Sergio Langer works in an art studio, on a simple chair. He draws ugly people – both in appearance, and spirit – because his art is seasoned with truth. Stereotypes make him dizzy – he laughs at them, at the social vicissitudes, and the middle class of the city. He laughs every day through his drawings, which are published in Clarin, the daily newspaper with the highest level of distribution in Argentina.With “La Nelly”, his most popular character, he has driven more than one politician mad. But Langer’s provocations do not end at the airport. He has also collaborated with other media worldwide, like Los Jueves (Spain), The Angels Times and Caglecartoons (both from USA), Diario El Comercio (Peru) and Courrier International (France), among others. His drawings, he explains, are impregnated with the smell of Buenos Aires, which carries both beauty and misery. Between the local laugh and the universal joke, Langer prescribes a dose of humor to conspire against fear.
Publicado en the Nose, para el número de lanzamiento (*)
Is there something particular about Buenos Aires that you express in your drawings?
The city’s dialogue has much to do with it, the daily topic listened to in the street. That is in the drawings, which are very local, and no-one from abroad would understand them – apart from those who spend some time in Argentina, and who have the intention of knowing it. The drawings belong to Buenos Aires, and refer to common phrases that are even beyond the understanding of a guy who lives in another province. Paradoxically, these local drawings awake foreign curiosity – representatives of the Wall Street Journal spotted some economically themed drawings that I had done, and later used them as a validation to describe Argentina’s political sentiment, as a country. They began to understand elements of Buenos Aires through the drawings. For example, the fight between La Nelly and Klauss, who is a foreign bondholder of the Argentinean debt.
How was that?
Some people told me that during negotiations of the foreign debt, commentary arose about my drawings. It was the rarest thing, because I worked with the irony of this situation, was very much criticizing them. Nevertheless, the Klauss character seemed fun to them. But, Klauss is a real person, who even later, wanted to meet me.
Would you like to do a more universal humor?
The drawings come out the way they are now. Besides, they are part of a unique space in Clarin, as they get inside the political topic with a certain irony.
Is there any topic that doesn’t make you laugh?
There is no particular topic. It depends on my state of mind. But, the humor was already born out of a tragic thing, where laughter takes you away from pain. Sometimes the distress, the death, affects you badly, and it is generally the humor that fixes you, that saves you. I don´t pass the day laughing at everything, but humor is included in everything, in so many absurd situations.
Some people feel offended by your drawings, don´t they?
I create something, and others may bother themselves without asking for my permission. Some time ago, a curious situation occurred. In the drawings, I included a Bolivian character. She is a thinker, and a liberal character. The character was constructed that way on purpose, to destroy the stereotype of the submissive Bolivian. She is a quiet character – but she thinks – and usually undresses herself as a method of protest. The character offended some people. There was a letter written from the Bolivian embassy, describing their sense of being discriminated against. They can feel that way, but it seemed to me more a lack of perception, of sensibility, regarding what the drawings were really saying.
Is there a search to shatter stereotypes?
I do it all the time. We laugh at everything, at us. It is necessary to have the intelligence to do that. There are prominent public figures, civil servants, who have zero aptitude to laugh at themselves. Maradona is a God, but you can´t make a joke out of him. During the Menem government, there was a climate of merriment and laughing that was propriated by Menem himself. Nowadays, the Kirchner’s do not encourage it: they have a more closed structure. Whenever we include some joke about them in the newspaper, they do not like it much. However, I don’t keep looking to see if the politicians like my drawings or not. I´m not here to change reality, but to make fun of it.
And which are the most interesting targets to make fun of?
The prominent figures of feminism, those from the political scene, the middle class and its negative values. La Nelly personifies all of those. People end up liking her, because they recognise the negative parts of individualism, egoism, and the common places they occur in.
Do you draw ugly people because you see them like that?
There are nice people too, and I am a bit nicer now. I have an antenna which locates the ugliness, but I´m not going to deny that there are pretty people also. The things that bother me the most is the consensus, the injustice, and the politically correct thing. And if you were only to publish beauty, it would be very boring.
Do you have any favourite places in Buenos Aires?
I stay in my studio a lot, but I like to go out and have lunch in Sarkis (an Arabian restaurant in Palermo – Jufre and Thames streets). I also like Alimentos Salgado (Julian Alvarez and Araoz streets). It’s a wonderful place, and Sebastián attends to me there, cooking amazing pastas. It was an old pasta factory, now recycled, and it has a very nice atmosphere. Any bar is good, and pizza places are the best.
If you could add a smell to your drawings, which would it be?
It would be a smell you would find in Buenos Aires, which has both horrible and nice smells. The city has the Riachuelo’s smell, of rottenness and pollution, but also has smells of jasmine, pizza and neighborhoods.
The city’s dialogue has much to do with it, the daily topic listened to in the street. That is in the drawings, which are very local, and no-one from abroad would understand them – apart from those who spend some time in Argentina, and who have the intention of knowing it. The drawings belong to Buenos Aires, and refer to common phrases that are even beyond the understanding of a guy who lives in another province. Paradoxically, these local drawings awake foreign curiosity – representatives of the Wall Street Journal spotted some economically themed drawings that I had done, and later used them as a validation to describe Argentina’s political sentiment, as a country. They began to understand elements of Buenos Aires through the drawings. For example, the fight between La Nelly and Klauss, who is a foreign bondholder of the Argentinean debt.
How was that? Some people told me that during negotiations of the foreign debt, commentary arose about my drawings. It was the rarest thing, because I worked with the irony of this situation, was very much criticizing them. Nevertheless, the Klauss character seemed fun to them. But, Klauss is a real person, who even later, wanted to meet me.
Would you like to do a more universal humor?
The drawings come out the way they are now. Besides, they are part of a unique space in Clarin, as they get inside the political topic with a certain irony.
Is there any topic that doesn’t make you laugh?
There is no particular topic. It depends on my state of mind. But, the humor was already born out of a tragic thing, where laughter takes you away from pain. Sometimes the distress, the death, affects you badly, and it is generally the humor that fixes you, that saves you. I don´t pass the day laughing at everything, but humor is included in everything, in so many absurd situations.
Some people feel offended by your drawings, don´t they?
I create something, and others may bother themselves without asking for my permission. Some time ago, a curious situation occurred. In the drawings, I included a Bolivian character. She is a thinker, and a liberal character. The character was constructed that way on purpose, to destroy the stereotype of the submissive Bolivian. She is a quiet character – but she thinks – and usually undresses herself as a method of protest. The character offended some people. There was a letter written from the Bolivian embassy, describing their sense of being discriminated against. They can feel that way, but it seemed to me more a lack of perception, of sensibility, regarding what the drawings were really saying.
Is there a search to shatter stereotypes?
I do it all the time. We laugh at everything, at us. It is necessary to have the intelligence to do that. There are prominent public figures, civil servants, who have zero aptitude to laugh at themselves. Maradona is a God, but you can´t make a joke out of him. During the Menem government, there was a climate of merriment and laughing that was propriated by Menem himself. Nowadays, the Kirchner’s do not encourage it: they have a more closed structure. Whenever we include some joke about them in the newspaper, they do not like it much. However, I don’t keep looking to see if the politicians like my drawings or not. I´m not here to change reality, but to make fun of it.
And which are the most interesting targets to make fun of?
The prominent figures of feminism, those from the political scene, the middle class and its negative values. La Nelly personifies all of those. People end up liking her, because they recognise the negative parts of individualism, egoism, and the common places they occur in.
Do you draw ugly people because you see them like that?
There are nice people too, and I am a bit nicer now. I have an antenna which locates the ugliness, but I´m not going to deny that there are pretty people also. The things that bother me the most is the consensus, the injustice, and the politically correct thing. And if you were only to publish beauty, it would be very boring.
Do you have any favourite places in Buenos Aires?
I stay in my studio a lot, but I like to go out and have lunch in Sarkis (an Arabian restaurant in Palermo – Jufre and Thames streets). I also like Alimentos Salgado (Julian Alvarez and Araoz streets). It’s a wonderful place, and Sebastián attends to me there, cooking amazing pastas. It was an old pasta factory, now recycled, and it has a very nice atmosphere. Any bar is good, and pizza places are the best.
If you could add a smell to your drawings, which would it be?
It would be a smell you would find in Buenos Aires, which has both horrible and nice smells. The city has the Riachuelo’s smell, of rottenness and pollution, but also has smells of jasmine, pizza and neighborhoods.
