Landscape of Death
Jacques Tardi and the First World War
19 – 22 June 2014
Opening Hours: Thu, noon–7pm; Fri/Sat, 10am–7pm; Sun, 10am–6pm
Kongresszentrum Heinrich-Lades-Halle, Großer Saal

The seminal catastrophe of the 20th century begins with a headshot. It is 1974 – 60 years after the outbreak of the First World War – when French comic artist Jacques Tardi draws “La Véritable Histoire du soldat inconnu.” He had discovered the fabric of his nightmares, which he would process over the next decades in his magna opera “It Was the War of the Trenches” and “Goddamn this War !” In his oeuvre, he repeatedly adresses the sense¬less cataclysm of the First World War: the devastation of landscapes, bodies, and souls. His grandfather had experienced it firsthand when he lay between the front lines in Verdun. Jacques Tardi himself – born in 1946, after the great European wars had faded away – is a child of peace. However, the tales of his grandfather never let him go. With his works, he recalls the era of 1914–1918 in order to prevent the madness of present and future wars.

The exhibition “Landscape of Death – Jacques Tardi and the First World War” has been developed in cooperation with the Angoulême International Comics Festival (France) and the Erlangen communication agency “Birke und Partner.” The exhibition is sponsored by the Cultural Fund Bavaria.