revisited Black.Light

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Blacklight is based on the reports by Pedro Mendes (text) and Wolf Böwig (image) on the Charles Taylor wars in Liberia and the rest of West Africa between 1996 and 2003. In 2012, graphic novelists used this as a basis to create several episodes about individual people and actions that impressively illustrate the destruction caused by Taylor’s warlord rule.

In the planned revisited version, reports and episodes will be expanded to include contributions in words and pictures from today’s perspective. They understand Blacklight as a prism of destabilizing and devastating conflicts of global significance that are embedded in larger contexts.

Habbo Knoch

01 Über Gewalt berichten

Illustration: George Pratt | Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Foto: Wolf Böwig | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 16 Doppelseiten

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02 Neu: Text [ Pedro Rosa Mendes ] + Tagebuch

Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Collage: Wolf Böwig
Umfang: 2 Doppelseiten (geplant)

+ Tagebuch/Collage

Wolf Böwig, 2022

+ Tagebuch/Collage

Wolf Böwig, 2022

03 Schwarze Sonne

Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Illustration: Thierry van Hasselt | Foto: Wolf Böwig | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 6 Doppelseiten

04 Dasia: als ich hierher zurück kam …

Interview mit Dasia | Transcript: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Illustration: Stefano Ricci | Zeitungsausschnitte | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 3 Doppelseiten, zum Teil auf Transparent

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05 Peanut Butter

Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Illustration: David von Bassewitz | Foto: Wolf Böwig | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 9 Doppelseiten

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October 2024

06 Matrioschkas + In our Hands [ Joshua Craze ]

Text „Matrioschkas“: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Text „In our Hands“: Joshua Craze | Foto und Collage: Wolf Böwig | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 20 Doppelseiten

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07 Die Zone

Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Illustration: Nic Klein | Foto: Wolf Böwig | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 9 Doppelseiten

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08 Dasia: Gott war gut zu uns

Interview mit Dasia | Transcript: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Illustration: Stefano Ricci | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 3 Doppelseiten, zum Teil auf Transparent

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09 Kapitel hinzufügen: Der Grieche Adamas

Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes
Umfang: 1 Doppelseiten (geplant)

Der Grieche Adamas

Kohlenstoff (chemisches Element C), die Grundlage des uns bekannten Lebens, kommt in der Natur im wesentlichen in zwei Formen vor: als Diamant und als Graphit, von Schreibern und Zeichnern gemeinhin als „Kohle“ bezeichnet, da man mit ihr schreibt. Der grundlegende Unterschied zwischen Diamant und Graphit besteht in seiner Kristallstruktur, also in der Anordnung und den Verbindungen zwischen den Kohlenstoffatomen im Raum.

Nach einem gleichen Plan sind die Verbindungen beim Graphit sehr stark und symmetrisch zu einem Hexagon angeordnet (man sagt mithin, der Graphit kristallisiere in einem hexagonalen System), die Verbindungen zwischen den Atomen zweier paralleler Ebenen aber sind extrem schwach ausgeprägt.
Beim Diamanten dagegen sind die Atomverbindungen des Kohlenstoffs extrem stark, die Abstände zwischen den Atomen sehr kurz. Wichtig dabei ist, dass in der Struktur des Diamanten jedes Atom mit vier anderen Atomen verbunden ist, die sich an den Scheitelpunkten eines Tetraeders befinden. Diese Struktur heißt tetraedrische Koordination. Diese ganz eigentümlichen Verbindungen verleihen dem Diamanten außergewöhnliche physikalische und chemische Eigenschaften, was ihm seitens der griechischen Naturwissenschaftler den Namen adamas, der „Unbesiegbare“, eingebracht hat. Der griechische Ausdruck bildet den Ursprung des lateinischen adiamantum und des portugiesischen diamante.

Die räumliche Anordnung und Wiederholung der Kohlenstoffatome in einem Diamanten ist in einer kubischen Symmetrie organisiert (im Gegensatz zum Graphit, der wie gesagt in einem hexagonalen System kristallisiert). Dies ist die strukturelle Differenz, die diese beiden polymorphen Kohlenstoffminerale unterscheidet, Minerale mit der gleichen chemischen Zusammensetzung also, jedoch einer unterschiedlichen Kristallstruktur (und mithin unterschiedlichen physikalischen, chemischen, etc. Eigenschaften).

Es gibt noch eine weitere Modifikation dieses gediegenen Elements (als gediegene Elemente werden Minerale bezeichnet, deren Zusammensetzung aus einem chemischen Element besteht, im allgemeinen Gold, Silber, Platin, Schwefel), das Lonsdaleit heißt, in einem Hexagonalsystem kristallisiert und als Mineral äußerst selten ist. Es kommt in mikroskopisch kleinen Exemplaren vor, die sich in Gegenden mit sehr heftigen Meteoritenimpakten bilden, so wie in Tonguska in Russland im Jahr 1908. Diese seltene Modifikation erhielt ihren Namen zu Ehren der Kristallographin Kathleen Lonsdale.

Aus der Kristallstruktur des Graphits resultiert eine Brüchigkeit, die Spaltbarkeit genannt wird; aufgrund eben dieser Spaltbarkeit zersplittert Graphit so gut in verschiedene Richtungen. Das erlaubt seine Verwendung auf dem Papier, in von zahllosen, gespaltenen Graphitteilchen gebildeten Linien.
Nach unserer Ankunft gingen wir auf den Markt. Ich kaufte das, was ich normalerweise als erstes benötige: ein Heft und einen Bleistift.

10 Neu: Text [ Marko Dinić ] + Foto-Serie

Text: Marko Dinić | Foto: Wolf Böwig
Umfang: ca. 3 bis 4 Doppelseiten (geplant)

+ Text von Marko Dinić

+ Foto-Serie All under Heaven

11 Mikado

Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Illustration: Dieter Jüdt | Foto: Wolf Böwig | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 7 Doppelseiten

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12 Der Glaube der Vögel

Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 2 Doppelseiten

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13 City of Rest

Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Illustration: David von Bassewitz | Foto: Wolf Böwig | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 7 Doppelseiten

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14 50 cent

Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 1 Doppelseite

15 Die Liebe zur Freiheit

Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 2 Doppelseiten

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16 Neu: Text [ Habbo Knoch ]

Text: Habbo Knoch
Umfang: 1 Doppelseite (geplant)

+ Text von Habbo Knoch

17 Mein Traum war

Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Illustration: Benjamin Flao | Foto: Wolf Böwig | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 12 Doppelseiten

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18 Dasia: Das gute Gemetzel

Interview mit Dasia | Transcript: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Illustration: Stefano Ricci | Zeitungsausschnitte | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 6 Doppelseiten, zum Teil auf Transparent

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19 Neu: Text [ Susana Moreira Marques ] + Collage

Text: Susana Moreira Marques | Collage: Wolf Böwig
Umfang: 3 Doppelseite (geplant)

+ Text von Susana Moreira Marques

+ 3 Collagen  [ Kontaktabzug ]

20 Morie, Prinz der Toten

Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Illustration: Danijel Žeželj | Foto: Wolf Böwig | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 7 Doppelseiten

21 Team etc.

Umfang: 3 Doppelseiten (geplant)

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Joshua Craze

Journalist & Author
born 1982, England

“On the way to Wau, I try to take notes in the dark. I am convinced, with the dedication of a fanatic, that all this must be recorded and that this documentation can somehow save lives here. Save them from what? I don’t know. I am not religious.”

How do people find their place in a world where there is no hope for a fulfilled life? In his writings about conflict regions like South Sudan, author Joshua Craze explores this question, seeking answers on the ground. He delves deep into the wound, not only tracing the causes of traumatic experiences of violence, but also with razor-sharp words, exposing the constraints of Western donor countries‘ humanitarian aid, which traps people in dependency on emergency assistance, thereby depriving them of any long-term prospect of a dignified, self-determined life.

Joshua Craze studied at the Universities of Oxford, Amsterdam, and the University of California, Berkeley, and earned a Ph.D. in sociocultural anthropology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. He was an Assistant Professor and Harper-Schmidt Fellow at the University of Chicago. Since 2010, Joshua Craze has been working as a conflict researcher in South Sudan and other conflict zones for various organizations, including Human Rights Watch and the Small Arms Survey. He is currently writing a book on war, bureaucracy, and silence in those regions.

Stefano Ricci

illustrator, comic author & musician
born 1966, Italy

Stefano Ricci resembles an explorer when he works on his sketches with a wide variety of materials such as oil pastels, adhesive tape and pencils, tracing paper and spray paint cans to form contours and plays of light or to emphasize blurriness. His works focus on topics such as everyday fears, the relationship between the individual and the environment or the search for identity. The stories are often fragmented, which leaves the recipient a lot of room for interpretation.

Since the mid-1980s, Stefano Ricci’s work has been published in international journals and magazines. His work focuses on comics and animated films, but he also works on theatre, dance and film productions. Since 1995, he has been managing the publishing house Edizioni Grafiche Squadro together with Giovanna Anceschi, which specializes in avant-garde comics and illustrations. Ricci has received several awards for his design and illustration projects and is co-founder of Sigaretten Edizioni. He teaches at the Università degli Studi di Udine, at the University of Applied Arts Hamburg and at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna.

„We have to leave the highways and venture onto country roads and forest paths if we want to experience unexpected perspectives.“

Susana Moreira Marques

writer & journalist
born 1976, Portugal

„There are things that one can no longer write about as used to be possible in the past. Something changes. First the eyes, then the heart – or the senses, or whatever our ancestors called the soul – and finally the hands.“

Susana Moreira Marques studied Communication Sciences at the NOVA University of Lisbon and works as a journalist for Público and Jornal de Negócios. She has been awarded several journalism prizes, including the UNESCO ‚Human Rights and Integration‘ Journalism Award (Portugal) and the AMI Journalism against Indifference Prize. Today she also writes for film and television. In 2013 her first book “ Now and at the Hour of our Death“, she accompanied a palliative care team to portray dying people and their relatives who confront us with questions about our own mortality.

Christoph Ermisch

Layout, Design & Website
born 1965, Germany

„The greatest possible freedom with which all participants immerse themselves passionately in the unimaginable horror in their own writing and with which all the elements ultimately come together to form a coherent narrative is what is extraordinary about Blacklight.“

Christoph Ermisch is the interface where all Blacklight’s components come together. As a designer, he has accompanied Blacklight from the very beginning and continues to shape it today with his unmistakable design, which is reflected in the structure, rhythm, choice of color and breaks on all project levels. At the 15th International Comic Salon Erlangen in 2012, he was first swept away by the creative energy of the Blacklight illustrators and developed an artistic approach that puts the genres of photography, reportage, collage, factual text and illustration into an effective dialogue.

Christoph Ermisch studied industrial design at the Hanover University of Applied Sciences and at Brunel University in London. He founded his own design office in Hanover in 1998: ermisch | Büro für Gestaltung. Ermisch is a member of the design group METAmoderne .

www.grafik-design-hannover.de
metamoderne.de

Wolf Böwig

Photographer & Initiator of Blacklight
born 1964, Germany

“The worst thing about mass death in war and crisis zones is not the grief of the survivors. It is the fact that we are increasingly unable to grasp the full extent of violence.”

Where photography reaches its limit as a lens to describe life in violence-ridden regions and  for documenting collective trauma, photographer Wolf Böwig begins his work. In the spirit of „Extended Photography,“ he expands his documentary images with text, painting, silkscreen printing, and memorabilia into multilayered collages, boldly experimenting at the edges of reception. The boundaries he crosses are those we ourselves construct about our ideas and  the causes, effects, and consequences of violence. Challenging these notions courageously is Böwig’s compelling offer.

His work can be described as a deep dive because he does not stop at the surface, does not depict the obvious, and does not reproduce clichés. In a world too often dominated by sensational headlines, he steps on the brakes. He takes the time to focus on fragile regions, on humanitarian crises, and illuminates the perspectives of both victims and perpetrators with equal intensity. This is not humanity à la carte but humanity on equal terms.

Wolf Böwig studied mathematics and philosophy before beginning his career as a photographer in 1988, documenting conflict regions in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, France, Guinea-Bissau, India, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Namibia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, East Timor, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Zambia.

Böwig’s photo reports and collages are regularly published in leading international newspapers and magazines such as The Guardian, Le Monde, The New York Times, NZZ, mare, Publica, Stern, The Independent, and Visão, and have received numerous awards.

CV download PDF

www.wolfboewig.de

Ines John

writer
born 1977, Germany

 

Ines John studied political science, history and sociology with a focus on conflict theory and human rights. Ines works as a freelance copywriter and assists companies with press activities and public relations. She is passionate about documentary photography and graphic novels. „Black.Light has the power to overcome the limits of cognition and create new ways of understanding. This project is so outstanding in 100 different ways – it’s a book that belongs on every bookshelf or bedside table,“ she says.

www.inesjohn.de

Prof. Dr. Habbo Knoch

historian
born 1969, Germany

Habbo Knoch studied history, philosophy, political science and sociology in Göttingen, Bielefeld, Jerusalem and Oxford. From 2008 to 2014 he was managing director of the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation and headed the Bergen-Belsen Memorial. Since 2014 he has been teaching modern and contemporary history at the Historical Institute of the University of Cologne. His research and interests focus on German and European social and political history of the 20th century, the cultural and experiential history of modernity since 1880 and the transnational history of political orders and social systems in the 20th century.

https://habbo-knoch.de/

„Blacklight makes it clear how an unstable world order has been characterized by closely intertwined violence for more than three decades, despite all international pacification. Wars between states, civil wars, terrorist violence, the suppression of regime opponents […] have buried the vision of a peaceful world after the end of the Cold War.“

Pedro Rosa Mendes

Journalist & Writer
born 1968, Portugal

“That’s what it’s about: people trapped in a moment, which is at the same time both past and present. The moment when the rupture occurred, and fear crept in.”

Reports of violence are often hard to digest. However, Pedro Rosa Mendes‘ war reportage stands out as lyrical diamonds in this monotonous litany, shaped under the pressure of armed conflicts, hunger, disasters, and hopelessness. Tirelessly, he seeks words for the unspeakable horror in places where language has been lost—a horror that echoes long in those who can still feel. How can the past be healed when the present lies in darkness? In his reports and books, Mendes gives voice to the people he meets, approaching an unspeakable reality through their biographies.

Pedro Rosa Mendes studied law at the University of Coimbra and began writing his first articles during his studies. As a correspondent for the Portuguese daily newspaper Público, he regularly reported from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Angola, and Afghanistan. He also worked for several years in East Timor for the Portuguese news agency Lusa. His first book, „Baia dos Tigres“ (Bay of Tigers), was published in 1999. In this book, he describes his hitchhiking journey across Angola, a country torn apart by civil war. He masterfully intertwines this adventure with the colonial history of his homeland, creating a literary travel narrative in the tradition of Polish reportage legend Ryszard Kapuściński. He has remained true to this narrative style to this day.

Danijel Žeželj

Illustrator & graphic novel author
born 1966, Croatia.

„There is often something threatening in my work, a sense of tension and drama mixed with melancholy and nostalgia. But I also firmly believe in resilience and hope, and I would like to believe that the dark side of my work awakens the desire and need to create, the will to fight and survive, and to strive for light and joy. […] One way to deal with darkness is to use it as motivation to do something good.“

Danijel Žeželj’s pictures thrive on the in-between – the strong contrast between light and shadow. In his works he often deals with existential questions such as social injustice and manages like hardly any other artist to create an intense atmosphere with just a few lines, hatching and very minimal use of color. His drawings are reminiscent of dark film sequences that, when viewed, evoke deep emotions.

Danijel Žeželj studied classical painting, sculpture and printmaking at the Akademija Likovnih Umjetnosti in Zagreb. His comics and illustrations have been published by DC Comics, Marvel, Harper’s Magazine, San Francisco Guardian and others. Since 1997 he has also been creating multimedia performances in which he combines live music and live painting in an emotional way. In 2001 he founded the publishing house and graphic workshop „Petikat“. Most recently Žeželj worked on a series of animated films for the film studio „Zagreb Film“.

Danijel Žeželj

Nic Klein

illustrator & comic artist
born 1978, Germany

„There’s always a human factor in good science fiction stories, about what it means to be human – wrapped up in a universe where you can do anything.“

Thor, Captain America, Punisher and other comic heroes – they all feel right at home on Nic Klein’s drawing table. Because no matter whether science fiction or historical material: he is appreciated by his fans worldwide for his gift of visually bringing complex characters and epic stories to life and has thus earned himself a place among the most internationally renowned comic artists.

Nic Klein studied at the Kassel Art Academy and now works as a freelance illustrator for major American comic publishers such as Marvel, DC Comics and Panini. With the Viking story „VIKING“ and the science fiction western „DRIFTER“, the artist also has his own comic series together with the author Ivan Brandon.

George Pratt

Illustrator, Photographer & Filmmaker
born 1960, USA.

„I wish artists had something more to say than just copying what they like. Of course, not everything has to be protest, but I wonder where all the work is that speaks out against hate, racism, war, etc.“

Batman is the main reason George Pratt became an artist. As a child he spent a lot of time in hospital. That was when the Batman series first aired on TV and he became addicted to it. His family then provided him with numerous comics and sparked a passion that never left him. Many of Pratt’s works deal with war, trauma and the psychological consequences of violence. In his first graphic novel, „Enemy ace: War Idyll“, he lets two soldiers from the First World War and the Vietnam War meet. They reflect on similar experiences, even though they fought in wars that were decades apart.

George Pratt studied at the Pratt Institute in New York and is now one of the best contemporary artists in the field of comics and graphic novels. Using special printing techniques such as monotype or acrylic painting with a rubber roller, he finds an individual language for each project. His numerous awards include the Eisner Award and an honor at the New York International Independent Film Festival for the documentary film „See You In Hell, Blind Boy.“

George Pratt

Marko Dinić

writer
born 1988, Austria

[…] aligning the community with imaginary problems and, ultimately, imaginary enemies is an old tune that the powerful still seem not to have tired of playing. The young people, or those who grow up within such conflicts, are either just as exposed to these toxic narratives, adopt their parents‘ behavior patterns, or begin to take responsibility for something that they could not and cannot do anything about.

Marko Dinić spent his childhood and youth in Belgrade. He studied German and Jewish cultural history in Salzburg and now lives and works as a writer in Vienna. Since 2012, his poems and prose texts have appeared in magazines and anthologies. In 2019, his debut novel „The Good Days“ was published. In it, he tells „twenty years after the bombing of Belgrade, of a traumatized generation that feels understood neither at home nor abroad, that tries to understand its own past and struggles for a future.“ Marko Dinic is co-founder of the art collective Bureau du Grand Mot and organizer of the INTERLAB – Festival for Transdisciplinary Art and Music.

Thierry van Hasselt

Illustrator
born 1969, Belgium

Thierry Van Hasselt is a Belgian artist who has been experimenting with the boundaries between comics, animation, set design, and literature for over twenty years. His works are created in collaboration with choreographer Karine Pontier and writer Mylène Lauzon, among others. Thierry masterfully visualizes emotions using often unconventional design techniques, ensuring that his work leaves no one untouched.

Thierry Van Hasselt studied comics at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels. After graduating, he co-founded the alternative comic publisher Fréon with friends in 1994, which merged with the French publisher Amok in 2001 to form FRÉMOK. In addition to his work as an illustrator, Thierry now teaches comic drawing at the school where his career began.

“Drawing is more than a language. For me, it is a matter of direct emotion.”

David von Bassewitz

Illustrator & Graphic Novelist
born 1975, Germany

„For the Blacklight project, I began experimenting with toner and nitro thinner, creating grey washed surfaces and drawings on them with charcoal and chalk. The result was both flat and dynamic. It had an almost photographic, documentary character, but depending on the degree of abstraction of the drawing, it could also tip over into expressionism, nightmarishness.“

David von Bassewitz is one of the most influential illustrators of his generation. His graphic narratives are influenced by film, both in terms of image composition and editing. The narrative itself, as Bassewitz once described it, does not take place on a canvas or paper, but exclusively in the viewer’s mind.

Von Bassewitz studied film and media studies at the University of Erlangen and illustration at the University of Applied Sciences in Würzburg. In 2010 he was named Best Illustrator by the Art Directors Club Europe. His illustrations appear in Die Zeit, stern and Le Nouvel Observateur and have been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London, among others. He has been a lecturer at the Art Directors Club for Germany (ADC) since 2014. David von Bassewitz published his first graphic novel, “Vasmers Bruder”, in 2014.

Benjamin Flao

illustrator & comic book author
born 1975, France

Benjamin Flao is known for his socially and culturally profound stories, which are often based on his own observations in countries such as Africa or South America. Sketchy lines, strong hatching, lively textures and an impressionistic play of light and shadow are characteristic of his drawing style. There is a touch of melancholy that lies over many of his pictures and comics, making them haunting contemporary witnesses.

„So, this little theater of contradictions is a pretty ideal place to tell stories, because it also talks about our world and about life in general. And my head is full of contradictions too. A story is, so to speak, an extension of what you have in your head.“

At the age of 14, Benjamin Flao left school and enrolled at the École Supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc in Belgium. Two years later, he went to Lyon to specialize in comics, cartoons and illustrations at the famous École Emile Cohl. Since 1998, Flaó has made several trips by motorbike through Africa, particularly through Burkina Faso and Eritrea, which he documented in drawings. His stays in Kenya inspired him to write the visually stunning graphic novel “ Kililana Song“ – his first own comic book publication.

Dieter Jüdt

illustrator
born 1963, Germany

Dieter Jüdt studied illustration and book design at the Trier University of Applied Sciences and has published several illustrated books, artist books and some graphic novels. He illustrates and designs books for international publishers, newspapers and magazines such as „Spex – Magazine for Pop Culture“ and Mare. He is a member of Poste Aérienne, a German-Belgian-Korean artist and graphic designer collective. He is also the editor of the reading book „45 – A Single Cover Album“ about illustration and pop music and the author of a basic book on visual storytelling. Together with Andreas Rauth and Falk Nordmann, he curates Jitter’s Wunderblock, an interdisciplinary series of events on illustration and art.

Finale Version Mai 2025

Wolf Böwig’s combination of image, art and word is exceptional. It allows multiple approaches to the humanistic dimension of suffering mass violence. The focus is not on the violence itself, but on the emptiness and destruction, but also on the resilience and will to survive of people who have become victims of international conflicts. Blacklight Revisited is about human dignity – it is a compelling offer to critically reflect on one’s own existence in the face of war and injury in post-colonial spaces of violence.

Habbo Knoch

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