Grafixx EXT.: Book Club @ Boektopia
Wednesday November 1, 15:00 – 16:00, Hall 6
In collaboration with Boektopia
In a live book club, Joana Estrela, Brecht Vandenbroucke & Ephameron together with Obi Mundorff open their bookshelves, and with them a piece of their creative soul. They will talk about their own recent publications, reveal their fondest sources of inspiration, and scrutinise favourite publications.
Joana Estrela
Step into Joana Estrela’s happy world, where there’s also room for sadness. Next to many colourful children’s books for publisher Planeta Tangerina, she keeps busy illustrating Maps for Crying Travellers (Porto, Lisbon, Brussels) and a graphic novel about the family cat passing away.
Brecht Vandenbroucke
Brecht Vandenbroucke creates hand-painted drawings and illustrations, focusing on themes of work, social class and sexuality and pushing boundaries. In his work you often see androgynous figures. He has designed fabrics for Prada and Walter Van Beirendonck, and works as a freelance illustrator for newspapers and magazines such as De Morgen, Wired, Tetu and The New York Times. Vandenbroucke debuted in 2013 with White Cube, in which he takes a satirical and critical look at the world of classic and modern art through the eyes of his two main characters. In Shady (2021) he interweaves the one-page gags of ‘Shady B*tch’ with chapters about the attempts by fairy Iris to save Shady. In his unique style, he creates a universe all his own: colourful, absurd, and packed with references to popular culture and social trends.
Ephameron
Ephameron explores a sensitive side of the world, where small and intimate dramas of life are documented. She works as an artist, teacher, editorial illustrator, curator, and author. Ephameron’s graphic novel about her father’s struggle with dementia – Wij twee samen (2015), translated as Us Two Together (2019) – was met with critical acclaim. The publication re/collection (2017) collects 320 pages from her travel diaries.
For Nooit meer alleen (2021) Ephameron wove together experiences of young parents into a sensitive and atmospheric visual story. She went in search of a common experience of a profound life event – the birth of a first child. Seven chapters each offer a different perspective on new life, because after the arrival of a child, you are never alone, but also never alone again.