“K: KafKa in KomiKs” translates the ambiguity, alienation and nightmarish settings of Kafka’s work into the context of an exhibition!
Accompanying the main festival program of contemporary performing art, we are pleased to present the exhibition “KafKa: K in KomiKs”, which invites you to “unfold” Franz Kafka in a more modern but less common format: comics and graphic novels.
KafKa: K in KomiKs has re-translated three graphic novels based on Kafka’s life and ambiguous work into the context of an exhibition. Yet the physical objects and the audiovisual environment in no way create the colorful, pleasurable impression that one would expect from most graphic novels.
“Ich finde die K hässlich” (“I find K repulsive”) is the first phrase that greets, or rather “warns” the visitor of what is to follow: darkness, alienation and nightmarish settings. Motifs such as a plastic pistol, knives, nooses or grotesque characters convey the same depressing mood.
This graphical narrative does not only serve an artistic and creative function. It makes the abstraction more visible, accessible and tangible, allowing both Kafka enthusiasts and new readers to experience and interpret him in their own way.
Gold & Wirtschaftswunder created this exhibition using excerpts of the three Graphic Novels: “Introducing Kafka” by the American audio play author and artist David Zane Mairowitz and the comic pioneer Rober Crumb (US), “Der Prozess” (The Trial), which Mairowitz worked with the French illustrator Chantal Montellier and “Das Schloss” (the Castle) also by Mairowitz, illustrated by Jaromìr 99, the Czech comic artist and musician.
Curated by David Zane Mairowitz himself and Małgorzata Zerwe, the exhibition isn’t showing just plain images. It combines physical objects and audiovisual environments which creates a sensual experience of the world of Franz Kafka.
K: KafKa in KomiKs won the gold award from European Design Award 2014. It has made a “tour” in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, the UK and last year in the Museum of Printing Arts in Leipzig.
Project initiator
Literaturhaus Stuttgart, in cooperation with the German Literature Archive Marbach
