Cluster: Swiss Identity

Lucerne festival illustrates rich world of comics

This content was published on Mar 28, 2013 Nine days for the ninth art: every March Lucerne celebrates independent, alternative avant-garde comics as an art form. “Fumetto really is a festival for exhibitors and artists – not a fair with stands and people dressed in suits,” declares Marta Nawrocka, co-director and spokeswoman of the festival, which was held this year for the 22nd…

Culture

Arab comic strips experience their own spring

This content was published on Mar 28, 2013 Lena Merhej, a 36-year-old Lebanese-German graphic designer and illustrator, and Mohamed Shennawy, a 34-year-old Egyptian graphic designer, loved illustrated stories even as toddlers. These are known as “comix” in the Arab world, where the ninth art remains unpopular and lacks financial resources. Nevertheless, Merhej and Shennawy have made a name for themselves on the adult…

Culture

From Crumb to Cairo: celebrating a global art form

This content was published on Mar 28, 2013 The days when comics were primarily entertainment for teenagers are long gone. The wide-ranging issues addressed today include current affairs, historical events and biographies of normal people. Illustrators continue to develop highly creative narrative and visual methods. These can be seen in the following selection of works, which were shown in Lucerne. (All images: fumetto.ch)

Culture

ANSICHTSSACHE – Original

This content was published on Mar 28, 2013 In der umfassenden Ausstellung geht es darum, die architektonische Entwicklung im Kanton Graubünden aufzuzeigen und zu untersuchen, wie sie durch die Fotografie vermittelt wird. Welche Bauaufgaben stehen im Vordergrund und wie erscheinen sie im fotografischen Bild? Welche Veränderungen lassen sich über den Zeitraum der letzten 150 Jahre beobachten? Da Architektur und Fotografie seit dem 19.…

Children cherished at home, excluded by society

This content was published on Mar 26, 2013 With a historically low birth rate of 1.48 children per woman, small families are now the norm, tilting the balance of power and influence in the home in favour of children, according to Hoepflinger. Parents invest heavily in their offspring – both financially and emotionally. Hoepflinger, a professor at the Institute of Sociology of the…

Culture

Japan wraps its meals in a modern tradition

This content was published on Mar 25, 2013 The tradition goes back more than 700 years. A container usually holds rice, fish or meat with vegetables, artfully arranged for the eye. Bentos range from disposable products to hand crafted lacquerware. People often spend time and energy on a carefully prepared lunch box for their family members. Today, millions of Bento boxes are sold…

Culture

Internationally acclaimed films win top honours

This content was published on Mar 24, 2013 Sister, a drama from Swiss-French director Ursula Meier, won the prize for best feature film, while More than Honey, director Marcus Imhoof’s tale of disappearing bee colonies, was named the best documentary. Teen actor Kacey Mottat Klein took home the award for best actor for his portrayal of a troubled ski thief in Sister. In…

Education

Art is ‘vital’ for children’s cognitive development

This content was published on Mar 24, 2013 Every day new art apps go on sale, for every age group and interest. Paint like the Old Masters, create complex graphics, design an architectural work – with new technologies the possibilities in art and design are limitless. In light of this development, does it make sense anymore to draw by hand and use traditional…

Culture

A century seen through children’s eyes

This content was published on Mar 24, 2013 Anna Lehninger moves briskly around the storage room on the outskirts of Zurich. She climbs a shaky ladder, opens cardboard boxes and drawers, leafs through them for several minutes and comes back with a selection of sheets of paper. She arranges them in order, studies them intently and then, as so often happens here, her…

Culture

Capturing cowboys and divas

This content was published on Mar 23, 2013 Following exhibitions in Essen, Germany and Winterthur, the Kunstmuseum Bern is displaying about 150 of Schmid’s works in the first such major retrospective since the mid-1970s. At the exhibit’s core are portraits and visual stories of cowboy myths as well as existential questions about borders between foreign cultures. The exhibit is divided into four themes:…

Cluster: Swiss Identity

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