SIDE EVENTS | EXHIBITIONS

Irena Jukić Pranjić: Strip-mobili

SC Cinema Foyer 05–10/6 10:00–22:00
artist talk: 10/06 12:00

Comic mobiles are an innovation combining comic books, animation and experiences of optical and mechanical toys. Irena Jukić Pranjić designed this innovative and experimental form around fifteen years ago when she made the first prototypes, and in 2022, thanks to a grant from the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, Hrvatski autorski strip association and the company Interxion: A Digital Realty Company, she managed to elaborate their concept and realise them as a complex and wholesome work of art. Comic mobiles she made in 2022 are a unit consisting of nine 100x70 cm comic book panels forming a unit under the title Circus in a Circus. The plot of the comic book in these panels in set in a circus, an environment chosen by the author because its aesthetics and discourse correspond to mechanical toys and because numerous circus attractions consist of repetitive movements (e.g. juggling), so they can be well portrayed with mechanical motions.

The scriptwriting process included the finest Croatian gag comic authors – Dubravko Mataković, Filip Kelava, Dario Kukić and Matija Pisačić, who elaborated the plot, a detective genre story, together with the author.

The comics were drawn in a digital form and printed as self-adhesive stickers applied onto white plexiglass, while the mobile parts were applied onto cardboard. The engines putting the mobile parts
of the comic are set behind the plexiglass.

Moving parts of the comic mobile and the switches activating mechanical motions are set on the plexi surface. In order to construct these mechanisms, the author collaborated with Dubravko Kuhta, who designed the movement of the comic mobiles. The engines are set in motion by pressing a switch in the bottom right-hand corner of every panel. In a gallery space it is supposed to be activated by a visitor at the beginning of the reading and the distance between movements of every individual engine is programmed and automatized.