revisited Black.Light
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
02 NEU: TEXT [ PEDRO ROSA MENDES ]
03 SCHWARZE SONNE
04 DASIA: ALS ICH HIERHER ZURÜCK KAM …
05 PEANUT BUTTER
06 MATRIOSCHKAS / IN OUR HANDS [ JOSHUA CRAZE ]
07 DIE ZONE
08 DASIA: GOTT WAR GUT ZU UNS
09 DER GRIECHE ADAMAS
10 NEU: TEXT [ MARKO DINIĆ ]
11 MIKADO
12 DER GLAUBE DER VÖGEL
01 Über Gewalt berichten
Illustration: George Pratt | Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Foto: Wolf Böwig | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 16 Doppelseiten
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
05 Peanut Butter
Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Illustration: David von Bassewitz | Foto: Wolf Böwig | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 9 Doppelseiten
06 Matrioschkas + neu: Text [ Joshua Craze ] / Collagen
Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Foto und Collage: Wolf Böwig | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 17 Doppelseiten plus neue (geplant)
+ Foto/Collage
Wolf Böwig, 2017
+ Tagebuch/Collage
Wolf Böwig, 2023
+ Collage (Vorderseite)
refusing heaven – reconstruction of the world, Wolf Böwig
+ Collage (Rückseite)
refusing heaven – reconstruction of the world, Wolf Böwig
+ Text von Joshua Craze
IN OUR HANDS
Joshua Craze | Nairobi, Kenya | 18 June 2024
Dear Wolf,
You sent me four images for my trip, and I thought of them like charms, meant to keep me safe. I was to go to Juba and then head to the South Sudanese border with Darfur, before plunging into the war that raged to the north. On the plane from Nairobi to South Sudan’s capital, I kept staring at your images on my laptop screen, as if I were a detective investigating a crime scene. There were two collages and two photographic polyptychs. What hidden logic led you to send me these pictures, and not others? I closed my laptop before the plane banked down over the Nile; the internal relationship between the images, still mysterious to me.
I arrived in Juba on Valentine’s Day, to be greeted by a public letter from a leading South Sudanese politician, accusing me of being in the pay of the rebels. As a precaution, I spent the night at my hotel, and looked, once again, at your images, which transported me through time. I suddenly remembered the sadness of a demobilized Mende militia fighter sitting disconsolately in his carpentry workshop, surrounded by garbage. Soon, other memories emerged. Of scholars trapped in the binary brutality of the war on terror. Of sorcery and spells, proven and alleged. Of violence, abstract, and all too concrete.
[ Excerpt of the text IN OUR HANDS ]
07 Die Zone
Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Illustration: Nic Klein | Foto: Wolf Böwig | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 9 Doppelseiten
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
09 Kapitel hinzufügen: Der Grieche Adamas
Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes
Umfang: 1 Doppelseiten (geplant)
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
12 Der Glaube der Vögel
Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 2 Doppelseiten
13 City of Rest
Text: Pedro Rosa Mendes | Illustration: David von Bassewitz | Foto: Wolf Böwig | Layout: Christoph Ermisch
Umfang: 7 Doppelseiten
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
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
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
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)
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