Schule des Ungehorsams - School of Disobedience

A prize that is awarded to international cartoonists who take a critical and humorous look at our society. 

Cartoons are an important and effective tool to show political or social grievances. The drawings can be grasped quickly, bring complex content visually to the point and through their humorous and exaggerated presentation, an also be entertaining.

With the Kaktus Cartoon Award we would like to promote this art form and give cartoonists a stage. 

Kaktus 2023 - CLIMATE CHANGE

The first Kaktus Cartoon Award 2023 is dedicated to the topic CLIMATE CHANGE.
We can see the effects of climate change everywhere - locally and globally.
It is high time to change our behavior to avert the worst.
Cartoons can make a convincing contribution by making grievances visible and comprehensible. They can inspire us to new ideas and solutions.

The Kaktus will be awarded to the best artists with cartoons on climate change.
Prizes: 1st place: 2.500 €; 2nd place: 1.500 €; 3rd place: 1.000 €

1st place Kaktus Climate Change:
„Sinking Ship" by Michi Brezel

2nd place Kaktus Climate Change:
„Man and Nature" by Agim Sulaj

3rd place Kaktus Climate Change:
„Fridays for Future" by Til Mette

Kaktus 2023 - CLIMATE JUSTICE

As part of the Cartoon Award a prize will be awarded in the category "Cartoon & Law" donated by Austrian law firm Haslinger / Nagele Rechtsanwälte  
The Kaktus "Cartoon & Law" is dedicated to the topic CLIMATE JUSTICE
Who is primarily responsible for climate change and who are the most affected?
Does Law encourage or block the necessary transformation?
Do protests work and do they make a difference? Is there justice?

The Kaktus in the category „Cartoon & Law" will be awarded to the best artist with cartoons on climate justice.
Prize: 2.500 €
The prize Kaktus Climate Justice goes to:
Marian Kamensky

All cartoonists on this earth were invited to submit their best cartoons on Climate Change and/or Climate Justice.
Our independent Kaktus Jury has determined the winners out of all submissions.

The Award Ceremony was held on 11th May 2023 at Schlossmuseum Linz.

There was also the Symposium on Cartoons & Law. 
A selection of the best cartoons is shown in the Kaktus Award Exhibition at Schlossmuseum Linz, Austria which will subsequently be shown in Vienna autumn 2023. 

WHO IS BEHIND THIS AWARD?: 

The School of Disobedience (Die Schule des Ungehorsams):

The school of disobedience is a non-profit association that was founded by Gerhard Haderer and aims to encourage interested parties to question traditional concepts and develop new solutions after acquiring specialist knowledge.

Among other things, the art of caricature is an important tool for realizing this goal, motivating, inspiring and communicating in a humorous way in a low-threshold manner. It is an important instrument for stimulating discussions in our society and for creating new ideas. 

Cartoonists tirelessly assert themselves against prevailing opinions, and under conditions that are not always easy. These "heroes and heroines of disobedience" deserve to be seen.

In this sense, the School of Disobedience promotes this important art form and its artists, makes their work visible and draws attention to the often precarious situation of cartoonists worldwide.

„Cartoons can make an important contribution to public discourse because they are able to distort absurd processes in politics and society until they are recognizable. Long live the cactus!“
Gerhard Haderer, Cartoonist, Founder of the School of Disobedience (Schule des Ungehorsams)

Haslinger / Nagele Rechtsanwälte:

Haslinger / Nagele Rechtsanwälte GmbH, with 30 lawyers and around 130 employees spread over two locations in Linz and Vienna, is one of the leading law firms in Austria. The competences of the law firm, founded in 1955, cover all areas of commercial law, including (commercial) criminal law.
https://www.haslinger-nagele.com/

„Law and caricature or cartoons have always had a difficult relationship:

* Around 200 years ago, Honoré Daumier, who is still considered the "Michelangelo of the caricature", was convicted of graphic disparagement of the authorities and had to go to prison for 6 months.

* About 100 years later, George Grosz was accused of blasphemy because of his graphic "Christ with the gas mask". In a criminal trial lasting more than three years, Grosz was first convicted and later acquitted; however, the incriminating image was "confiscated and rendered unusable" by a court of law.

* Another century later, in 2005, Gerhard Haderer met the same fate because of his book “The Life of Jesus”: Convicted by a Greek court in the first instance, he was only acquitted on appeal.

Cartoons challenge the law and the rule of law. They make visible how freedom of opinion and diversity of opinion is in our society - and how it is protected in our courts.

Cartoons therefore almost inevitably have to target the legal profession. Again, Honore Daumier has set milestones: his famous cycle "Les Gens de Justice" exaggerates - and thus hits the vanities of the "right-holders" with the utmost precision.

The rule of law needs cartoons that expose its failures, especially when it hides the law behind phrases or degenerates into a mere instrument of power against people instead of empowering people.

According to the legal philosopher Gustav Radbruch, the art of caricature is an “outcry for justice above all law, no, for love above all justice.”

As lawyers, we see it as our responsibility to open up and secure freedom for caricatures - freedom for contradiction and contradiction. And for disobedience. Together with the School of Disobedience, we have therefore decided to advertise a prize for cartoons that critically reflect and comment on our legal system." 

Dr. Wilhelm Bergthaler, Haslinger / Nagele Rechtsanwälte