La Turchia Ride

Turkey laughs

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ITALY THE CARTOONISTS

FROM THE TURKISH SATIRICAL MAGAZINE “LE MAN”

The last event of the festival of reality comics Komikazen is a particularly relevant one: on march 3^rd 2006 Ravenna will host the Turkish cartoonists from Le Man satirical magazine, a true institution of satire in Turkey. Every week for fifteen years now Le Man has been distributed in capillary way, from Diyarbakir to Istanbul, in 150.000 copies. The two founders of the magazine, that will be the guests of Komikazen, are cherished by the Turkish people as heroes. Although they had severe contrasts with the political power in the past, so much so that they were not allowed a passport for several years, the cartoonists from Le Man never stropped being sarcastic and ironic iconoclasts. Their magazine attacks every week the vices and hypocrisies of Turkish society with its caustic humour and an incredible freedom of expression.

Le Man is a true weekly magazine of political news, made of comics only. Its characters became landmarks for the whole Turkish society. Turkey has a long comics, satirical and also storytelling tradition of great quality and scope. Le Man is a publishing house, a weekly magazine issued in 150.000 copies, a bookshop-coffee house in the centre of Istanbul and a social phenomenon.

Meeting Le Man authors means learning much more about the political debate in Turkey and hearing about it in a way that is absolutely unique for Europe, where Turkey is often depicted from a static and commonplace point of view. A step forward, therefore, towards a transformation of our vision of this country and an occasion to rethink its controversial candidacy to access to the EU.

The characters in Le Man comics offer a lot of food for thought, linked to the issues of modernity, politics, religious confrontation and war between the sexes. The main characters of these strips are exhilarating, really typical of the change under way in Turkish society: from Killanan Adam, drawn by Ahmet Yilmaz (the typical Turkish father, very sceptical as to modern times and constantly regretting the good old traditions, but still eager to sea a Turkish cosmonaut) to Kolazak, created by Mehmet Çağçağ (a brusque taxi driver, immoral but moralistic at the same time, with a girlfriend he forces to wear the veil and a transvestite lover). An occasion of particular interest will be the opportunity to see the work of a Turkish woman cartoonist, part of Le Man staff: Ramize Erer. This artist drew a whole very interesting book dedicated to the theme of marriage: Evlilik (to be published shortly into Italian with the title of Matrimoni by the publishing house Fernandel) is a collection of ironic and disenchanted strips on marriage in Turkey, both lay and religious: a kind of social cross-section of today’s Turkey seen from the bedroom.

The last event of this edition of Komikazen will therefore be a unique occasion not only to understand better what’s really under way in Turkey, but also to come in contact with the lively and pugnacious soul of the artists of this country: from march the 3^rd to march the 6^th the authors will meet the public and comics experts and artists in a number of different occasions.

Text in the catalogue by Elettra Stamboulis.

Catalogue published by Fernandel Editore, Ravenna.

A few notes of Le Man magazine. Le Man is the most famous Turkish satirical and comics magazine, reaching issue number 759. It arrives to all Turkish newsstands for fifteen years now with a distribution of over 150.000 copies. It is moreover an exhibition area and a three storeys shop and club in the downtown district of Beyoglu, the ancient Pera, the commercial and cultural centre of the city (also the headquarter of the magazine).

The magazine, directed by Mehmet ÇAGÇAG and Tuncay AKGÜN, is weekly and has a format similar to that of a daily paper. It hosts both comics strips and true articles commenting upon political events and social issues. Each series has its well defined characters that are widely known to the public, so much so that their creation might be compared to that of Disney characters. They are however very different from an ideological point of view: their aim is disputing the habits and political opinions of the Turkish population. An interesting feature marking the magazine is its readiness to cooperate with young authors, so that it has turned into a permanent creative workshop open to contributions of young artists. A section of the magazine is always devoted to them, so that young and very young cartoonists can see their stories published although they live in remote areas of Anatolia or small inland villages. The basic element to understand the success of the magazine is its distribution: having a really very low price (corresponding to about 0.50 euro) it can be bought in any Turkish newsstand.

The cartoonists participating into the event are: Mehmet ÇAĞÇAĞ and Tuncay AKGÜN, Ramize ERER, Güneri IÇOĞLU.

Opening hours of the art gallery: Tuesday to Sunday from 4 pm to 8 p.m. Friday only also from 10 am to 1 p.m. For other times on prior arrangement.

Associazione Mirada

Via Mazzini 83 - 48100 Ravenna Tel ++39.0544217359 Fax ++39.0544213412 info@mirada.it http://www.mirada.it/komikazen