Razstava Mattija Hagelberga / Matti Hagelberg Exhibition

Matti Hagelberg (1964) je res vsestranska oseba: znan je kot stripovski umetnik, a tudi druge oblike ustvarjanja vizualnih podob mu niso nič tujega. Poleg oblikovanja plakatov in ilustracij se je ukvarjal s sitotiskom in animacijo kot član umetniške skupine francoske art brut tradicije Le Dernier Cri.
Napisal je libreto za opero Mojstri pevci z Marsa (Marsin mestarilaulajat), narejeno po predlogah njegovih stripov, a tudi to je bil le del znotraj celote njegovega umetniškega opusa in ne samostojno delo. Vse, kar naredi, je original s Hagelbergovim pečatom.
Večina njegovega dela pa res spada v okvir stripovske umetnosti. Avtor ustvarja lahko prepoznavne, izrazito grafične podobe v tehniki praskanke s črno podlago in nožem.
Njegove zgodbe so navadno kratki utrinki, polni presenetljivih kombinacij in domiselnih situacij. Vse pa se tematsko povezujejo v ustvarjanju neke nove, vzporedne realnosti. Večino Hagelbergovih del zaznamuje občutek izločenosti, pogled od zunaj in avtorjev specifičen humor. V enem njegovih albumov na le nekaj straneh srečamo arhitekta Alvarja Aalta in Alberta Speera ter Walta Disneyja in njegov lik Porky Pig, v številnih njegovih stripih pa se pojavi tudi bog in umetnik sam. Hagelbergova dela razkrivajo skoraj enciklopedično zanimanje za svet, medtem ko je njihova forma kompaktna in nadzorovana. Kako zanimiva kombinacija.
V mednarodnem pogledu je Matti Hagelberg eden najbolj objavljanih finskih stripovskih umetnikov. Številni albumi so izšli v francoskem in finskem jeziku, kratke zgodbe pa še v mnogih drugih. Na Švedskem je njegov Holmenkollen (2000) prejel nagrado Urhunden za najboljši prevedeni stripovski album.
Hagelbergov Kekkonen (2004) je resnična mojstrovina, ki življenje bivšega finskega predsednika Urha Kekkonena (1900-86) ilustrira s pomočjo vseh legendarnih likov, od Jezusa do Elvisa.
»Ne zdi se mi, da strogo ločujemo med visoko umetnostjo, kot sta glasba in slikarstvo, ter popularno kulturo,« je Hagelberg ocenil kulturno vzdušje na Finskem, ko sem ga nekaj let nazaj intervjuval. »Sam se nimam za stripovskega umetnika. Preprosto počnem to, kar delam. Seveda se ne sramujem, da sem stripovski umetnik, ampak če bi zdajle razstavili moje slike, se tudi ne bi imel za slikarja.«
Trenutno pripravlja svoj novi veliki album, v katerem bo zopet zbral vrsto kratkih zgodb. »Če lahko nekaj izrazimo v strnjeni obliki, je to vredno narediti,« Hagelberg jedrnato povzame svojo ljubezen do kratke forme. Stripovska umetnost je izvrsten medij za pripovedovanje kratkih, kompaktnih zgodb, saj njeno vsebino sporočajo tako slike kot besede.
»Življenja ne razumem kot ene velike kepe; je bolj razpršeno, opazujemo ga lahko iz različnih zornih kotov. Resničnost je stvar številnih resnic in pogledov, in moj pogled nanjo je kalejdoskopski.«

Heikki Jokinen
Umetniški kritik, delujoč v Helsinkih

Matti Hagelberg (born in 1964) is a truly many-sided man: he is known as a comics artist but other forms of image creating are not unfamiliar to him either. Besides making illustrations and posters he has participated in the French Art Brut type artist group Le Dernier Cri by doing silkscreens and animation.
He has written a libretto for the opera Master Singers from Mars (Marsin mestarilaulajat), which was based on his comics. In Hagelberg's mind, that too was just one part in the whole of his artistic work, not a case of its own. Whatever he does, is genuine Hagelberg.
However, a majority of Matti Hagelberg's works fall inside the description comic art. He does easily identifiable, strongly graphic pictures that he scratches out of black scrape board with a knife.
Hagelberg's stories are usually short slices, full of surprising combinations and imaginative situations. They are, however, all thematically bound together in creating a new parallel reality. Most of his works involve a kind of sense of being on the outside and rely on distinctive humor. One of his series with just a few pages features the architects Alvar Aalto and Albert Speer as well as Walt Disney and Porky Pig. Many of his works also portray God and the artist himself. Hagelberg's works reflect his nearly encyclopedian interest in the world, but are at the same time compact and controlled in form. It is a striking combination.
Internationally, Matti Hagelberg is one of the most widely published Finnish comic artists. Several of his albums have been published in French and Swedish, short stories in several other languages. In Sweden, his album Holmenkollen (2000) was awarded the Urhunden Prize for best translated comic album.
Hagelberg's Kekkonen (2004) is a real chef-d'ouvre, a masterpiece melting together all the legends from Jesus to Elvis into the life of former president of Finland, Urho Kekkonen (1900-86).
“I don't believe that we make a clear distinction between high culture, such as painting or music, and popular culture,” Hagelberg assessed the cultural atmosphere in Finland some years ago when I interviewed him. “I don't perceive myself as a comic artist, I just do what I do. Of course I'm not ashamed of being a comic artist, but if I held an exhibition of my paintings, I wouldn't perceive myself as a painter, either.”
Presently Hagelberg is working on a new major album, collecting again several short stories together. “If something can be said in a compact form, it's worth doing,” Hagelberg summarizes his desire for short stories. Comic art is an excellent medium for compact story-telling as its content is conveyed by both images and words.
“I don't see life as a single, solid lump but regard it as more dispersed, viewable from a variety of perspectives. There are several truths and perspectives to reality; my perception of it is kaleidoscopic.”

Heikki Jokinen
An art critic based in Helsinki, Finland.