Bachirs Trip
written by Tim Vogler
Heute geht es um den Ermittler Bachir, weil Hye Jin dazu einen Sketch vorgelegt hat. Diesen hier:
Bachir ist ein Ur-Berliner Ermittler der Abteilung A, der immer die prollig-charmante Fassade wahrt, aber viel Dunkles in sich hat. Diese Abgründe zeigen sich in »Berlin Metropolis II« immer deutlicher, weil Bachir es nicht verkraften kann, dass sich der Ex-Partner und Freund, Samir, in Teil 1 als brutaler Serienmörder entpuppt hat. Außerdem hat sein Partner Maxim das Mädchen, Perez, bekommen, auf das auch Bachir ein Auge geworfen hatte.
Weil er überhaupt keine Enttäuschungen ertragen kann, bringen ihn diese beiden Sachen völlig aus der Bahn. Bachir fällt. Das Buch steigt ein, indem es Bachir in einem von Muskel-Adolfs Bordellen nahe des Schlesischen Bahnhofs zeigt. Er hat Drogen genommen und ist nicht mehr Herr seiner Sinne. Je mehr er ausnüchtert, desto stärker kommt die Traurigkeit zurück, die er mit seinem nächtlichen Trip eigentlich hatte verdrängen wollen. Er tritt ans Fenster und sieht den Schnee fallen. In seiner Einbildung bimmeln sogar Kirchenglocken. Dann fallen draußen Schüsse …
So weit so gut. Obwohl ich Bachir wahrscheinlich fertiger gezeichnet hätte, trifft das Bild die Stimmung sehr gut und ist wunderschön. Denjenigen, die das Projekt schon länger verfolgen, fällt aber sicherlich sofort etwas auf: Bachir sieht überraschend anders aus. Zum Vergleich Cosimos Version.
Wohlgemerkt ist Cosimos Bild fertig, Hye Jins dagegen nur ein Sketch. Cosimos Sketch sah so aus:
Auch daran sieht man die unterschiedlichen Herangehensweisen. Beide finde ich spannend und herausragend gut. Bei Hye Jin kommt hinzu, dass sie alle Elemente auf Papier malt, eingescannt und dann erst in Photoshop verarbeitet. Best of both Worlds quasi, aber ein beträchtlicher Aufwand.
Das betrifft auch ihren Bachir. Ihr Bild ist so gut, dass ich es eigentlich gar nicht ändern wollen würde. Es ist nahezu perfekt in der Komposition. Trotzdem müssen ein paar Sachen gemacht werden. Bachir darf und soll bei ihr anders aussehen als bei Cosimo, aber er muss als Bachir erkennbar sein. Er braucht also mindestens seinen »funky beard« und wahrscheinlich auch ein bisschen mehr Leibesfülle. Bachir ist nicht wirklich dick, eher kraftvoll, aber im Buch wird er schonmal »fett« genannt. Außerdem müsste eigentlich die Schießerei an den Schienen, die Bachir von seinem Platz am Fenster sieht, in der Zeichnung vorkommen. Eigentlich fehlt nichts, aber ein paar Dinge müssen noch hinzukommen. Hye Jin muss also die Gratwanderung vollziehen, ein »fertiges« Gemälde in eine Richtung zu verändern, die noch besser passt. Ich bin gespannt, was dabei herauskommt. Bald mehr davon …
Für diejenigen, die mitkoppeln wollen und sich für mehr Details interessieren, hier mein »briefing«:
Thanks so much for the new work!! This is a tricky one. And you know why? Because it´s so (!) good and almost perfect within itself. I would´t want to change one single detail, but I think we have to. But because this is so nice, we have to be really careful with it. We have to keep it as it is while changing it. A paradox situation, like so often in life and art.
A few things:
The colors are just awesome. How you work with the snow is just it.
The girl on the bed is also good, but could be a bit (!) more explicit this time. It´s hard to see and it´s important. This is a brothel of the dark kind, a place where Bachir should never go. In the book the girls is lying on the back in her drug delirium sleep after sex. Naked but wearing a longer pearl necklace. It could help to paint her like that. The girl is young. Bachir didn´t notice when he was more on drugs hiself and horny, but now he doubts that she´s even 18. So she has a nice and very female but »teenage« body. I think to paint her on the back would get her a little more attention.
A little detail for the wall:
Maybe it´s too much but in the book, there is expressive Art of the 19020ies on the wall. Picasso style. Art that in Bachirs point of view is disturbed mental bullshit, but it´s there because the quarter tries to be special and authentic in any kind of way. Art and sin go together. It´s all about glamour and darkness. The mixture. In the brothels you meet artists and arts and excess. No just dancers are there, but all kinds of real artists. There are special people in the Viertel that are paid to act like Dalí, the Manns etc and make the time machine work. It´s a fake authenticity. They even have a Kaiser because market research indicated that the tourists fancy a Kaiser. In the 20ies the Kaiser was in the exile and for that in the Wilheminische Viertel he has a Schloss and all pomp but no power at all. He´s an important part of the scenery although he doesn´t belong there. Same thing with the art and the brothels. You would´t have Picasso art in the shady Brothels off the real Berlin of the 20ies but the Viertelplaner needed it for the tourists to make the Time Machine (and by that the moneymaking) work better.
So just think the walls can use one Picasso styled art piece. Maybe it´s too much, but it could also do good. Let your hand decide! 😉
Bachirs face is so good. The whole composition is absolutely great. Like I said I would´t want to change a thing, but we need something that indicates that it´s not about christmas and love. We need to strengthen the dangerous environment at least a little. We need Bachir in the centre but also the things that he stares at. In the book he´s looking sadly on his life. The losses, his desperation, the hard childhood with a violent father and a misguided youth. The desparation that he didn´t notice, that his former partner and friend turned out to be a serial killer. A very bad one. So his mental situation (face) ist the centre. His hopes and fears. He wants to go for good and he hears church bells. He knows that they´re just ringing in his mind. Like he knows, that he can´t go for good anymore. But he sticks to the bells. Untill the shooting takes place and reality enters. The Duty and all things, that he has to do and respect although he does´t have the force to do so anymore
.
So: We need to do this carefully, because I don´t want to destroy or overload your composition, but we have the black spot down right, This could be the dimension for what he sees and what brings threat and danger more closely to the piece. I think it will not be much that fits in there. Maybe just miniatures or shadows. Men with rifles and a train coming. Small like toy soldiers or so. I don´t know, you figure it out. For sure: You always start from the perspective, that the things already there are the most important aspects. Bachirs sadness, the room, the girl, the snow. The quarter and the souls chasing their darkest dreams and wandering through hollow grounds at the end. That must not be destroyed but we need to go a little further.
And now comes the hardest part:
Bachirs face is so good! Really! At first I though it might be not disturbed enough. He´s really drowning in the Book but we should give the readers something beautiful with the paintings. It shall not all be broken and by that your Version of Bachir is just awesome and way better than my vision. I had the feeling that I can look in Bachirs soul. Also the good things. The things he tries to wake up with the imagined church bells.
Cosimo painted him differently. The readers are used to the funky arab of part 1, but you should paint him your style. It´s right to get free from the way Cosimo painted him. It´s right to paint him more fragile in it´s soul. In this situation at the window it´s more than fitting.
BUT: Bachir must have an arab beard. A wild and full one like in the Cosimo picture. That became trademark of the arab Detective. You might have and should have other ways to paint it, but he needs something like that. And: Bachir is a heavy one. In the book they sometimes call him fatboy. In the end he´s not fat. He has a lot of muscles and power, but he also likes to eat. We really should think about if it´s that important, but neutrally speaking he might be little too skinny even in the face. And the body? I don´t know. Probably a little bit more volume would suite him, but change as little as possible. The face is brilliant. The clothes are perfect. He just needs a little adaption. Change it just a little. Or don´t change at all. But he definitely needs more beard. And maybe that will be enough for that one. Maybe that´s the only thing we need to change.
So: I hope that was clear. It´s an adorable piece. We might change few things but we should work like the chirug operating the open heart. Carefully. Keeping the magical composition but balancing it towards an even better fitting end.
Best and thanks so much!
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