"Jeg er det våben"

"I AM THAT WEAPON"


ENGLISH TRANSLATION IN ITALICS:


Center for Kultur og Udviklings Syrien-symposium i Rundetårn gav undervejs på dagen anledning til at diskutere det billedsprog, der udvikler sig på tværs af grænser og giver streg til at definere konflikter. Til fornemmelsen af hvem, som har været inspirationskilden til den ene tegner, Ali Farzat, gav den libanesiske filmkonservator, Tony Daoud, et mellemled, hvis tegner endog går over børneværelset.

Det var en stærk, kritisk kultur det 20. århundrede gav dets børn med sig.

Den første kilde er åbenlyst ham her:

The symposion Syria's Art of Resistance organized by the Danish Center for Culture and Development was an occasion to discuss informally beyond the larger frame of the symposion. Discussions such as how imagery finds its ways across borders when the need arises to define conflicts with a drawn line. The Lebanese film conservator, Tony Daoud, added a new name to the sources of inspiration of the cartoonist, Ali Ferzat. A name that is all the more interesting in being a cartoonist whose work is known and loved in the nurseries.

It was a strong, critical outlook the 20th century passed on to its children.

But let us first take step back to the first source, who was obviously this artist:

Georg Grosz inspirerede dem alle, tegnerne i det 20. århundrede. Han blotlagde magten og korruptionen af mennesket gennem en streg, der også rent fysisk var en blotlæggelse. I en kantet, skærende kontur er alle hans personer nakkeløse. Alle spiller de en rolle, magthaver som offer, der gør spillet muligt.

Kunstneren må træde ind. I denne DADA-inspirerede montage sættes lyd til hans tegning L'etat, c'est moi: Die vollendete Demokratie (Staten det er mig, det fuldendte demokrati) fra ca. 1919 i leden over første verdenskrig, der har bragt folket i knæ. Folket har brug for et våben: "Jeg er det våben, min kunst er min riffel".

Georg Grosz inspired them all, the cartoonists of the 20th century. He uncovered the human lust for power and corruption with a drawn line that was an exposure even in the physical sense. His figures were carved out on paper with an angular contour that left them all without a neck. Every one of them takes on a role as either the potentate or the victim, making the power game possible.

So the artist has to step in. In this DADA-inspired montage sound has been added to his drawing "L'etat, c'est moi: Die vollendete Demokratie" (I am the State, the Ideal Democracy) which dates from about 1919 and was made in the aftershock of the First World War where everyone was brought to his or her knees. The people need a weapon: "I am that weapon, my art is my rifle."

Ali Farzat: http://www.ali-ferzat.com

Syriske Ali Farzat er klart et tegnerbarn af denne tradition. Han har sat billede på magten i en tilsyneladende mere rundet linje, men det parallelunivers hans personer kæmper i, består af de samme grundelementer. Grosz brød nyt land for kunsten allerede i sin konturs skarphed ved at vise, at dette er en fortælling, og dermed en fortælling om mennesket til alle tider. Selvom vi ikke er fangevogter eller fanger, og vi for europæernes vedkommende nu er tredje generation efter første verdenskrigs faldne, så er det stadig os, han blotlægger.

Ali Farzats magtgalleri er i uniform eller jakkesæt med gyldne knapper ved ærmerne, for også her tager hver især en rolle på sig, og også her har magten tænder - sådan som vi herhjemme genkender magtens tænderskæren i Peter Lautrops kunst. Ovenfor ser vi endog, hvad der sker, når tegnerens våben kommer i de forkerte hænder.

The Syrian Ali Ferzat is unmistakably a child of this tradition. His line may seem more rounded, but his characters struggle in a parallel universe that consists of the same basic elements as ours. Grosz broke new ground by his use of contour to tell the story of mankind of all time. We may not be jailers or prisoners, and in Europe we are by now the third and fourth generations after the fallen of the WWI. Still, it is us he exposes.

Ali Ferzat dresses his gallery of the powerful in uniforms or suits with golden buttons on the sleeves in that here too each of them takes on a role. And here too the powerful show off their teeth – within Danish cartoon art we invariably see before us of the grinding teeth of the powerful in Peter Lautrop's drawings. Above we even see what happens when the cartoonist's weapon gets into the wrong hands.

William Steig, illustration fra Listen Little Man, 1948.

Men i den blødere kontur er også en renhed, der har en senere tegnerkilde end Grosz, og det var denne kilde, som Tony Daoud satte ord på: Wilhelm Reich.

Naturligvis. Han skrev i sommeren 1945 Rede an den kleinen Mann, der tre år senere blev oversat til engelsk med tegninger af William Steig. Steig er især kendt som tegner af børnebøger og gav Shrek hans grønne form. William Steigs tegninger er mere indadvendte med en poesi, som vi genser hos Farzat. I mindre grad noget set, end idéen om magten.

In the softer contour, however, there is also a purity to be found, which has a later source than Grosz, and it was this source Tony Daoud nailed: Wilhelm Reich.

But of course. In the summer of 1945 Reich wrote "Rede an den kleinen Mann", which was translated into English three years later with drawings by William Steig. Steig is first and foremost known for his drawings for children's books and he was the one who gave Shrek his green shape. The drawings of William Steig are more introverted with a poetry that we recognize in Ferzat. To a lesser extent something seen than the idea of ​​power.

Ali Farzat: http://www.ali-ferzat.com

Og heri en anden type henvendelse til beskueren, stadig en form for anklage, men afklædningen er en opfordring til handling med Wilhelm Reichs ord: "Du er din egen slavedriver. Ingen ud over dig selv har ansvaret for dit slaveri. Ingen anden".

Balanceakter går igennem hele Farzats værk. Der er ingen absolut magt. Kun hvis offeret medvirker, kan magten udøves. Magtens fundament er angsten for at blive opdaget. Det tilsyneladende umulige er og bliver kun tilsyneladende: 

And herein lies a different type of approach towards the viewer. There may still be a reminiscence of an accusation, but the exposure is a call to action in the words of Wilhelm Reich: "Your slave driver is you yourself. No one is to blame for your slavery but you yourself. No one else, I say!"

Balancing acts run through the work of Ferzat There is no such thing as absolute power. Only if the victim involved takes part, can power come into force. The constant fear of power is to be found out. The seemingly impossible is only apparently so:

Ali Farzat: http://www.ali-ferzat.com