Sex, Comics, and Weltschmerz

Graphic novelists Leela Corman of New York and the Walloon Dominique Goblet engage in conversation with Peter Breedveld about the harsh realities and personal tragedies behind their art, and about the sensual merging of text and drawings.

Information

Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 20:00 tot 20:55 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2

Graphic novelists Leela Corman of New York and the Walloon Dominique Goblet engage in conversation with Peter Breedveld about the harsh realities and personal tragedies behind their art, and about the sensual merging of text and drawings. In English.

Leela Corman

(New York, 1972) is an American graphic novelist and cartoonist. Her book Meideles (original title: Unterzakhn, which means "underwear") was also published in Dutch. This 2012 book in particular brought her international attention. In Meideles she portrays the twin sisters Esther and Fanya in a New York Jewish immigrant neighbourhood at the start of the 20th century, whose mother runs a corset shop. The sisters grow apart when Esther becomes a prostitute. Corman sketches a wonderful portrait of the Lower East Side, and of the hypocrisy and conservatism of New York's immigrant community at that time. She studied painting and illustration, works for The New York Times and other publications, and is a belly dancer.
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Dominique Goblet

(Belgium, 1967) is one of the most important avant-garde comic artists from Brussels. In 2012 she brought out Chronographie, consisting of ten years' worth of weekly drawings made by Goblet and her daughter Nikita for each other. Nikita was 7 when they started the project; you see how her style changes from childish to adolescent to adult. It is a fascinating and intimate book with more than 250 double portaits. Goblet's latest book Meer als het klikt (More if it Clicks) came out in September 2014, a collaboration with German artist Kai Pfeiffer, whom she barely knew at the beginning.The two artists sent each other weekly drawings to compose a visual story. At one moment you are presented with a violent rape scene and the next page features peaceful domesticity. According to Goblet, Meer als het klikt hovers somewhere between comic strip, graphic novel, and contemporary art—a comprehensive volume about love, loneliness, and sex. Goblet also creates paintings and sculptures that are regularly exhibited in Belgium and abroad.  

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Peter Breedveld

(Apeldoorn, NL, 1968) entered the public eye as founder and editor-in-chief of Frontaal Naakt (Frontal Nude), which he calls a "fundamentalist-hedonistic webzine for the whole family that tries to tamper with taboos and certainties and truths set in stone." According to Breedveld, the project is meant to be completely ironic, although many people don't understand this. He launched the webzine seven years ago out of frustration with the politically correct climate surrounding multicultural society, which became unbearable to him after the murder of Dutch filmmaker Teo van Gogh. He spoke up against the new political correctness of Geert Wilders and his populist PVV party, and against the dictatorship of the influential Dutch right-wing populist newspaper De Telegraaf. Breedveld also works for the magazine Ad Valvas of the Amsterdam Free University, and is a freelance writer about comic books, including for Vrij Nederland magazine. Previously, Breedveld was editor-in-chief of Naturisme magazine and a staff member of Stripschrift, De Haagsche Courant and the Nederlandse Islamitische Omroep.
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