Getting to grips with the absurdity of everyday life with humor
Capturing the essence of a story in just a few strokes—that is the great challenge of editorial cartooning. The exhibition “Gezeichnet 2018—The Best Swiss Editorial Cartoons of the Year” at the Museum of Communication showcases just how artfully and humorously Swiss editorial cartoonists achieve this.
More than 50 illustrators from all over Switzerland are participating with their works in the exhibition Gezeichnet 2018, which can be seen at the Museum of Communication from December 14, 2018 to February 10, 2019. Also included are all the well-known names such as Chapatte, Max Spring, Felix Schaad and Ruedi Widmer.
Visitors are thus not only given a representative overview of the Swiss press drawing scene, they are also once again immersed with relish in all the important events of the past twelve months with all their absurd and crazy aspects: From No Billag to the heatwave summer to the big discussion about arms exports, it's all there. And, of course, there's no getting around the everyday insanity of US President Trump. The biggest challenge about him for the cartoonists is that he always outdoes even the professional caricature itself. Not to exclude that here and there the laughter also gets stuck in the throat - all in all, but certainly the most humorous review of the year, which can be viewed these days. And: The draftsmen and draftswomen are already sharpening their pencils for the National Council elections in the fall of 2019 and invite you to a special primary election. Let yourself be surprised!
Already for the eleventh time takes place Drawn, again with more than 200 cartoons and caricatures. During this time, the situation for press illustrators and cartoonists has also changed several times. The sad highlight was the terrorist attack on the editorial office of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, which will be the fourth anniversary on January 7, 2019. At the same time, as the media landscape has changed in recent years, the work situation for this condensed form of journalism has also become more acute. Against this background, it is a positive sign that more than 50 cartoonists continue to be present in the exhibition with their press drawings. They don't seem to run out of humor and work that quickly, even in times of fake news. In times when self-irony is largely absent, their humorous reduction to the maximum is more important than ever.
Gezeichnet 2018 is under the patronage of the satirical magazine Nebelspalter and is kindly supported by Migros Kulturprozent, Stiftung Vinetum, Gottlieb und Hans Vogt Stiftung, Ursula Wirz- Stiftung, ProLitteris, Burgergemeinde Bern and SWISSLOS/Kultur Kanton Bern.
