V Porto Cartoon

president of the Judging Panel
  

Water with humour is really the synthesis of this 5th PortoCartoon, that generated a genuine torrent of mordacity, with art and talent coming from every quarter of the world. Once again cartoonists have responded to the call, promptly and prolifically, providing a genuine torrent of broad and crystal clear humour for all tastes. Serenely, they have surpassed the limits of all the previous competitions and have confirmed that the choice of theme has really motivated humorous inspiration. In five years, PortoCartoon has been consolidated with a larger than ever entry, in comic strips, cartoons and designs: 504 cartoonists from 60 countries, with 1666 items! This means that, between the first (opened in 1999 by the President of the Portuguese Republic),

and the fifth edition, the overall growth has been more than 730%. Therefore, water runs with humour and, from this point of view, the choice by UNESCO of water as a theme for 2003, as a warning about the world shortage of H2O, has added significance to PortoCartoon.

The theme has been sufficiently motivating, anyway, and demonstrates to the eyes of the world that cartoonists are aware of the problem, and are helping us to think about the so (un)common commodity that is water, as well as about habits, shortage and human insensitivity. In their universal language, the designers of humour Denounce, Delight and Transform. They are the DDT of the “status quo”!

This corrosive power of the cartoon is evident in the collection of pieces 

selected by the international panel of judges, also this time larger than before: seven instead of five members. After many hours, they have chosen the best designs, and it is those that are here: 242. The hardest task was to choose the best of the best. It was not only the quantity that increased, but also the quality which, all are agreed, has once again leaped to a new level. The result is a veritable waterfall of biting wit never seen before. It is a great mosaic, of ever changing colours, stretching out unendingly, with art and humour telling the world that no-one dies of thirst with this invigorating water. Or that the water shortage crisis does not make the satirical spirit dry. Just see how, from one corner of the world to another, cartoonists let this spirit outflow to fill PortoCartoon. The biggest torrent comes from Brazil, with 80 cartoonists participating. From Turkey, almost 40, followed by China, Italy, Romania and Serbia and Montenegro, with about 30 each. But the participation of Portugal, Germany, Argentina, Croatia, Spain, Iran, Poland, Russia and the Ukraine is also significant, each with between 13 and 18 cartoonists. And cartoonists from Bolivia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica and Guatemala offer us their drops of humour for the first time.

At the end of the day, we can conclude that, more than water, humour is inexhaustible when cartoonists join each other in a river of languages blessed by UNESCO. Hence this torrent of clear humour, inviting a calm and reflective dive!

cartoonist
  

In the 5th edition of PortoCartoon I find myself hostage to the terminology that I have been using in the introduction to the Exhibition since the 2nd year (when I became a member of the panel of judges); I always compared the Exhibition to the strongest symbol of the city of Oporto - the famous Port Wine, saying that it is best with age, and that our goal is a Vintage Exhibition. In this edition, in which the theme is water, the difficulty of establishing parallels for those who do not have a very close relationship with the word is understandable. 

We will not mix, then, water with wine; let us just point out that the Exhibition is becoming established and that the supreme PortoCartoon we have all dreamt about is taking shape, year after year, in spite of the restrictions of these lean years.

Here’s to the success of PortoCartoon

director of the Museu de Humor, Galiza, Spain
  

This year I had considered not writing this commentary, not because I didn’t want to, but rather because I intended to replace it by a drawing which would reflect my impressions as a judge. But circumstances rule and I am forced to do it on holiday, in somewhat unfavourable technical and family conditions.

So, as ever, I’m writing again, doing the last job that being a member of the panel of judges of PORTOCARTOON entails. And once again, I’m saying that it’s the part I enjoy the least and with this I’m saying the same as always.

One thing is to view drawing after drawing, to get to know new companions, to yearn for the old ones, to take part in bare-knuckled discussions in Brazilian-Portuguese-Castilian-Galician in which we perhaps sometimes understand each other, to ponder until we are exhausted in the search for the humorist's intentions when he thought/made/sent his works, to confirm that every year - impossible as it may be - the quantity and quality increase, which is already reaching the limit of a judge's physical capacity - in my case, a little "drained" and without forgetting the chance to admire the beauty of Oporto, even though fleetingly as a result of the haste.

And another thing is - for someone who draws at every "free" hour of the day - to set out to write something longer than a paragraph. But as I am now a professional judge, I must comply with my duty, that is to comply with my duty with a smile on my face and hope that those brave souls who read my commentary also manage a smile, or at least do not cry.

Steady on, I'm about to finish, it is a sign of politeness to thank one’s hosts for their attention and wish to be present again at this event which - and I'm not saying this so you can count on me again - I gather is a leading event in the world which, until recently, was deserted and is now beginning to be rather populated with humoristic activity and landmarks such as this in Oporto.

Congratulations - I wish PORTOCARTOON a long life!

cartoonist
  

The quality of an exhibition of humour is seen from the start in the catalogue: the amount of organisation necessary to attract participants, organise the exhibition, judge the entries, make the awards, return the originals, has a good barometer in the quality of the entries it generates.

In this sense, the Oporto exhibition is one of the best in the world. The quality and standard of the first four editions demonstrate the excellent work of their organisers, led by the Director of the National Printing Museum.

Several Brazilians could testify to the organisation: Jaguar, Aroeira, Paulo Caruso, myself, and we are all crazy to come back and get another catalogue...

Congratulations, Oporto!

cartoonist
  

To cross the Atlantic Ocean to taste a sea of designs whose theme was water, and more, as if that were not enough, in Oporto, was, to say the least, a pleonasm.

What are humours but the liquids that run through us and switch our moods from exuberance to dryness?

Five men, very grave, have assessed the submerged intentions and discussed themes in depth, and the responses presented by designers of humour from all over the world.

Fishermen of troubled waters, athletes from the most varied genres and diverse styles, from the breast stroke to the butterfly, and not forgetting fancy diving, the death dive or twist diving, have splashed froth and ripples about like water maniacs from a time that is not sane at all.

The tone was set by war and the prospect of a struggle for this raw material, without which there is no future for the human being.

I do not know if what we awarded prizes to can be called humour.

Ghandi sipping the precious liquid from the machine gun, a woman guarded by security personnel while she carries her bucket back home and a country yokel who is astonished by fish leaping from the earth into his bucket, seem more like a shout in the desert. I opposed in vain the idea of a unanimous prize on the proposed theme, because, in my neck of the woods, the single theme serves the purposes of the powerful on duty who elect it at will to guarantee that the course of the waters is always there to keep their estates irrigated.

An habitual participant for thirty years in the Piracicaba International Humour Exhibition, I am sure that PortoCartoon is without doubt one of the most important humour competitions on the planet, and I hope with all my heart that this source will never dry up.

lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Oporto
  

I congratulate myself for taking part in the panel of judges for this event, a privileged experience from two points of view which run from the surprising to the unforgettable: the contact with the rest of the panel, and the encounter with such a high level, both in quality and quantity, of items in the competition. The choice of theme, Water, seemed to me a particularly happy one, both for its potential and its topicality. The Panel did not want to miss the opportunity to emphasise this.

The contrast between what is seen in an event such as PortoCartoon and what is found in the daily newspapers and magazines that we leaf through is remarkable. 

As a lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Oporto, it is also a privilege to work, day after day, with the energies and products of quality and character that would also be ready for consumption/enjoyment, enriching the world outside.
Let us do justice to this Event. Let us imagine how our papers, magazines, etc. would be if they breathed or, at least, transpired this wealth, by relying on a larger representation of caricaturists, illustrators and designers in their publications.

Let us turn this into a daily subject beyond this visit… and get your opinion to the editors as well.

stage director
  

I was invited for the first time to join the panel of judges for the Oporto Festival of Humour, and I am gratified to see the quality of the event, the substantial level of participation and the international status that this event achieves each year.

On the theme of water, this festival favoured the different streams of the great element, so the creators were able to play with all its strands that go from Peace to War via the everyday, through burlesque, fantasy and the imaginary.

I am also gratified to notice that most of my favourite designs managed to get into the final stage and some of them were even winners. 

I cannot fail to mention the winning piece which features the great humanist figure drinking the precious element coming out of the barrel of a rifle...

Since furthest antiquity humour has been the great tool to defeat dictatorships and dictators, and to help exorcise the fears of different societies. They say that humorous writings were even found in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany... thus a resounding and strident roar of laughter as in a giant ball of wool, unlike an avalanche, gradually unravels until it is transformed into a knot in the throat or in the stomach that strikes us strongly, very strongly, not to knock us out but to wake us up, sketching solely on our face a bitter, slight smile.