achieve with this book. And we are using the means available to us: comics.
Book Presentation:
taz-Cafe Berlin
Rudi-Dutschke- Straße 23
subsequently
Exhibition Opening:
Galerie Knoth und Krüger
Oranienstr. 188
For more information go here:
www.comic-culture-clash.de
