13.08.2020
Museum Europäischer Kulturen
The traveling exhibition comiXconnection at the Museum Europäischer Kulturen (MEK) has been extended until 30 May 2020. An artist talk about a comic journal will be held on 22 August 2020, and comics workshops for adults will take place from 19 September onwards.
Since September 2019, the exhibition comiXconnection has been shining a spotlight on independent comics from Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, and Romania, in addition to offering a look behind the scenes of the art form, and presenting a range of new comics formats. Due to popular demand, it has now been extended through 30 May 2020.
Since its reopening in late June 2020, elements of the exhibition have been focused on the force that is currently shaping the entire world: COVID-19. Artists from six European countries reflect on our new reality in short-form comics. A comic journal, created during lockdown, is presented in unusual format. Equally unusual are the oversized “masks” covering the exhibition’s wooden boxes, which prevent access to the comics for hygiene reasons.
Extraordinary times tend to unleash a special kind of creative energy. During the spring 2020 lockdown, science journalist Alexandra Hamann found herself getting fewer jobs. On a whim, she signed up for seasonal work, helping a Bavarian hop grower tie up his crops in preparation for harvest. Every evening she penned reflections on her unusual work in the hop fields of Hallertau, and sent her texts and photos to the illustrator and comic artist Julia Kluge, who – from a distance – transformed each episode into a vibrant panels: www.mintwissen.com/hopfen.
An artist talk on 22 August 2020 will reveal more about the creative concept and background behind the comic journal, and offer an insight into the collaboration between the two artists. Moderated by Axel Halling from the Deutscher Comicverein. Doors open at 6 pm to read the comic in the exhibition space, followed by a signing. If the weather is fine, the talk will be held in the MEK garden. To accompany the comic, the restaurant eßkultur will be serving the original Hallertau beer depicted in the comic, along with Bavarian-style pretzels. Registration via email: mek[at]smb.spk-berlin.de.
As part of the comiXconnection programme, comics workshops for adults will begin on 19 September 2020. Participants are invited to capture their experiences of the past months in the form of detailed short comics and cartoons or pithy individual panels, under the guidance of a professional comic artist.
The comiXconnection exhibition has also had a tangible impact on the museum’s other shows. A wide range of documentary comics were produced during a comics and journalism workshop held in February 2020, featuring the likes of the iconic döner figurine, as well as a womb votive that has since made its way into the museum’s permanent collection Cultural Contacts: Living in Europe. A further comic will follow in autumn 2020.
Since February 2020, the special exhibition Fast Fashion: The Dark Sides of Fashion has been showing the comic strip WILL HABEN, produced especially for the MEK by artist and illustrator Mikaël Ross. The short comic is also available to take home as a zine. WILL HABEN deals with the purchasing habits of today’s fashion consumers in a humourful yet critical way. Mikaël Ross won last year’s award for the best German-language comic as part of the Max-und-Moritz-Award , the preeminent prizes for graphic literature in the German-speaking world.
comiXconnection is a project by the Koordinierung Ostmittel-und Südosteuropa at the Museum Europäischer Kulturen – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. The Berlin phase of the exhibition is supplemented by a multifaceted collaboration with the Deutscher Comicverein.
The exhibition is accompanied by an English-language catalogue, a multilingual volume of essays, and a comic about the exhibition.
Exhibitions
comiXconnection
27.08.2019 to 30.05.2021
Cultural Contacts. Living in Europe
Permanent exhibition
Fast Fashion
27.09.2019 to 31.01.2021