Jean Willi

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Jean Willi (born October 14, 1945 in Basel ) is a Swiss painter , draftsman and writer living in Ibiza .

Life, art and literary creation

Jean Willi completed six years of training as a graphic designer in Basel and worked there and in Paris a. a. as a designer for Olivetti and Kodak. In 1973 he began to paint and draw after a trip to Africa. In 1977 he developed his own drawing technique in which a kind of calligraphy was combined to form structures and networks. Related works were exhibited in a group exhibition in Zurich in 1982 under the title "Schreibgestik" together with artists such as Roman Opalka and Cy Twombly . Later he painted letters how they could sound like. In 1988 the Swiss art magazine du published his illustrations for Hundred Years of Solitude . He showed the diversity of his artistic possibilities in the Basel exhibition “POLE” in 1989 when he tried to combine the various facets of his work and at the same time play them off against each other.

Jean Willi designed and illustrated a number of books, published texts in magazines and co- wrote scripts with Martin Suter for the television series "Die Direktin". He caused a sensation with his novel Sweet Home (started in 1994, published in 1999 by Ricco Bilger), about which the Swiss writer Adolf Muschg wrote: “ For a long time I don't remember reading something so authentic, the sensual, social, psychological The 'nutritional value' of these early experiences, threats and loneliness is incomparable ”, and said about Willi:“ an excellent observer and chronicler who is also a good narrator ”. The book is not only an autobiographical development novel, but it is also with the attempt to solve the alleged murder of his father of Willis stepmother, for which he was imprisoned for fifteen years, a kind of rehabilitation of the always "not guilty" declared father. In 2005 the publisher published the detective novel matar, the haunting psychogram of a killer.

In 2014 his novel Oedipus in the Here and Now was published , in which a boy, in search of the truth, experiences the fate of the patricide and lover of his mother, mapped out in Greek mythology, in a present that reveals the human nature of this tragic hero. “The archetype Oedipus stands for a person who cannot escape his fate. In this novel, Willi plays with people he has known […] Reality and fiction mix. The result is a sensitive and exciting novel that is a worthy sequel to Sweet Home . "

Willi lives alternately in Basel and Ibiza.

Quote

“A shot in the snow sounds different. A person sinking silently into the snow, snow covering him - there is no better way to say goodbye to this world. Sinking into what stifles the scream, spreads a white sheet over you and obliterates the murderer's traces. How much easier it would be to carry out my project here than in a region that drags everything into light and draws things with a hardness that hurts the eyes. "

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1983: Alte Oper (Frankfurt)
  • 1983: Gutenberg Museum (Mainz)
  • 1987: Gutenberg Museum (Mainz)
  • 1990: Gallery Franz Swetec (Düsseldorf)
  • 1992: University of St. Gallen
  • 1997: Gallery Klaus Fischer (Berlin)
  • 1999: Museu d'Art Contemporani (Ibiza)
  • 2007: Galerie Carzaniga + Ueker (Basel)
  • 2009: Espacio Micus (Ibiza)
  • 2010: Museum Tinguely (Basel)
  • 2011: Gallery Mein Blau (Berlin)
  • 2012: Maison 44 (Basel)

Works (selection)

Publications

  • Bloomsday . Newlit, Mainz 1982.
  • The day of Santa Inés . Story, Schönbergverlag, Freiburg 1989.
  • The director . With Martin Suter . Scripts for the television series, 1993.
  • The encounter essay. In: Musselhaufen , No. 34, 1995, ISSN 0085-3593 .  
  • The day of Santa Inés . Story, Libro Azul Publishing House, Ibiza 1999.
  • Sweet home . Novel. Bilger, Zurich 1999. ISBN 3-908010-40-3 .
  • This week in Ibiza . Columns in: Tages-Anzeiger , Zurich 2001.
  • Andando. On foot from San Sebastian to Gibraltar . Together with Alex Capus , Ursula Fricker u. a., velvet-edition, Lucerne 2002.
  • See the stars . Poems, Abeia, Ibiza 2004.
  • matar . Novel. Ricco Bilger publishing house , Zurich 2005. ISBN 3-908010-76-4 .
  • Take away your damn hand . Essay. In: Passages. Culture magazine , Zurich 2006.
  • Shimmering puddles . With Felix Waske . Edition Thurnhof, Horn 2007.
  • Flower, Power, Love and Peace and The Fig Harvest or: Paradise Now! . In: Goodbye Tanit . (Ed. Wiltrud Schwetje). Palmyra, Heidelberg 2007. ISBN 978-3-930378-72-2 .
  • Carnival - Myth and Misunderstanding . Essay. Culture and leisure magazine of the Basler Zeitung from February 9, 2008.
  • Corona, un dia de festa . Editorial Mediterrània, Eivissa 2009, ISBN 978-84-95565-94-5 .
  • Oedipus in the here and now . Novel. Vidal, Winterthur 2014, ISBN 978-3-9524368-0-6 .
  • Morituro satellite . Novella. Vidal, Winterthur 2015, e-book (EPUB), ISBN 978-3-9524532-0-9 .

literature

  • Paul Kersten: Matar ... . Culture journal NDR . Broadcast on January 16, 2006
  • Reinhardt Stumm: Kill. Jean Willi's second novel "Matar" . In: Basler Zeitung from December 16, 2005
  • Friedhelm Schmitz: Sweet home. Protocol of a youth . In: Clams . Viersen 2000. ISSN  0085-3593
  • Raphael Suter: The book is a kind of rehabilitation . In: Basler Zeitung of April 9, 1999
  • Richard Reich: Ibiza can be very cold . In: Tages-Anzeiger -Magazin . No. 9, Zurich 1999
  • Hans Keller: Freedom and Carnival. Crime and report of a revolt . In: The weekly newspaper of August 5, 1999
  • Aurel Schmidt: In the intermediate realm of signs and meaning . In: Exhibition catalog . Galerie Carzaniga + Ueker, Basel 1989
  • Aurel Schmidt: The language of images . In: Magazine of the Basler Zeitung from March 4, 1989
  • NN. (mon): The "rose" is often devoured and blown away . In: Frankfurter Rundschau of April 21, 1983
  • https://basellive.ch/blog/ein-basler-im-ausland-jean-willi-ibiza/z7rt

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ you . The magazine of culture . Issue 9. Conzett + Huber, Zurich 1988. ISSN 0012-6837  
  2. ↑ For example: Werner Helwig : Märchen . (Edited together with Gerda Helwig; private print.) Basel 1994
  3. ↑ For example: Jean Willi: The encounter . Essay. In: Clams . H. 33/34. 1995. ISSN  0085-3593
  4. ↑ 3 episodes of the series " The Director ". (Together with Martin Suter .) Swiss television (in cooperation with ZDF). 1994
  5. ↑ Readers' comments on Jean Willi's work on the Bilger Verlag website ( Memento of the original from December 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bilgerverlag.ch
  6. ^ Raphael Suter: Writing as a sense of achievement . In: Basler Zeitung [1]
  7. ↑ Matar . Zurich 2005. p. 74

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Willi, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss painter, draftsman and writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel