U-/Dys-/Heterotopie?

Zusammenfassung

Ten years ago Rotraut Susanne Berner provoked a scandal better known as the “Wimmel-Pimmel-Skandal”: The US publishing house Boyd Mills Press asked the German illustrator to retouch a small illustrated penis (0,75 cm). Berner refused. The “Winter-Wimmelbuch” (2003) was not published, and the artist stated that she wanted to stand up for freedom of speech. The Berner incident shows that it is theoretically possible to be subversive in the field of picture books or Wimmelbooks. But how critical and subversive are contemporary Wimmelbooks? Can we find political dimensions in illustrations of masses? We should. Cornelia Rémi, after all, sees the Wimmelbook as “a model of the world”. Michel Foucault, in “Von anderen Räumen”, describes cultural spaces and topographical relationships as heterogeneous and emphasizes the crucial constitution between the private and the public domain. This paper focuses on the omnipresence of the public perspective in Wimmelpictures, where, for example, front walls of private houses are left out, thereby enabling a voyeuristic view on a wide range of activities in private life. Not only is the panoptic perspective a matter to consider, but the tendency to depict everyday life in a sensational manner is also notable. Reflecting practices in the contemporary media landscape, this iconographic tradition invites inquiry and examination.