Walk through comics

The corridor is like turning pages

What does the author himself say about the exhibition? Let’s emphasize at the outset that the comedy he presents is not a linear story. It can also surprise other elements, only because the text next to the graphics sometimes appears upside down.

“The idea of ​​enjoying some coordination is to show that some things don’t have to follow the beaten path,” says Jose Manuel Jimenez Muñoz. The artist is also known by the pseudonym Jose Goz. – You can enjoy the layout of the format you are dealing with. This opens up new possibilities for storytelling – she adds. – As a recipient, a viewer, you will in turn be more closely related to the displayed object if you have to approach it appropriately using your body. It’s something that isn’t just put in front of you, it’s something that’s more visible, leading the receiver on different paths, and giving you more fun.

The artist asserts that the experience of dealing with a book or a comic book can be translated into a visit to an exhibition. As in the case of the book, you have to turn the following pages, in this case you have to walk around the monastery. José Goz adds that this wasn’t his first visit to Galeria EL, so he knew what space he would be dealing with. He describes the impact of his business performance at this point as “interesting.”

– The corridor always leads us somewhere, so the maze or path created in the gallery, going a bit, is what we do every day as comic book artists. Each time we follow a story, we create paths to it, which the recipients then follow to find out the end.

What is outside the window?

Comics are – again – an increasingly popular form of expression.

– It was very popular at the beginning and during the twentieth century, but over time it turned into a children’s product – admits the author of the new show. Today, however, many artists are developing specifically within the framework of comics. I am a person who tells stories in the language of a comic book. However, when you look deeper, comedy has a very important artistic value. It uses graphic design, drawing, sketching and many more combinations. My work is also largely based on architecture – José Goz emphasizes. Issues such as space, the use of large figures, and the relationship between them and the recipient are important.

We’ve associated certain elements of the gallery with some kind of board game or computer icon.

– In such a game, you also need some progress, some aspect of it, in order to achieve the goal. The story is built in the same way – the author relates to these associations. On the other hand, in his opinion, icons are very close to the idea of ​​a comic window or frame. There is always another part of reality behind the window. Today we are accustomed to the computer or phone screen, which makes the ideas of windows, frames and icons overlap. We have to “click” something to find out what’s going to happen, and what’s next…

This time you didn’t have to click on anything, but as you walk through the monastery you can look behind these “windows” and try to explain what is hidden behind the title “Pain, Ashes and Miracles”, and – as a structured text that says – try to compose the events of your “own set” of Graphics and text ready.

Now a short biographical note, especially since José Góz links his artistic and scientific activities in part with Poland. Faculty of Painting and Drawing, University of the Arts. Magdalena Abakanowicz in Pozna, the writer currently runs a narrative language studio in painting. Let’s add that he is a graduate of the University of Granada (today a PhD student at this university), and he came to Poland while participating in the Erasmus program in 2012.

When does the comic book start?

The Dean of the College of Drawing and Painting at UAP, Dr. Hub. Tomas Kalitko.

The author’s visit and collaboration with our university is an example of what is happening in the context of contemporary art that is constantly looking for new spaces. The history of picture books goes back many years, and for many decades they have served as true art that is impossible not to look at in this way. We can clearly see that comedy is a kind of approach to telling different stories. It is a kind of technical book – assures Thomas Kalitko. “José offers a very interesting way of telling stories in his comic book, moving away from a linear story,” he adds. Tomas Kalitko here sees a resemblance to contemporary film directors, such as Quentin Taratino.

As our interlocutor emphasizes, the exhibition, on the one hand, displays beautiful drawings in a workshop, and on the other hand, its message and way of telling stories are important. He adds that the exhibition is specially prepared for the space of the monastery (here, among other things, the title windows play a role), which, after all, is filled with other historical materials on a daily basis.

– Here you can ask, from what point does the comic begin? When we see, for example, the ancient polychrome forms, we can see that this need for expression through art has always been there. Some studies say that comedy began 100 years ago, and others found similar artistic solutions much earlier – says Tomasz Kalitko. He describes the exhibition in the monastery as a kind of fusion of ancient and contemporary art.

According to him, it is also not without importance that the exhibition presents daily life and related experiences and emotions.

It shows how close art is to us. In an interesting way for us, we can perceive art at a high level in the gallery and at the same time get acquainted with the characters of Jose. After all, this is universal, with its weaknesses and concerns. Some work was created during the pandemic, so parts of the exhibition that show loneliness are also very relevant. And where there are white dots between the drawings, there is also something going on and this we can add to each other …

All visitors to Galeria El can do this on their own until October 26. However, knowledge of English will be useful.