1.Which movie/TV character you see yourself as and why?

I guess Buster Keaton. I don’t smile a lot myself, you know.

2. Next plans or ideas?

An animated short story about the meaning of life. I hope to release it before the end of the year

3. Your food today?

Risotto with a glass of prosecco.

Carlotto, Piero's favorite bar

The street Piero lives on

Favorite neighbour. Gino, the rabbit

4. Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?

I currently live in Milan, but someday I’d like to move back to Sardinia, where I grew up.

5. What was the huge mistake in your life you (unfortunately) never did?

Getting a real job!

6. What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?

I can draw him, but he can’t draw me!

7. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?

In one of my cartoons, of course.

8. Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.

Sleeping with his girlfriend? Seriously, sometimes I enjoy drawing them in an unflattering way.

9. How to ruin your vacation?

Wake me up early and I’ll kill you.

View out of the window, in Valdagno

The work table in the middle of an idea storm

10. In 1977 NASA has sent orbiters Voyager 1 and 2 into space which will never stop to fly through the universe by gravity. They contain the Voyager Golden Records with many testimonials of the whole mankind, greetings in 55 languages introduced by US president Jimmy Carter (“This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings….”). The Golden Records with a lifespan of 500 million years at least are including drawings of a naked man and woman, detailed genitalia, many scientific graphics, sounds of planet earth and music by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart – and Chuck Berry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3haYAbqKjA

Maybe aliens out there will be shocked in some million years! But in case such a NASA mission will be replayed: which (1) of your artworks should join it?

Well, I did a bunch of cartoons about aliens, people from other worlds may enjoy them.

11. Please give us an answer to a question we didn’t ask!

Would you like to add something?
Sure! Thank you Toonpool and ciao from Italy to all my fellow cartoonists!

Almost smiling

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for talking with Piero Tonin

Documents published in this week’s grand Wikileaks disclosure describe Silvio Berlusconi as “feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader”. They also claim that “frequent late nights and penchant for partying hard mean he does not get sufficient rest”. If you followed the career of Italy’s premier this probably doesn’t come as a surprise.

The earliest Berlusconi cartoons on toonpool.com date back to early 2008 (here, here, & here). At the time, Il Cavaliere was running for office after Romano Prodi’s cabinet had fallen apart. Berlusconi won the elections and became prime minister once again. Over 650 new Berlusconi-themed cartoons and caricatures have been added since (click here to see them all). To put this in proportion: there are only a little more than a hundred pieces on Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Queen Elizabeth II. and Prince Charles combined.

I think that there are two reasons for this. The first one is the relatively large number of Italian artists on toonpool.com, several of whom, apart from being very talented are also very politically-minded and, most of all, very productive. The second reason has to do with Berlusconi himself. There is something about that man that makes him especially suited for cartoons and caricatures.

The picture painted in the report mentioned above fits well with all the articles on Berlusconi’s blundering comments, his hair transplants, his sketchy pool parties, etc. Looking at these, it’s easy to see him as a joke, a cartoon character turned real. Of all the interpretations, Giulio Laurenzi’s big-nosed, high-heeled Silvio (left) is certainly the cartoony-est.

I was wondering if Italian cartoonists thought that their premier was funny and wrote a couple of emails to find out more. It turned out that none of them did.

In fact their perception of “Papi” was much darker than I had expected. Stefano Trucco, aka Kurtsatiriko, for example, wrote that: “in Italy we [don't have] any ideas about future after 15 years of Berlusconi. He modified most Italians’ minds trough television and newspapers.” A statement made by both Berni and Matteo Bertelli was particularly enlightening: both of them described his government as a “tragedy”.

This term fits well with the theatrical quality of Mr. Berlusconi’s style of government and creating a persona for himself. His efforts, however, are pointed in the exact opposite direction: reading about the things he does you can’t help noticing that he is trying to perform politics as a comedy. He has perfected the role of that lusty old buffoon you just can’t stay mad at. He is the star and the center of the political process.

I believe that it’s this tension the between his antics’ entertainment value and the way his policies are undermining democracy that does for the immense number of cartoons.

The question is, if it is possible to fight comedy with comedy, so to say. Don’t cartoons emphasize and strengthen his persona and a cynical view on politics? About a year ago, following the “Milan Cathedral” incident, I was quite disturbed by a number of cartoons, that turned an act of violence into a part of the Italian comedy – a kind of real-life slapstick (1,2,3). On the other hand, how do you fight this kind of tragicomedy? An exclusively objective approach will very likely lack public support and be an easy target for ridicule. I am at a loss here. Admittedly, Mr. Berlusconi will probably not remain in office for too long, now that Gianfranco Fini has sort-of seceded from the PDL. But there might be other comedians following his example.

Paul Hellmich

title image: caricatures by David Pugliese, Rodrigo, Portos, and Dragan

Farhad, two of your major topics are freedom and censorship… Do you have any personal motivation for concentrating on those two?

Censorship is an scary shadow which has followed me all my life…and I hate it. Therefore I talk about it. Freedom is a topic that concerns many people on this planet. I have never had as much freedom as I wished. Being born in Iran is just like being born in a cage. After that you will always be looking for freedom.

How did censorship follow you? Did you experience censorship in Europe as well?

Censorship loves artists and intellectuals! It never lets us go. I experienced this almost everywhere, under different names and in different shapes. But I can recognize it everywhere: even in Italy and Holland – anywhere.

Would you mind telling me in which way your work has been censored in Iran and in Europe?

If I make something that questions their politics or authorities they will find a way to let me know that they are not happy with that. I can lose my job because of that. This has happened many times in my life. They make me understand that, if I want to work and have a better life, I have to be careful about what I say.

On your website you state that you have been born three times, what do you mean by that?

I was naturally born in Teheran. Later I had to emigrate twice – once to Holland and once to Italy. Each time changing place, country and direction of my life was like being born again. I said that I have been born three times because each time I had to start everything over again, just like a baby.

You returned to Holland in 2000 after some time in Italy. How did it feel to come back to a place you had left?

It did feel like a kind of coming back home. It may sound strange, but I miss all the places that I have lived in. Even those that felt like a cage!

Could you imagine moving back to Iran? What was the reason you had to leave your birthplace – how was it like a cage for you?

Cage is maybe not the best word to describe the situation in Iran. As a bird in a cage, someone will take care of you. They will give you water and food and maybe even love. At the time that I left, Iran was more like hell than like a cage – there was the war with Iraq, daily bombardments, not having my freedom, etc. I had to go away and I did it.
I would love to go back to Iran, but after 24 years in Europe it wouldn’t be easy for me to leave my work, my friends and everything behind me. I created a life, a world for me here and I cannot leave it behind.

Do you still have any connections to Iran today?

Almost every day – with my colleagues, family, …

Would you say that Iran has changed since you left it?

Very much: cities, roads, people, culture, many things.

Would you say that there is a place that is “home” to you? How would you define it?

To me, “home” is a place where I feel that I’m not alone. A place where you can feel that you exist, where you are being seen. Sometimes I have that feeling in Iran, sometimes in Holland, even in Berlin. It is a strange feeling, but “home” to me is a wish, a dream, a utopia. Or maybe “home” is just something inside ourselves.

Thanks for your time!

Paul Hellmich