Waikato University lecturer to speak on Argonauts

Waikato University lecturer to speak on Argonauts

The classical Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts is the subject of a public lecture involving Waikato University senior screen and media studies lecturer Stan Jones on Monday 9 August.

Early last year, two German artists (Harald-Alexander Klimek and Hans-Hendrik Grimmling) and two German writers (Jürgen Hultenreich and Hasan Özdemir) decided to re-interpret the myth.

They transferred the brigand/heroes of Greek antiquity to the present day and now display them in an illustrated edition of five short stories, a cycle of fantastical prose vignettes and two poems.

Their publication entitled Argonauten - Argonauts is a complex printmaking project, the English version of which – translated by Dr Jones – is appearing simultaneously with its German sister.

Both slip-cased versions are signed by the artists and limited to 50 numbered copies each, 25 of which will be combined in a special edition, where the British racing green cover of the English version complements, in the same slipcase, the Parisian blue linen chosen for the German.

Argonauts is published by Harald-Alexander Klimek and Corvinus Presse Friedrichshagen, Berlin, where the book has been printed and bound by specialists: Wolfgang Baeke & Nadine Radtke of Druckwerkstätte Osloer Strasse have printed the twenty artists’ illustrations, vignettes and cover-imagery, whilst Harald Weller is the typesetter and printer chosen for the short stories and poems.

Dr Jones and Peter Dornauf will give a lecture on the book at 7.30pm on Monday 9 August at the Waikato Museum lecture theatre. Dr Jones will explain the re-interpretation of the Argonaut-myth and the process of translating it, while Mr Dornauf will interpret the book and its imagery as an art edition.

The lecture is a joint presentation by the Waikato Museum of Art and History, the Friends of the Museum, Waikato Society of Arts, and Waikato University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

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