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I’ve always liked Meikel Neid’s rough and very hand-made looking style. Something about the edgy and weirdly unstable outlines tells me that his cartoons take longer to draw than you would expect. This Friday, February 12, an exhibition of his works will open in Berlin. It is tied to a political campaign endorsing the introduction of a Basic Income Guarantee (see the interview for more details). While I remain skeptical about the concept, I thought it interesting to talk to an artist who has lent his work to a political cause. This is an interview about political art.

UPDATE: photos added. see page 2

Meikel, starting on February 12 some of your cartoons will be on display as part of an initiative called “Illustrating Basic Income Guarantee“… Could you briefly describe what this is all about?

Well, the basic concept of BIG is to provide each person in this country with a certain amount of money without imposing any further conditions. This means you don’t need to provide any proof that you are eligible and you are not required to take a job that you can’t do or don’t want to do. Of course there are different ideas about the extent of this unconditional income.. but the main idea is that people must be able to meet their basic needs.

“Illustrating Basic Income Guarantee” was initiated by [Berlin-based artist and politician] Annette Köhn. She asked me to contribute a couple of cartoons. I drew a small number of cartoons especially for the exhibition but the majority will be cartoons that just are somewhat political, socio critical .. or, well, not political at all.

So.. is Basic Income Guarantee a concept that you personally support?

Yes. I mean, I don’t think that everybody should receive 1,500 Euros per month so they won’t have to do anything at all. But it’s a good thing to take pressure and repressions off of people living on welfare.

Is it harder to do a cartoon on an issue that you support than on something you oppose?

No. Not really … When you are drawing a political cartoon you take your own opinion and then all you need to do is find the opposite to this opinion and build your cartoon around it.

In a way your cartoons could be considered “political art”, right?

Yes.

What do you think of political art?

That’s a bit tricky.. one of the disadvantages of political paintings, cartoons, etc. is that, as an artist, you need to get involved with the topic. Which isn’t always a pretty thing to do. You’re likely to get in a bad mood when you’re studying political topics. Of course artists at least get the satisfaction of creating something out of this mess.

Then, you also need to consider your audience. How complex can a political cartoon be while still being comprehensible? There are so many people who don’t care about politics. As an artist you sometimes feel a bit lost.

Is it possible to draw a line between political art and propaganda?

Nah… I don’t think I would draw such a line. Doing political cartoons in a way is promoting a cause that’s important to you or that you have been thinking about.

When doing political cartoons, how far can you go? How ‘mean’ can you be as an artist?

I don’t think there are any topics where you can’t be mean. You should be able to make jokes about everything. There are great cartoons about death, for example –  cartoons that are completely tasteless but hilarious anyway.

… but “death” is not exactly a political topic..

Well, considering political topics, things get complicated as soon as you attack someone personally. I would rather draw a cartoon against Christianity than against Islam. I don’t really know why, though. Probably because I know Christianity better.

As for jokes directed at politicians.. in most cases they deserve it. If you enter politics and try to reach a high position you should expect criticism. If you can’t deal with that, you’re in the wrong place.

Are there any politicians that you respect so much that you wouldn’t make fun of them?

Not really. Jokes needn’t be vicious, after all. Sometimes amazing people have attributes or quirks that are funny.  It’s absolutely OK to use that for a cartoon.

Thanks for your time!

Paul Hellmich

BEDINGUNGSLOSE BILDER von Meikel Neid

12. Februar bis 19. März 2010

Musenstube
Tellstr. 2, 12045 Berlin (Neukölln)

werktags 10-16 Uhr (flexibel)

Eintritt frei