Son[i]a #271
Un Faulduo
Un Faulduo is the name of a Buenos Aires-based art collective that carries out research and experiments in the world of comics, and also the title of the magazine it publishes. The group and the magazine explore a series of editorial and performative phenomena that bring to life some of the groups associated with the twentieth-century avant-gardes, such as pataphysics, CoBrA, Fluxus, and the Instituto di Tella. Experimental strategies like the Director Rotation System (DRS) and Oral Adaptations reflect Un Faulduo’s desire to break the consensus on what comics are, or what they can do.
As a touchstone, Un Faulduo have also revived the classic comic strip Nancy with its mischievous protagonist originally drawn by Ernie Bushmiller, who declared that “anything can happen in a comic strip”. Similarly, Un Faulduo believe that a certain elusive element always runs through comics, which they see as a fuzzy, elastic medium that resists museification and creates a slippery surface connecting literature, film and visual art. In the middle of everything else, the comic explodes in all directions and “its shards are the other arts”.
In this podcast, Nicolás Zukerfeld and Nicolás Daniluk talk about experimentation and collective work, about minor authors and mass copies, about the power of translating and adapting, and about the architecture of comic strips as a space where speed and time are resolved. We also talk about their book The Comic Book in the (Faulduo) Modern World (2015) — a play on the title of Oscar Masotta’s classic 1970 essay –, which is an adaptation and aesthetic experiment that also occupies that hazy middle ground between the comic publishing industry and the discursive space of contemporary art museums.
Timeline
0 s A grey circle
188.272 s The birth of Un Faulduo
671.68 s Director Rotation System & Oral Adaptations
862.2 s It is hard to explain how comics are read
1163.3 s Twisted meanings intact
1163.3 s Captain America blown up from within
1414.3 s Adapting Masotta
1602.5 s The shape of the book
1747.7 s What is the meaning of you?!
2032.1 s Resisting exhibition: comics are copies
2087.9 s Performance, time, pataphysics
2450 s Rubbish
2785.7 s Archiving the spontaneity of drawing
Roberto Jacoby
Roberto Jacoby opens up his poetry books and talks about writing, inspiration, plundering and dematerialisation; about blacks and whites, sofa-beds, politics and activism.
Antoni Hervás
Antoni Hervás talks about “expanded fanzines”, hold-ups, about his grandmother, mermaid theme parks, Hercules, photocopies, and about approaching play as a system of resistance.
Francesc Ruiz
In his exploration of the speculative traces of comics as a cultural form, Francesc Ruiz calls up notions such as détournement, desire, fan culture, window, vignette, and counter-history. In FONS AUDIO #33 he talks about his projects, about the ideological aspects implicit in newsstand displays, and about how comics can reorganise the way a city is used.
Antonio Gagliano