Nino Bulling: «firebugs»

Actually, everything is perfectly okay. Ingken is together with Lily, who seems to be content with herself and her life. Ingken on the other hand is struggling a lot. Set against the background of global climate change, Ingken is searching for a self-­determined identity, a new name, for the things that can remain as they were and those that have to disappear. What is it that makes us humans? Do we have to burn everything down in order to define ourselves anew? Or can we also hold on to some things?

“‘The World Is On Fire’—your own and the real one out there. Bushfires rage in Australia and Ingken’s world is thrown off balance. The ecological threat interweaves with fears of change. On this fluid journey to oneself, everything falters and yet is connected. What can we hold on to when we don’t know yet how everything might feel right?
I like Nino Bulling’s way of illuminating complex situations and anchoring them in political dimensions. For me, it becomes great comic art through the fine nuances in the gestures and the vivid sceneries. Whether it’s a wild party night, a rural idyll or inner torment, the mood immediately jumps from each page into your own thoughts. That’s what I read for.” Gesine Claus, Strips & Stories, Bookshop for Graphic Novels, Hamburg

The comic is co-published with Colorama and part of Nino Bulling’s contribution to documenta fifteen.

• «It is implicit that the conclusion of the comic carries with it the need for a new language that might be beyond the formal system by which the comic is bound: in the place of images and their quiet, there will be talking, in great quantities.» Brian Nicholson, The Comics Journal

• “LvT: The book is about global processes such as the climate crisis and ecological threats, as well as personal themes such as identity, love and the question of what makes a human being. Compared to your previous books, it seems to be a more personal work. Is that impression correct?
  NB: It is true that the book is a personal one. Whereas for me the line between political and personal themes is blurred. The themes of my earlier books also affected me very directly, also physically. Now I look at the body as a place that is traversed and shaped by affects. I’m interested in how the formability of our bodies relates to our association of ‘nature’, and the social controversies that emerge when it comes to trans identities.” Lars von Törne in conversation with Nino Bulling, Der Tagesspiegel

• «Comics auf der Dokumenta: Nino Bulling über Comics als queeres Medium» Kolja Unger im Gespräch mit Nino Bulling, Deutschlandfunk Corso

• «Verkörperer des Lumbung» Jule Hoffmann, Deutschlandfunk Kultur

• «Eine Welt steht in Flammen und eine Identität muss vielleicht zu Asche werden, um fruchtbaren Boden für Erneuerung zu hinterlassen …» Levke Marie Nielsen, Page-online