WEBINAR “MEETING MEMORIES: A CONVERSATION WITH ALEKSANDAR ZOGRAF”
For the last event as part of the seven-day workshop “Meeting memories: comics and memory”, on Monday, June 14, 2021, a conversation was held with Aleksandar Zograf, the world-famous comic book author. The conversation was moderated by Vesna Teršelič, head of Documenta.
Aleksandar Zograf, real name Saša Rakezić, was born in Pančevo, Serbia. Among his works are Life Under Sanctions, Psychonaut, Dream Watcher and Bulletins from Serbia. Zograf has been active on the international scene since the early 1990s, when his work started to be published in American anthology comics like “Weird” and “Zero Zero”, and when Seattle’s “Fantagraphics Books” published several of his titles. Zograf’s works have been translated and published in many European magazines, and his independent titles have been published by L’Association in France, PuntoZero in Italy, Jochen Enterprises in Germany, Under Comics in Spain, etc.
As the entire event deals with the theme of remembering the events of the Second World War, which Zograf also often discussed in his comics, we asked him why he considers these themes important. He believes that these topics are very important for societies in the Balkans, in Europe, and even in the whole world because the Second World War caused a turning point, after which the world as known by previous generations changed. In his opinion, there was a lot of talk and writing about the war itself in post-war Yugoslavia, but in the wrong way: “A heroic narrative was created and the facts were left to speak for themselves” without scientific and historical interpretations. This failure to deal with the difficult legacy of the Second World War resulted in further violence, the peak of which were the wars of the 1990s. For this reason, Zograf points out that we all, as a society, need to take a step back and approach the facts and events of the past in a scientific way and through telling stories from the perspective of the witnesses of the time themselves.
According to him, in this process it is very important to focus on personal stories, stories of unknown people who recorded their thoughts in letters and diary entries. Their forgotten and unknown stories, which perhaps best depict the events during the Second World War (The Death of Turinski, Veljko Kockar and Marko Ristić, Radoslav’s story). He usually starts from such stories, when researching new topics for comics. Sometimes he finds them among booklets and diaries at flea markets. Also, he believes that it is important for each individual to research their family history, the history of their ancestors who lived through that traumatic period, and which they often did not even tell their descendants about. That’s how he himself researched the lives of his grandparents, who were involved in the resistance movement as illegals, and with whom he talked very little about the subject, because he was too young and uninterested when they were alive.
He also considers it important to deal with the history of his city, place, street, which should be researched and understood, in order to better understand himself. He also points out that we should learn from history and historical experience, although we should live in the moment and deal with the present.
He considers comics to be a simple medium for conveying the desired messages through images and text, for the creation of which you only need paper and a pen and a good story as a basis. It is possible to convey a message to people who do not understand your language, as well as to those who do not know your culture or customs. Also, it is important to add a dose of humor even to difficult topics, which makes every story universal and comprehensible to everyone.
Finally, Zograf shared with us his impressions of the workshop as part of the “Meeting Memories” project, which he led in the past week. Since it was the first online workshop he held, he didn’t know what to expect. He usually works with people physically, so he can talk to them personally and follow the process of creating comics. In this case, it was all done via cameras, but he believes that we got excellent results. He was also glad that he worked with a diverse group of participants, some of whom are experienced illustrators and comic book authors, and some of whom are total beginners, who have never created comics before. He points out that innovative approaches, different ideas and concepts are often obtained from such groups, and that even experienced authors like him can learn a lot from them.
You can view the exhibition of works from the workshop on Instagram (Meeting Memories (@meetingmemories2021)), and selected works will be shown at a physical exhibition that will be held in May 2021 at the University of Udine in Italy.
Recordings of the conversation in Croatian and English are also available at the link: Webinar „Susret sjećanja: razgovor s Aleksandrom Zografom“ (ENG) – YouTube.
