Afvæbnende tegninger

DISARMING DRAWINGS


ENGLISH TRANSLATION IN ITALICS


Så er vi der igen. Bladtegner udgiver bogværk med velkendt historiker/forfatter/skriver af anden art - og hvad gør anmelderne: Beskriver bogen som illustreret, som var tegneren en senere tilkommet tanke, sekundært til den tunge-lærde-enestående-ord aldrig før sete-skarptskuende tekst.

Bogværket er denne gang Roald Als og Søren Mørchs Nullerne ved Politikens Forlag. Og jeg må indrømme, at jeg også er lidt skuffet. Over forlagets format. Tegningerne har lige akkurat fået for lidt plads, har fået den cm. for lidt hver gang, så detaljer sløres, men også deres magtfulde tilstedeværelse underspilles. De bliver undskyldende tjenerskab frem for at indtage pladsen som konger på hvert opslag.

Med al respekt for Søren Mørch, så er dette tegninger, som blev til og var i direkte clinch med deres persongalleri i Nullerne. Mudderkonens bagland jamrede sig, mens andre tog deres tegnede identiteter på sig i erkendelsen af, at bladtegneren er stærkest.

Here we go again. A cartoonist publishes a book in joint partnership with a well-known historian/ author/other type of writer - and what do we get to hear from the critics: They describe the book as being "illustrated" as if the cartoonist was a later addition, secondary to the substantial-scholarly-unique-words-never-seen-before text.

The book in question this time is "Nullerne" by Roald Als and Søren Mørch at the Politiken Publishers. And I do admit that I am a little disappointed. With the guts of the publisher, that is. The drawings are each time squeezed that one centimetre too tightly onto the page. The details will go unnoticed, while the powerful presence of the cartoons is played down. They are the apologetic servants, rather than they being allowed to rule each spread.

With all due respect to Søren Mørch, these are cartoons created in the first era of this millennium that the book is meant to expose, and what is more, at the time they constantly confronted and affronted the persons portrayed in the book. The political entourage of certain right-wing protagonists were agonized, while others adopted the identity they were given in his drawings very much aware that the cartoonist will always win anyway.

Michel Kichka, april 2012 - et nyt lag til diskussionen hvorvidt, det er kunstneren eller morderen, der skaber kunstværket / – giving us a new aspect to the discussion whether it is the artist or the murderer who create the artwork.

Så lad os kaste ordet "illustreret" over bord og tage et nærblik på Michel Kickas skønne begreb, des dessins désarmants, i.e. afvæbnende tegninger:

So let's throw the word "illustrated" overboard and take a closer look at Michel Kicka's beautiful concept, des dessins désarmants, i.e. disarming drawings:

Begrebet formulerede han i kølvandet på dannelsen af Cartooning for Peace. Der skulle være en vis kraft bag bladtegnerens faglighed, en snert af våben, at dette er tegninger med slagkraft som deltagere i deres tid.

Uden derfor at tage liv, deri forskellen til diktaturers redskabsbrug.

Kichka er endnu et eksempel på bladtegneren som den uforfalskede intellektuelle - som Per Marquard Otzen eller i Tunesien Nadia Khiari - der kan skære gennem vand. Såsom den nedenstående tegning - også Kichkas farver har samme klarhed, selv, eller især, når den har en grumset-gullighed, jeg ikke husker at have set siden bedemændene i Morris' Lucky Luke:

He formulated the concept in the wake of the creation of "Cartooning for Peace". The professionalism of the cartoonist ought to be described with some force to it, a whiff of weaponry that these are drawings with to be reckoned with as participants in their time.

Without taking life, therein lies the difference to the tools of dictators.

Kichka is yet another example of the cartoonist as an unadulterated intellectual – along with Per Marquard Otzen in Denmark and in Tunisia Nadia Khiari to name just two – with a wit so sharp they can cut through water. Such as the drawing below – even Kichka's use of colour have the very clarity, even, or especially, when it takes on a muddy-yellowness, I do not remember having seen since the undertakers in "Lucky Luke" by Morris:

Tegningen er fra august. Diktatorens fremvisning af trofæer over de journalister, der har mistet livet under hans omklamring af magten. På Kichkas blog blev tegningen kommenteret af en læser med indvendingen, at Gilles Jacquier rent faktisk blev dræbt af oprørerne, og om Kichka som bladtegner ikke dermed bidrager til at videreføre styrets propapanda?

Hvorefter Kichka svarede med vanlig slagkraft og med ord, der besidder en næsten poetisk rytme - at uanset hvor en kugle er kommet fra, ligger ansvaret hos al-Assad. Det er hans land, hans diktatur, hans krig, som han uanset omkostningerne driver til det yderste for at forblive ved magten.

The drawing is from August. The dictator's presentation of trophies made of the journalists who have died during his stranglehold of Syria. On Kichka's blog, the drawing was commented by a reader with the objection that Gilles Jacquier was actually killed by the protesters, and whether Kichka as a cartoonist was thereby invariably backing the propaganda of the regime?

To which Kichka responded with his natural potency in words that possess an almost poetic rhythm – that regardless from what the corner the bullet came from, the responsibility lies with al- Assad. It is his country, his dictatorship, his war, which he is driving to the extreme regardless of the cost in order to remain in power.