Mutanten

german version

The German Comic Avantgarde of the Nineties An exhibition curated by Sabine Witkowski, Christiane Gasser and Hendrik Dorgathen in the NRW Forum Kulture & Wissenschaft in Dusseldorf, Germany: 29.10.99 - 09.01.00 Germany is an anomaly as far as comics are concerned. Many of the most influential comic pioneers of the 19th century were German: Wilhelm Busch, for example; or the legendary ''Fliegende Blätter,'' which were an inspiration to U.S. artists; and somebody like Lyonel Feininger, who lived in between both continents. But for most of the 20th century, Germany (along with German-speaking countries in general) has never really developed its own comics culture. Without exaggeration, it is possible to say that while comics have always enjoyed great popularity in Germany, there were never any authentically German comics or comic artists for the most part of this century-with the exception of a few lone fighters such as Matthias Schultheiss and Gerhard Seyfried. As a result, German comic fans had to read material licensed from the U.S., France or Italy. In the Nineties, however, things certainly seem to have changed. Helped along by publications such as Strapazin (an independent comic magazine first published in 1984), a young generation of German and Swiss comic artists has emerged from nowhere. People from the DDR (the former East Germany, where there were virtually no comics except ideologically correct ''funnies''), such as Anke Feuchtenberger, Atak, Holger Fickelscherer, Christian Huth, Henning Wagenbreth; people from West Germany, such as Hendrik Dorgathen, Martin tom Dieck, Markus Huber, Jim Avignon; people from Switzerland, such as Thomas Ott, M.S. Bastian, Anna Sommer, Christian Farner-all have developed individual graphic and narrative styles. Without the weight of tradition hanging over them, these artists were free to experiment with comics in whatever way they wished. It would be wrong to suggest that they turned to comics as a means of expression in order to conform to some industry standard-there is no comics industry to speak of in these countries. Nor do any but the very few come from a comics tradition or school. In fact, one might even say that some of them are really not interested in comics as such. But all discovered in the mixture of words and images a convenient and suitable medium for expressing whatever it was they had to say. The range of work is vast: from Thomas Ott's extremely cinematic scratchboard nightmares, nurtured by EC comics, to Martin tom Dieck's poetic meditations on water and other elements; from Anke Feuchtenberger's crude but expressive look at the female body to M.S. Bastian's violent comic cut-ups; from Hendrik Dorgathen's pop-art-style fantasies to Christian Farner's baroque and surreal visions. At the same time, the work of these artists is not confined to the comic panel. They also work in other fields and try to fuse together varying forms of expression and different sources of influence. In addition, they work as illustrators, fine artists, video artists; they make commercials, pop videos and are involved in multimedia projects; they are sometimes teachers and professors in art schools. In other words, they feel at home not only in the alternative world of comics, but also on the gallery wall or the computer screen. This generation of artists has contributed to a revival and renewal of the European comics scene. Within this independent scene, which stretches from Helsinki to Lisbon, from Paris to Belgrade, they are respected as original creators who have extended the boundaries the medium. Their work is published throughout Europe, and even in the U.S. There's a huge gap between Wilhelm Busch and M.S. Bastian. This exhibition (as well as our homepage and the catalogue, which will be published in late October by the art publishing house Hatje-Cantz) will try to fill it.