MAGICAL WORLD OF COMICS

Monday, July 8
The Maritime Museum of Montenegro, 9 p.m.
MAGICAL WORLD OF COMICS
Exhibition opening

Antun Sbutega, author

Partner of the program:

At the Magical World of Comics exhibition by Antun Sbutega, approximately twenty comic panels created using a combination of techniques – ink, tempera, and pastel, alongside preparatory drawings and studies for comics, will be displayed. The comic panels cover various themes: western, astronauts, pirates, medieval knights, the Battle of Lepanto, and maritime and aerial battles of World War II, as well as themes related to the Bay of Kotor: the Boka Navy, water polo, carnival, the sailors’ Mutiny in the Bay in 1918, and more. Comics have undergone an exceptionally dynamic development over the past century and today represent one of the key forms of visual art (referred to as the ninth art; film being the seventh and photography the eighth art) and communication. Comics have had a significant influence on other forms of visual art, film, literature, marketing, and design. It is also one of the creative industries that is currently developing most dynamically; it is estimated that the annual value of this activity is around 15 billion dollars and this is projected to exceed 30 billion by 2030. In this exhibition, the displayed comic panels are not actually selections from graphic novels but rather illustrations in the comic technique of various themes that have aroused the interest and imagination of the author, especially in his childhood, and are also an important part of collective memory.

Antun Sbutega completed his high school education at the Gymnasium in Kotor and graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, where he also went on to earn his master’s and doctoral degrees. He taught at the Faculty of Maritime Studies in Kotor until 1991, when he moved to Rome with his family. There, Antun Sbutega worked in the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples at the Vatican. He was appointed the first Ambassador of Montenegro to the Holy See and the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Malta on January 1, 2007 and later continued his diplomatic activity in Rome as the Ambassador to the Republic of Italy, Malta, and San Marino until his retirement in 2016. From 2016 to 2023, he served as the Admiral of the Boka Navy Kotor. Antun Sbutega is the President of the Council of the Don Branko Sbutega Foundation. He is the author of numerous monographs and scientific and professional papers in the fields of economics, history, maritime affairs, diplomacy, and art in Yugoslavia, Montenegro, Italy, Croatia, and the Vatican. Since his childhood, he has been involved in art, especially painting.