at the Helsinki Comics Festival
REETTA NIEMENSIVU (FI) & ANNA HAIFISCH (DE)
Päälava - Main stage
Interview with the guests of honor.
Leipzig-based
Anna Haifisch (b. 1986) has recently captured the imagination of the international comics readership with her acclaimed series The Artist, a weekly comic published by Vice. The Artist depicts the sorrows and joys of being a creative through gentle, empathizing humour. The protagonist, the sensitive bird-like Artist, struggles with his deadlines, the expectations of his audience and his own well-being in a way that is painfully easy to relate to.
The collected
The Artist graphic novel has been published in German, English, French and Spanish, and was nominated for the LA Times Book Prize in 2017 and part of the official selection of nominees at Angoulême Comics Festival in 2019. Haifisch was awarded with the esteemed Sondermann Prize for comics art in 2018.
Haifisch’s graphic novel Von Spatz (Drawn and Quarterly, 2018) continues to explore the themes of artistic life and the sensitivity peculiar to artists. The book’s protagonist Walt Disney suffers a nervous breakdown at his studio and has to seek help at the Von Spatz Rehabilitation Center for artists. During his recovery Disney immerses himself in art therapy treatments together with Tomi Ungerer and Saul Steinberg.
Haifisch’s comics have also been published in several anthologies such as Le Monde Diplomatique, Kramers, Orang, Dupotutto Max, Smoke Signal and Kuti. Haifisch is one of the founders of the Leipzig comics and graphic art festival The Millionaires Club.
Anna Haifisch's visit is a cooperation between the Goethe-Institut Finnland and the Helsinki Comics Festival.
The exhibition The Artist is open 1.–30.9.2019 at:
Ravintola Sörkän Ruusu
Pääskylänrinne 3, 00500 Helsinki
Mon–Sun 14–02
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