COMIC RELIEF

In the organizer's words:

COMIC RELIEF

Opening: Fri. 22.11. 6 pm
Duration: Sat. 23.11. - Thu. 05.12.
Opening hours: Mon.-Thurs. 10 am - 5 pm and by appointment via email to wagner@filmwerkstatt-duesseldorf.de

Comic relief refers to a rhetorical figure, element or scene that brings humorous relief to an otherwise serious, tense or tragic plot. The term originates from English Renaissance literature, where it describes the deliberate use of comic interludes to break up the emotional intensity of a story and give the audience a breathing space to reflect or simply relax. Either way, a moment of liberation is inscribed in comic relief: It serves as a distancing medium, taking a step back to gain distance and time without abandoning the story in the process.

Applied to the current accumulation of crises, the exhibition examines strategies of comic relief in film and art, poses the question of its productive potential and searches for artistic strategies that allow a critical, yet good-humored approach to one's own present, beyond depression and escapism.

The inspiration and starting point were the early animated films by Max and Dave Fleischer, who became famous with their Jazz Age creations Betty Boop and Koko the Clown . The sometimes nightmarish animated stories mix real film and animation as early as the 1920s in the legendary Out of the Inkwell series.

Exhibition with:
Frieder Haller
Catherina Cramer & Giulietta Ockenfuß
Jorge Loureiro
Paul Maciejowski
Matt Mullican & Lawrence Weiner
Joseph Sappler
Viktoria Wehrmeister
with films by Max and Dave Fleischer