15.6.15

Catalog of the 20th International Cartoon Exhibition, Zagreb 2015, Croatia

A couple of days ago received the new catalog Zagreb 2015, the 20th International Cartoon Exhibition, from Croatia. The standard 19x19 cm sized catalog has 96 pages, half of which are in color and the other half with gray scale images. Davorin Trgovcevic, president of the Croatian Cartoonist Association, celebrates the 20th anniversary of their festival in his introductory article, "The Birthday". Admittedly, one looks for one more article portraying the aspects of the theme with humorous touches (like the one in the previous edition's catalog by late HANS, the cartoonist). Well, a suggestion only, a report of the jury explaining a bit of the grounds for their decision to award particular works would do as much better: This kind of an intellectual essay used to be a pillar of strength for most festival catalogs until recently, but mostly neglected nowadays, possibly due to problems of translation or shortness of time. Why, because, organising the exhibition with an already published (checked and proof-read before of course) catalog in a month's time after the jury meeting needs great effort and attention. And Zagreb International Cartoon Exhibition does this as a tradition which not many cartoon festivals could belong.
Out of ten participants from Turkey, three cartoonists' works are selected (one is awarded by the way) for the catalog: Musa Gumus, Oguz Gurel, and Halit Kurtulmus.
The stone-age artist by Gerald Peigneux from France, and two Picasso cartoons by Grzegorz Weigt from Poland and Erico Junqueira Ayres from Brazil made me smile the first sight I can remember. You can also decide your best cartoons in the catalog, just click here. You might also get a signed copy by contributing only 20 USD here.
My thanks to HDK for sending me this precious book of contemporary humor.

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