Comics Country Switzerland
An exhibition by the Arts Council of Switzerland PRO HELVETIA

The Arts Council of Switzerland Pro Helvetia presents, by means of 42 panels and an online documentation, the exhibition ”Comics Country Switzerland”. The exhibition is stored on CD and can be reproduced by exhibitors worldwide on the spot. The exhibition shows past and present of the Swiss comics and addresses to a broad public and to specialists. «Comics Country Switzerland» invites you to join an intriguing expedition into a fascinating world of pictures and stories.

The “Comics-Country Switzerland” exhibition aims to provide a glimpse of Switzerland’s past and present comic activity. A rather small country one could say, but one that boasts a booming, variety packed comic scene! Individual artists have managed to break through at international level since the seventies.

The ride begins historically with Rodolphe Töpffer from Geneva, who is said to have invented the comic back in the first half of the 19th century. It ends in the present with new young comic-artists based in the two Swiss centres of Zurich and Geneva. These upcoming artists take advantage of the various mediums available to them and dare to try something new and experiment in their own magazines/ editions.

They are all exemplary figures of present day Swiss comic-artists: Cosey, Matthias Gnehm, Mix & Remix, Noyau, Thomas Ott, Frederik Peeters, Nadia Raviscioni, Helge Reumann, Anna Sommer, Tom Tirabosco, Wazem and Zep. The heart of the exhibition (24 panels) consists of the above mentioned artists’ own individual portraits. In addition, each of the twelve artists has created his or her own individual comic exclusively for the “Comics-Country Switzerland” exhibition. “Time” was taken as the subject for these unique one page complete stories (without text).

Switzerland is always at hand when it comes to clichés (mountains, banks, Heidi, William Tell a. s. o.). The “Typical Switzerland” part (2 panels) is a selection of pictures of the country itself, as seen through international comic-artists eyes. Needless to say that comic heroes from all over the globe love lingering a while in Switzerland.

A “Making of” (2 panels) shows the various stages of production involved with “The Incident” (“Zwischenfall”) comic that the central Swiss artist Melk Thalmann is working on. In comparison to job-sharing productions he draws all phases- from the story development and detail drawing through to the colouring-in phase on the computer monitor, taking sole responsibility. “The Incident” is a mixture of modern history facts and fiction.

An audio-visual of about 10 minutes shows as well the Making of “The Incident” (“Zwischenfall”) in partly animated sequences. The audio-visual is, as the panels, produced in eight languages.

Additional informations, Website

Special sites of the Pro Helvetia Website are fully dedicated to the exhibition (www.pro-helvetia.ch/expo). These sites form a proper multimedia catalogue and replace the common exhibition catalogue. The site contains the exhibition texts – an introduction (general text), Swiss Comic-History, From Literature to Comics , Disney’s Mickey Mouse in Switzerland , Swiss Pictures in Comic Form – and shows a representative selection of the exhibition panels.

The website also shows a selection of the audio-visual, dedicated to the making of “The Incident“ (“Zwischenfall“).
The informations of the website are supplemented by a detailed bibliography and a link-list; these websites on Swiss comics allow a deepening of the knowledge on Swiss comics.

Credits

– Project Leader:
Rudolf Velhagen

– Project Manager:
Pierre Schaer

– Curator/ Texts:
Urs Hangartner, Lucerne

– Consulting/Documentation:
Cuno Affolter, Bibliothèque Municipale de Lausanne

– Graphics:
versum, Lucerne

– Photography:
Ben Huggler, Lucerne

– Internet/Programming:
Toby Lüscher, 360degrees.ch, Lucerne

– Translation:
(Ian)blacktranslations.ch

–Thanks:
David Basler, Christophe Bertschy, René Lehner, Beat Mazenauer, Jürg Moser, Matthias Schmid, Daniel Thurre

L’Association, Atrabile, Buchet/Chastel, B.ü.L.b, Casterman, Dargaud, Drozophile, Dupuis, Edition Moderne, Éditions du Rouergue, Ehapa, Glénat, Globi-Verlag, Les Humanoïdes Associés, La Joie de lire, Lombard

– Production:
Pro Helvetia. Zurich
www.pro-helvetia.ch
The exhibition is part of the collection of CD-exhibitions by Pro Helvetia. You find further information on these CD-exhibitions here: www.pro-helvetia.ch/expo.