Oskar Serti's Wanderings

About "Oskar Serti's Wanderings" by Patrick Corillon

Patrick Corillon is presenting a "Cartoon film in fifty episodes based on the life of Oskar Serti (Budapest 1881 – Amsterdam 1992)" in the space made available to museum in progress in the weekly TV supplement of "Der Standard" newspaper (see Gap-Filler 1992). A drawing and a caption portray Oskar Serti on his way through Vienna. In each episode a disquieting thought makes Oskar pause – is the gas turned off, did Father understand properly? – fixing his figure between the two subjects of his attention, where he has come from and where he is going.

This pause results from the interaction of drawing and caption. Whereas the drawing suggests movement, one month towards the left of the picture, the next towards the right, this suggestion is pulled to a halt by the caption describing Serti's pause for thought. The story, which unfolds with each episode, first attains permanent movement when all fifty episodes are superimposed upon on each other creating an imaginary "Flip book" in which Oskar Serti's figure actually moves – in a film being shown for one year in the TV supplement.

TOP