In The Gull Yettin by Joe Kessler the loss of a home coincides with the expansion of a boundary and the discovery of a larger world, which was previously hidden to sight and body, made of violent colors and marks. The child that undertakes this journey isn’t just a wanderer in an exploration that is also an experiencing of a continuous dynamic between inward and outward, between domestic and “wild”, he is also the eyes through which the story is given to the reader. Shapes in The Gull Yettin are sometimes ample blots of primary colors, and sometimes violent pen and sharpie marks resembling doodles, symbolizing the deformed landscape of a childhood gaze, through which the unknown invades every panel. 

Maria Nadotti, Journalist, Editorial Consultant, Translator and Editor in Italy for John Berger’s works, will dialogue with Joe Kessler about his artistic endeavor. 

What is a landscape if not a place where nature is reinvented and transposed where we believe it lies? Does it exist outside of a border, of a frame? And what meanings does it undertake in the complex relationship between us and natural space? How does the history of a landscape relate with the history of art and, consequently, with our gaze? 

Ilaria Bussoni, essayist and illustrator for editorial series Habitus (DeriveApprodi Publisher), as well as curator of several exhibits at the Rome Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea and co-manager of SPORE - Scuola di Campagna, an educational project promoted by the La Distesa company, will hold a lectio magistralis (master lesson) about what landscape is and has been throughout history, about our body inside of it and, inevitably, about the many meanings of looking at it.

With Elsa Klee, Lucile Ourvouai, Karla Paloma and Martina Sarritzu.

In presenting their independent editorial projects, these four authors aim to revive the tradition of autobiographic LGBTQIA+ fanzines by revisiting the works of great underground comic artists such as Aline Kominsky-Crumb. A tradition that they will retrace alongside Maria Nadotti, critic, essayist and translator, by holding a thread that connects the past and the present of comics history. 

With Dominique Goblet, Igort, Andrea Bruno, Michelangelo Setola, Stefano Ricci, Gianluca Costantini and Francesca Ghermandi. 

Opening with the artists

Opening with the artists

Twenty years ago Canicola, the independent publisher that transformed the contemporary comics scene, was born. They celebrate their anniversary alongside Maple Death, an underground music label that will also celebrate their ten years of life, all during a happening where music and illustration will merge into a single body. 

More info: HERE.