What comes to mind when you say comics? For some, American superhero universes, for others, classics of the Francophone world like Tintin. For those who are more familiar with contemporary work, one of the many adaptations of historical events, perhaps an adventure story, an adaptation of a famous novel, or a comic biography inspired by the work of David B., Alison Bechdel, or Marjane Satrapi, might spring to mind. But you won’t find anything like that in this exhibition.
The fact that in the comics scene in the Czech Republic, which this exhibition introduces, you will find a number of creators with an approach completely different from globally established genres and aesthetics, can be understood as proof that the Czech scene has really flourished in recent years. However the big publishing houses rather stick to genres such as adventure, historical and autobiographical stories and esthetics derived from classical Anglo-American and French-Belgium comics schools, here and there, even in ordinary production, some kind of experiment appears. The scene surrounding independent magazines, small publishers and risograph studios producing comics in small editions is significantly richer in terms of expression and topics. Here you will find comics from genres such as fantasy, diary and reportage-documentary entries, educational, dreamlike or surrealist, horror, science fiction and queer graphic stories, sitcoms, or (perhaps a little difficult to classify) pieces of visual poetry.
A number of the exhibited works can also be found simultaneously in the Latvian comics anthology, Kuš!, which is currently publishing a special Czech issue in cooperation with festival of illustration and comics LUSTR based in Prague. Many thanks to David Schilter, who has been managing this extremely bold, playful, and varied content of Kuš! for years! Under David’s leadership, Kuš! has been tirelessly sparking enthusiasm for non-mainstream comics around the world, helping to raise the profile of what shouldn’t be lost, encouraging comics creators from all over the world not to shy away from creating something new, unusual or even weird. And that is exactly what this exhibition is all about. Enjoy our selection of contemporary Czech comics with scratchy lines and missing bubbles.
Curators:
Barbora Müllerová, David Schilter
Exhibitors:
Jakub Bachorík, Julie Černá, Jindřich Janíček, Nikola Hoření, Jakub Hrdlička, Barbora Kicovová, Michaela Kukovičová, Nikola Logosová, Lucie Lučanská, Barbora Müllerová, Sára Paldánová, Barbora Satranská, Lívia Suchá, Tereza Šiklová, Chrudoš Valoušek, Klára Zahrádková
With the financial support of the European Union, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Czech Recovery Plan.
Time and place:
Kalnciema galerija, Kalnciema Iela 35, Riga, Latvia
18. 10. -2. 11. 2024
Opening 17. 10. at 18:00
Opening hours:
Mo-Fr 10:00-18:00
Sa 10:00-16:00