Norbert Trummer

Lines Fiction: You present your drawings as picture stories, published in small hard cover art books. Each book comes with an animation on DVD. Together, both media, drawings on paper and animated drawings, form a unity that on the other hand does emphasize the different aspects of drawing & animation.
Did this concept come naturally or did you feel uncomfortable with presenting single drawings in an exhibition?

Norbert Trummer: This concept came naturally to me. Presenting my drawings in a book gives me the possibility to reach more people with my work, it got a democratic aspect. Anybody who likes that stuff can easily buy such a book. One can take the whole project home in one’s pocket, and does not need a lot of money doing so.

To me it is important that the drawings in the books are reproduced in the size of the originals, so you get a good impression of the original drawings. As you see they are quite small. This allows me not having to carry a lot of things at the scene of my drawings. For example at the riverside of the Moldau in Krumlov I only needed an ink pen and a box with color pens.

“Krumlovsommer” is my first project in this format, and when you open the book, the left and right pages always belong together. Those “double pages” represent one special place, all the scenes were seen from one point, and the drawings together appear like an overall view of the scenery.

Although somehow the drawings remind people of comic strips, they do not tell a story but give you the impression of time passing by, during my “observing” the happenings at the Moldau river, while I am drawing.

Lines Fiction: At first view one really could think of comic strips or story boards in your art books, but as you mentioned, it has a complete different meaning. “Krumlovsommer” is a loose string of drawn impressions depicting all summerly happenings on and around the river Moldau near Krumlov in the Czech Republic. There is very little text and a lot of atmosphere. Your “Krumlovsommer” animation even amplifies the atmosperic effect of the strip in the book by inducing a feeling of viewing snapshots in sloshing water.
Is the film an enhancement of your drawings or could it stand alone ?

Norbert Trummer: I like to combine drawings, paintings, and animation in some way, and my working process forms a relationship between the different media.
First I do all my drawings at the scene exactly as they appear in the book, in the size of 10,5 x 15 cm. From these drawings I later choose certain motives that I use for small paintings. In “Krumlovsommer” they emerge as serial images of three, painted with egg tempera on paper, size 10 x 14 cm. These small paintings are the base for the animation, the differences in the painting process create the wobbly movement in the film.

In exhibitions I show the drawings, the paintings, and the film. But I like to present each medium in a different space if possible. It is important to me that each medium as part of my concept can stand for itself.

Bücher/DVDs von Norbert Trummer in der Bibliothek der Provinz