Jens Meinrenken

Due to the actual situation in the Ukraine the lecture will focus on the representation of war and propaganda in animation from a historical point of view to current examples. The atrocity and authoritarian leadership of modern statesmen like Trump and Putin created a huge variety of both satirical and heroic images not only in animation but also in other art forms and popular culture. The power of animation as an expression of artistic freedom, of peace and democracy, interacts with the adaption of certain motifs and images to mock dictatorship and their main male figures. Beginning with Hitler and Stalin the lecture analyzes the self-presentation of politicians as a so called strongman and military leader. Numerous examples of animated films are not only showing the cruelty of war and modern warfare, especially the effects of a nuclear attack, but also the fight of people for their own national identity and personal liberty. Therefore the quest of animation as an open form can’t be seperated from the development of our modern society and the relation to the history of art. From Communist oppression after World War II to the 21st century eastern european animation from Bulgaria, Poland, Ukraine and other countries has taken a long journey to free itself from the rules of a repressive regime.

Jens Meinrenken is an art historian, lecturer and curator. He studied art history, philosophy and German language as well as literature in Bamberg/Germany and Berlin/Germany. He is currently working on a dissertation project entitled Dynamic Sequences. On the relationship between comic, storyboard and film. He is co-founder of Deutscher Comicverein and has published numerous articles on a wide range of subjects including animated movies, computer games, and comics. His work as a curator includes for example Heroes, Freaks, and Super-Rabbis. Jewish Dimension of Comic Art, Jewish Museum Berlin (2010) and Comics from Berlin. Pictures of a City, Haus der Berliner Festspiele (2013).