Exhibition of comics NINA BUNJEVAC (Canada)

Nina Bunjevac is a painter, sculptor and autor of comics from Canada. Born in Canada, she spent her childhood and early adoscence in Serbia – in Zemun and Niš, after which she moved back to Canada, just before the beginning of the 1990s crises in Yugoslavia. Although she has been successful in various media, Nina sees comic art as her permanent obsession, since it reflects her passion for story-telling, and can also be easily transformed into animation – an area she is keen to embark on. In Nina’s opinion, comics are a highly accessible medium, and she is strongly in favour of the opinion that art ought to reach wide audiences, instead of being targeted at groups of privileged individuals.

Nina’s works have been included in numerous editions and anthologies, such as Komikaze (Croatia), Mineshaft (USA), InguineMah (Italy), Female Comics in the Balkans (Croatia), Carte Blanche (Canada), Giuda (Italy) and others. Among her favourite topics are the issue of immigration and nationalism, as well as universal themes such as loneliness and love desire, viewed from the perspective of female characters.

In the exhibition that will be staged at the ANIMANIMA 2011 Festival, Nina will present a truly special heroine, a cat-woman called Zorka. In an interview given to our famous comic author Aleksandar Zograf, Nina said: “I am truly happy with the new character that I have created for the comic I am currently working on – she is Zorka Petrović, a cat-woman, modelled according to the classical Noir film The Cat People, directed by Jacques Tourneur in 1942. My film is about the people from the Balkans (especially Serbs) as sexually deviant predators, threatening to destroy the peaceful life of ordinary Americans. In my comic, Zorka is a lonely girl, obsessed with the fixation of finding a man of her life. She works in the meat-processing industry, and loves eating fast food while watching American TV programmes. In a way, she has become a victim of the American media machinery, rather than its opponent.”

In her talk with the Canadian journalist Dave Howard in April 2010, comparing the situation in the North-American and European scene, from the generation aspect of their respective authors, Nina emphasised the creative energy of the European, especially the Balkans community of comic artists, with their paradigmatic vitality despite the adverse social and economic circumstances.

Works of Nina Bunjevac can be found on: www.ninabunjevac.com

INVISIBLE COMICS – ALTERNATIVE COMICS IN SERBIA

“Invisible comics – Alternative comics in Serbia” is an initial attempt to collect and show the production of auctorial/independent/alternative comics which has been using the distribution channels and production strategies of the unofficial culture, now within an archive and exhibition project of the central institution of cultural memory – National library of Serbia. Therefore, in the form of an installation exhibition and the catalogue we can get an overview of the existing collection of alternative comics in Serbia in past decades, and observe the start of their contextualization through a wide collaboration with the authors, initiatives, collectives and organizations who make this scene so vital, unpredictable and recognizable. The initial research was made relying on the basic form of the development and distribution of alternative comics: the comics fanzine.

Continuing the tradition of independent/samizdat activity that has characterized youth and alternative culture in Yugoslavia, alternative comics in Serbia were experienced in full swing in the 1990s. Due to its innovativeness, intensity and intertwining with tendencies in various other fields of alternative culture, the alternative comics turned out to be the cultural production from Serbia which was the most present on the international scene, despite the social circumstances that were greatly aggravating the lines of international communication. This cooperation was taking place outside the bounds of institutional culture, but it has nevertheless proved to be effective in opening new platforms for production and exchange, producing a new generation of authors and generating growing interest by both institutions and audience. Zograf, Wostok, Saša Mihajlović, Danijel Savović, Milan Pavlović Stocca, Damir Rijowitch and Damir Šmit, Aleksandar Opačić, Radovan Popović, Maja Veselinović, Nikola Vitković, Lazar Bodroža, Nikola Korać, Vuk Palibrk and a series of other authors who have been included in this dynamic development with their creative, educational or organizational activities, enabled us to perceive their work in continuity of an alternative scene tradition and find ways in the new context to develop the discussion about what is an alternative – in both comics and culture.

Kolekcija „Nevidljivi stripovi“ će takođe prikazati i sačuvati digitalizovanu produkciju nezavisnih / samizdat stripova i fanzina koji do sada nisu sistematično sakupljeni i sačuvani u institucijama (uključujući i časopise koji se prema načinu produkcije i distribucije mogu svrstati u fanzine, kao što su Striper, Mutanat, Tit bit i ostali; samo-izdati grafičke časopise u obliku fanzina, koji su izdavani pod nazivima kao što su Momci, Phantom Works, Morcina, Feathered Friends; strip-fanzine čiji autori i grupe autora direktno potiču iz pank-fanzin kulture, gde spadaju Krpelj, Debilana, Titov zabavnik ili Zadrugar; proizvode nastale u radionicama i zajedničke radove kao što su Kuhinja, Čovek iz bunara i drugi; i eksperimentalne forme koje nastaju u procesu osmoze u novim medijima, a koji se mogu naći na platformi Studiostripa, kao na primer Gorski vijenac, Bolji život, Bizar, Tvrdi strip, Hororretard, Intimna Mašina i drugi). Ova kolekcija će pružiti uvid i u različite materijale, kako iz aspekta medijske arheologije – podrazumevajući koncept fanzina kao autentično lokalno stvaralaštvo u štampanom formatu, tako i iz ugla istorije stripa u Srbiji i šrime regionu, kako bi se na ovaj način podstakla intenzivnija institucionalna briga za ovaj oblik kontinuiranog i vitalnog stvaralaštva.

„The Invisible Comics“ collection will also display and preserve digitalized independent/samizdat comics print and fanzine comics production that has not previously been systematically collected and preserved in institutions (including magazines the manner of production and distribution of which makes them equivalent to fanzines, such as Striper, Mutanat, Tit bit and others; self-issued graphic magazines in fanzine form published under labels such as Momci, Phantom works, Morcina, Feathered Friends; comic fanzines by authors and collectives directly stemming from punk fanzine culture, such as Krpelj, Debilana, Titov zabavnik or Zadrugar; products of workshops and collective work such as Kuhinja, Čovek iz bunara and so on; and experimental forms which are the result of the process of osmosis in the new media, which can be found at the Studiostrip platform, e.g. Gorski vijenac, Bolji život, Bizar, Tvrdi strip, Hororretard, Intimna Mašina etc). The collection will provide an insight into various materials both from the point of view of media archeology, implying the concept of fanzine as a vernacular print cultural production, and from the point of view of the history of comics in Serbia and the region, in order to affirm more intensive institutional concern for this continual and vital production.

The context within which we hereby perceive independent comics production underlines the question of representative quality of authorial comics for the culture from which it stems. The levels of visibility of this peculiar production enable us to approximately define it as invisible comics. With its impressive development and emancipation from the existing codes of classical, sequential narrative, and its graphic and drawing standards, it has ensured increasingly intense involvement in current trends on the international scene, has found channels of international communication and has been recognized and found, presented and glorified across the border, although in official culture, in public events and media public space in Serbia in the 1990s it almost does not exist. With few exceptions in dailies and literary magazines, the authorial alternative independent comics remain invisible for those outside its insider audience/community, within Serbian borders. This production, at the same time, is one of the most visible and present art practices from Serbia outside its borders. Paradoxically, in the 1990s this representative role is partly enabled by the network of interchange and cooperation between comics scenes in the ex Yugoslav region through fanzine distributional and net strategies, as well as through acquired reputation and popularity of certain authors (primarily, Aleksandar Zograf and Danilo Milošev Wostok), who managed to attract inquisitive glances to the entire scene. The field of contemporary art was the first to show itself to be open and accessible for involvement with the alternative comics scene. After 2000, the new swing was produced by more intensive communication and increased mobility, articulation of Internet initiatives and portals (Studiostrip www.kosmoplovci.net/studiostrip , comics news www.stripvesti.com), easier organization of international events (Such as festivals GRRR! In Pancevo initiated by Aleksandar Zograf or New Era Festival of non-aligned comix initated by Turbo comix and Studiostrip in Belgrade), but also by participating in the dynamic field of contemporary art and literature.

Presentation: Aleksandra Sekulić

THE EDUCATIONAL ANIMATED FILM PROGRAMME ELEPHANT

The Educational Animated Film Programme Elephant has been created as part of the International Festival of Animated Film Animateka, but it lives and breathes for one purpose: the children. A wide selection of outstanding original animated films, which are carefully sorted into appropriate age categories, is available to children and youth each year. Young visitors are invited to express their thoughts on films, their content, and their aesthetic and artistic significance when they view the films on a big screen and participate in debates which are prepared between separate films. We also take care of the adults who accompany the children: we prepare an assortment of pedagogical materials which help them work with children. The Elephant has a life of its own even between the two festivals: we organize workshops of animated film for children, we participate at various festivals, and present our programme in Slovenia and abroad. In collaboration with the most widely read children's magazine in Slovenia we publish a DVD with the best films from the last year's festival, we add a word of advice for debates to the films, and thus encourage children and adults to watch and enjoy animated films together.

Films selected by Igor Prassel, Animateka (Ljubljana, Slovenia)

A MODERN FABLE OR A SOCIAL BESTIARY?

Examples of depicting animals in contemporary European animated film

How much does man truly understand animals? Are the scientific zoology, art and media of any help here? Is the entertainment industry (film, TV, toys production) less exploitative and manipulative only because we have today an awareness of animals as of creatures playing a vital role on this planet, and therefore awareness of their rights as well? In the light of understanding the forms of coexistence of humans and animals, there is the interesting approach based on the assumption that humans are not primarily rational animals, but rather animals with a linguistically structured soul. The mediation of the language in man’s categorisation of the real and imaginary worlds is also important in his understanding of the animals’ world. By projecting his own features onto animals, which has always been a standard approach in fables and animal tales, strong bonds are established and new possibilities of self-cognition are released. At the junctions of didactics and humour, stories like these construct a new reality, built on its own laws.

Certain possible images of this world, self-contained and full of surprises, can be seen in animated films. The standards that have been set in the representations of animals, mostly characterised by anthropomorphy and anthropocentric aesthetics, are still widely used today, on both sides of the Atlantic. There is a significant number of European authors, however, whose works feature a wide and diverse non-compliance with this standard. In the animated creations of the contemporary animation masters, animals tend to be less of a ‘hero of the story’ and more a symbolic and/or allegoric extension to their human stem.

By focusing on short author films, an attempt has been made to classify them into several groups according to their meaning and highlights of action, where certain links can be recognised. The first part will deal with the analysis of the ‘social’ aspects, with an emphasis on the male – female relations and examples are John and Karen by Matthew Walker (Great Britain, 2007) and No Place For Gerold by Daniel Nocke (Germany, 2006). The second part will describe the quest for the moment when a pet becomes a flatmate or a partner like in Crocodile by Kaspar Jancis (Estonia, 2009), Red Rabbit by Egmont Mayer (Germany, 2007) and Anniversary by Martinas Dyša (Lithuania, 2006). The complex topic of the third part is the swap of the roles or identities depicted in Dog Days by Geoffroy de Crécy (France, 2007), Sailor, Dogs by Joana Toste (Portugal, 2007) and Hen, His Wife by Igor Kovalyov (Russia, 1989), while the fourth part deals with the extraordinary qualities of an animal-doll as seen in Tyger by Guilherme Marcondes (Brazil, 2006) and Maestro by Geza M. Toth (Hungary, 2005). Finally, the fifth part will present the functions of the mask and the ritual of dance, i.e. the symbolic comprehension of the animal and the example is The Old Lady and the Pigeons by Sylvain Chomet (France, 1996).

Lecture: Milen Alempijević