T

he story of „Blackente“ (black duck) started at a cheerful night at Fasnacht a couple years ago. Three figures were discussing the sense and nonsense of carnival badges (Plaketten). The salesman in front of the train station yelled about it, and in many other corners of Basel city you could hear people chanting, reminding everyone to buy: „Blaggedde, Blaggedde,…”. It is incredible how all sellers could manage to hit exactly the same tone and keep exactly the same rhythm. Listening to two sellers was enough to believe that there must be a kind of codex for the yelling.
Quite generally, all of carnival seems to be full of secret rules and traditions, creating a magical atmosphere during this time. Out of this magical mist the three characters played with the word that could be heard everywhere: „Blaggedde…Blaggente…Blackente”. They found a liking in the sound of this word game. Out of this idea stems a little black duck „Quak, quak, ich bin Blackente!“
You might ask yourself „What’s up with this duck?”.
We introduced our first creations (Quak, Kelly and Karl) on carnival four years ago. We had the desire to design our own badge to be part of the carnival in Basel. We create a badge which displays a little black duck. Surprisingly, many people enjoyed the idea. Apparently the little black duck waddled right into the heart of the audience. We were pleasantly surprised.

W ho is Blackente?

Stemming out of the wordgame of Plakette-Blackente (black duck), Blackente is a alternative to the typical Basel carneval badge (Fasnachtsplakette). Blackente is a comic figure -a duck for everybody- open mindedly waddling through the hustle of the city during carnival, searching for originalities. From the Tinguely, to the Tattoo, Rhine swimming, harbor, and many more places; our duck is ready to take on the adventure of this city.

W ho we are and what's our aim

We are three freelance artists/designers who live in Basel and having the desire to create a character that leaves the two dimensionalities. Fiction shall become reality; Starting with the idea, over the first sketches and badges, to the people of Basel. The idea was first formed four years ago and since then it has been bubbling inside of us, and it is now time to put it into practice. A little duck that, through humor and charm, becomes known all over the city. "Die andere Fasnachtsplakette" is only the start of this story.
Blackente plakette is not against Fasnacht and not against what it represents. Our Blackente is just another plakette, which is not excluding the original one. We would like that every one feels included and not rejected because of the place of origin, color of the skin and sexual tendency. The Blackente is a duck for all and represents the diversity of Basel.
Blackente supports integration and peaceful coexistence between all inhabitants and is completely against the fasciscm, racism, homophofia and chauvinism.
It gets its attention from being worn by many people, thereby advertising for itself. That is how the Blackente will become its own brand. There are different Blackentes: Next to Quak, Kelly and Karl are about to enter and waddle out in the world. And many more are still to come.

W hy support Blackente?

At the moment the whole project is self-supporting. We don't receive any external support. Selling the Blackente Plakette, Boxes and the other elements, allow us to continue creating new design and produce new collections. As it is the Blackente Fasnacht, the new Blackentes will be dressed according differents events along the city, keeping the naif insight combined with critique and irony attitude.

 

You can purchase the Blackente-Plakette and the Blackente-Boxes in different places around Basel. We thank all of them for the supporting.

dieEcke - Müllheimerstrasse 153
Comix Shop - Theaterstrasse 7
Gallery-Daeppen - Müllheimerstrasse 144