July 6, 2022

Nino Bulling is publishing the comic narrative »abfackeln« (»firebugs«)

Akademie Schloss Solitude is delighted to report the release of abfackeln by former Solitude fellow Nino Bulling in cooperation with the publishing house Edition Moderne. The publication of the comic narrative coincides with the start of the documenta fifteen exhibition, where Nino Bulling is presenting excerpts from abfackeln, as well as offering workshops and creating a union for comic artists.

Cover of the comic narrative »abfackeln« by Nino Bulling, Edition Moderne, 2022

abfackeln is an intimate narrative about a trans couple who become increasingly estranged from one other. Nino Bulling talks about trans identity, love, partnership, the search for stability and the self. Their work also refers to the way in which the collapse of our habitats through ecological catastrophes and social erosion affects the collective and individual psyche.

I wanted to write a book with no resolution in which the expectation of a transition story is left unfulfilled. In my experience, the question of gender is never entirely decided or resolved. It presents itself again and again, every day in fact, in many forms, of which a body and its materiality is merely one.
Nino Bulling

As a lumbung artist at documenta fifteen, Nino Bulling is showing works that capture the graphic and thematic worlds of abfackeln and expand them into the space. As part of their documenta activities, Nino Bulling will additionally be leading workshops and editing an anthology with the Lebanese collective Samandal Comics, as well as helping to found a comic artists’ union.

Akademie Schloss Solitude - Nino Bulling is publishing the comic narrative »abfackeln« (»firebugs«)

documenta fifteen: Nino Bulling, Sometimes when we kiss, it feels like I am drinking water from your mouth, 2022, Hafenstrasse 76, Kassel, June 14, 2022. Photo: Maja Wirkus

Nino Bulling is a Berlin-based comic artist and author. Nino Bulling’s works often segue between documentary and speculative fiction, exploring the possibilities of reality-based image narrative beyond realistic modes of representation.

Other members of the Akademie Schloss Solitude network who are participating in documenta fifteen include the artist, filmmaker and researcher Marwa Arsanios and the lawyer and interdisciplinary artist Rasheeda Phillips with Black Quantum Futurism (BQF).

documenta fifteen is taking place from June 18 through September 25, 2022, at various locations in Kassel. Further information can be found at www.documenta-fifteen.de.

The comic narrative abfackeln is published by Edition Moderne as well as in an English-language edition entitled firebugs, in collaboration with the publishing house Colorama. Further information can be found at www.editionmoderne.ch.

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