Comics in museums. The Exhibition Installations of Viñetas desbordadas and El dibuixat

Abstract

This paper analyzes the possibility of creating comics specifically for museum halls. With this aim, the paper briefly explores the role of the medium in museums throughout history before focusing on two key recent projects: Viñetas desbordadas, a work by Sergio García, Max and Ana Merino for the Centro José Guerrero in Granada, and El dibuixat, Paco Roca’s artistic exhibition for the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern. Based on both works, we explore the possibilities of comics as a narrative medium within the walls of the museum in contrast to the classic exhibitions dedicated to the presentation of original or isolated printed pages that imply a loss of that said narrative character. Furthermore, we try to answer the question of whether a comic created specifically for the museum, in which the reproducibility and classical association of the medium with its dissemination on paper is lost, maintains the specific elements of comics and if, therefore, we are facing a new possibility for a medium that, historically, has been changing its format to adapt to various circumstances.