Israel and its Comics
A comic concert with the composer and pianist Itay Dvori
With graphic novels from and about Israel
Premiere on 31 May 2018 during the 18th International Comic Salon in Erlangen
The comic recital by Itay Dvori, an Israeli composer and pianist living in Germany, focuses on comic works from and about Israel. The programme thereby opens the door to current illustrative art and music from Israel which enter into dialogue with German works on the theme of Israel. The musical settings, which are partly composed and partly improvised, are performed live with projections of images from the graphic novels. The premiere took place on 31.05.2018 during the International Comic Salon in Erlangen.
The aim of the soirée is, on the one hand, to offer an insight into the variety of what is by now an extremely lively comic scene in Israel, with musical settings for works by e.g. Asaf Hanuka, Michel Kichka and Rutu Modan. These books, sometimes humorous and sometimes serious, have all been successfully published in many languages and portray life in Israel today.
Another part of the programme will present, on the other hand, books by German illustrators who have put their impressions of the country down on paper in original ways. A key piece in the programme, Jens Harder’s “Ticket to God”, is dedicated to the city of Jerusalem. The piece demonstrates the holiness of this unique city for three world religions and, at the same time, also its particular history and its daily life. Barbara Yelin’s book Vor allem eins: Dir selbst sei treu (Above All, Be True to Yourself), originally conceived and commissioned by the Goethe Institute in Tel Aviv, tells the extraordinary life story of Channa Maron, a child prodigy who played the main role in Erich Kästner’s Pünktchen und Anton in 1930s Berlin and went on to become one of Israel’s greatest actresses.
