The French author and drawing of Renald Luz Luzier presented his new comic book “Two Feminine Half -Boots” about the Nazi robbery in the Kelna Ludwig Museum: History is told from the point of view of the picture of the artist Otto Muller, who was exhibited there. The expressionist picture of 1919 accompanies readers: inside the comic book the Weimar Republic, national socialism, the Nazi exhibition “Degenerative Art” and the post -war period. From the subjective look from the point of view of the picture, you travel along the living room of many people, as well as through the museum and warehouses, studios and several cities, until it ends up in the Ludwig Museum.
Being a caricaturist, Luz has long been part of the editorial team Charlie Hebdo and barely escaped an Islamist attack since 2015. With his book “We were Charlie”, he processed memories of his late colleagues: inside. The 53-year-old is now considered one of the most famous European comedian artists: inside. In an interview with the basin, he talks about his inspiration for the new comic book and what artists can do against it.
Taz: Mr. Luzier, why did you choose the picture of Otto Muller, and not one more of “degenerate art”?
Luz: On the one hand, I was looking for an artist who was not too famous for me or readers: inside. During the study, I discovered that much more connects me with Otto Muller. Then I wanted to plunge into this universe and found that Müller worked as an engraver, and that we both have a very sharp line for contours. When I saw the painting “Two Feminine Half -Boots” in the records of the exhibition “Degenerative Art”, I thought how it will be if the child sees this picture and copes with it. As a result, I noticed that I can also introduce fiction into this real story. In the historical context there are also dark corners in which I go, and in which I can fill in my imagination. The more precisely my study was for this book, the more freedom I could take in these dark corners.
In an interview: Luz
Born in tours in 1972. He is called Reld Llyui. He wrote the book “Katharsis” about the Islamist attack on the editorial department of Charlie Hebdo magazine.
His new graphic novel “Two Women’s Semi -Films” (Reproduct, Berlin 2025, 192 pages, 29 euros) was transferred from French Lilian Power.
TAZ: How did the dialogs arise in your new work when you connect science fiction and history?
Luz: It is interesting that you ask about it because I never wonder. This is so much work to get these thoughts in advance, especially between documentation and research. That is why I have only a few ways to find these wonderful traces of what people said. On the one hand, I must be intuitive in dialogs, on the other hand, information about the combination of research and fiction. It is incredible how you can place so much information from politics and society in these small bubbles.
Taz: From an unusual point of view of the image, you are considering heavy topics, such as suicide, propaganda and extremism. Have you received a new perspective in this style of the narrative?
Luz: Yes, the new prospect that I received was very schizophrenia. It was a lot of work to find characters and their stories and determine the details. This is a story that has already existed. It was difficult to be very accurate and yet creative. They usually say that you are free in creative. But no, this leads to the opposite. But here I was released and had an idea of a subjective image. First of all, it freed me, and it was one of my most intense, but also the fastest work. I completed it in less than a year, which is very fast, especially with research.
TAZ: To what extent are the “two female semi -films” differ from their other works?
Luz: Usually my books are very intensively painted. But now it plays a lot with empty surfaces, and I have never worked with such a large space. Since I use many squares, the book is closer to classic comics, but it is also much more open than my graphic novels before.
Taz: The success of right extremism can be seen all over the world not only in Germany and France. How are artists: do they resist inside?
Luz: It is difficult to make art against anything. Most of the time of this is not enough. Art can also be apolitical as the image of Otto Muller. We must remember that we, as an artist: inside we should not always show ourselves in a political way. For example, if you have a child, you will find something. Why does it draw it? To understand the world or just remove it? No, it attracts itself to distract from the world. This is something serious for the child. There is something in the political attitude of the world in this, because the child creates his own safe world. And, of course, the creation of a safe world for people is political. In this place you can feel comfortable or look strange and strange, for example, in Junji Itō. Then you know what you want to change in society yourself. It is a little like dancing. You do not dance to fight extraordinary rights. You dance to express yourself and lose yourself. And then you will recover to change the world and cause a revolution.
TAZ: The author of Junji is also one of her inspiration. Why is this horror Anka?
Luz: Because I don’t understand everything in the manga. It is important for me to always discover new things and be surprised. I learn more from manga than from classical graphic novels, because I want my readers: a surprise inside. The history of glyceride from ITō is dedicated to the family that works with oil. A man sucks and squeezes him out of himself. This is anxious, but when I found this picture, I printed it. This stimulates me to work, because it took me so long to draw all these lines. Therefore, I have to enter my ass to start working.
Otto Müllers “Two Women’s Semi -Films” in the interpretation of the Luz
Photo:
Luz, Museum Ludwig, Cologne
TAZ: “Two women’s semi -files” also note a Nazi crime. But parties such as AFD have long attack this memorable tradition. So we need more artists: inside the resistance and projects such as yours?
Luz: I do not know enough about Germany to say this. Even about France, I cannot say this with confidence. But memory comes mainly from people who witnessed this time. I think that we, as an artist, must understand that fiction is the last way to create memories. We are a generation that these crimes did not experience in the 20th century. But we should always talk about this shit of the 20th century. This is really a shitty 20th century, not only from the Nazis and the right extremism, but also from the inequality of sexism, sexism and so on. Nevertheless, we still need to develop new ideas and show problems, especially those that are not visible. In France, there is an idea that we, artists, should no longer make such books. This is nonsense. Thus, we must find a new type of freedom for ourselves.
