Zerocalcare

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Zerocalcare (2012)

Zerocalcare (stage name of Michele Rech; born December 12, 1983 in Arezzo , Italy) is an Italian comic artist , comic author and blogger .

Zerocalcare is the best-known and best-selling contemporary comic artist in Italy in 2018 and has been known to wide circles since 2011 for his autobiographical everyday stories.

Life

Born in Arezzo in 1983, Zerocalcare initially lived in France, his mother's country of origin. On the passport of French citizens, he moved to Rome as a child. Since then he has lived on the north-eastern edge of Rome in the Rebibbia district, whose large prison and mammoth finds from the 1980s Zerocalcare recorded in several literary and graphic works.

Zerocalcare attended the French school Lycée Chateaubriand di Roma in Rome and graduated from there. He broke off language studies after four months and viewed a comics school that he attended for 1 1/2 years as critical. Zerocalcare earned its income with temporary auxiliary jobs, in particular tutoring and French-Italian translation work in the field of hunting and fishing. Since February 2015 he has lived exclusively from drawing.

Zerocalcare has been intensely involved with comics of all kinds since childhood.

Literary work

Funny, ironic or sarcastic, Zerocalcare tells his own life in blog and books between media consumption and resistance to globalization, insecure working, living and future conditions and solidarity and creative success.

While he is repeatedly referred to by the media as a typical representative of the 80s and 90s, he distances himself from it and explains the success of his stories as follows:

“I tell my weaknesses: I enjoy drawing them and I think people enjoy reading them. Perhaps these weaknesses are a bit of the weaknesses of everyone, people recognize themselves in them. ” He is the first in Italy to autobiographically tell his unglamorous everyday life in comic form, with this humanity and the feeling of insecurity expressed in it readers would identify his generation.

Kobane Calling is available in German from Zerocalcare , a political comic report about the Kurdish areas on the Turkish-Syrian border that were threatened by IS at the time. Parts of his work have also been translated into French, Spanish and English.

Zerocalcare's previous comics from 2003 to 2018 can be divided into three areas:

  • Everyday stories that he publishes in blog and books
  • a three-part cycle about his previous life and that of his family, with autobiographical and fictional parts
  • political works

Blog and everyday stories

Between 2011 and 2014, Zerocalcare published regularly, from 2015 occasionally autobiographical short comic stories on his blog. These drawn short stories were later also published in book form, slightly expanded:

In its comics, Zerocalcare puts the Italian, often bitter reality of the young, also well-educated generation without secure work on paper. Due to his deeply human narrative style, the comics can be read with a laugh and with great pleasure even without knowing the Italian context.

He develops great, fantastic stories from the most banal, well-known everyday situations: for example, from the problem of getting out of a warm bed through the cold corridor into the shower, or how he is so distracted by an insignificant story at the next table that he gets the most important message missed his best friend. Zerocalcare appears in the comics as a narrator, standing aside he personifies his conscience, drawn as an armadillo, called Armadillo in Italian. In this way, he depicts the inner dialogue with himself in a funny and varied way, visually and textually. Other states of mind and emotions also appear as drawn figures. He draws other people, often friends and family, anonymously and with a lot of humor as well-known people from films or comics.

  • Under the title Macerie Prime (BAO publishing, 2017, ISBN 978-8865439760 ), the third episode of the autobiographical short comic stories will be published in book form. Zerocalcare turned the narrative pause of 6 months in the middle of the story into reality for the readers by publishing the second part six months later under the title "Macerie prime. Sei mesi dopo" (BAO publishing, 2018, ISBN 978-8832730760 ).

Starting in 2019, Zerocalcare will be writing the first everyday stories in the form of animated short films in which the already known, but also new characters speak in a rapid Roman dialect. During the COVID-19 pandemic 2020, the Italian commercial broadcaster La7 will broadcast the sequels on the popular program Propaganda Live.

Family cycle

The breakthrough in wider circles came in 2011 with his first printed book, La profezia dell'armadillo , published in-house by the comic artist Makkox. The other books were published by the Italian publisher Bao Publishing.

The three books La profezia dell'armadillo, Un polpo alla gola and Dimentica il mio nome can now be considered an autobiographical cycle in which Zerocalcare presents his life and that of his family with a mixture of autobiographical experiences and fiction.

  • In La profezia dell'armadillo (Edizioni Graficart, 2011, reissued by BAO publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-8865431030 ), Zerocalcare remembers his first love, the shared school and leisure time, dreams of the future, the alienation at later sporadic meetings and the shock of her untimely death from bulimia. With a lot of laughter that keeps getting stuck in your throat, Zerocalcare leads you through the funny and sad story credibly and openly in retrospect.
  • Dimentica il mio nome (BAO publishing, 2014, ISBN 978-8865432549 ) is a story about anxiety that saves you from laughing. There are many occasions for zerocalcares fears, even if he mimes the strong. The death of his old grandmother leads Zerocalcare to deal with his brave ancestors. These had an adventurous life between Russia, England, France and Italy. Dimentica il mio nome tells on 236 pages of someone who wants to know where he comes from, who can tell the story of his ancestors in an exciting way and who recognizes that he is different: the defiant little boy, the rebellious punk needs security and order. The beloved grandmother once promised him: "I will not die until you have grown up". Her death also causes emotional confusion in the now 30-year-old: "But when do you make the transition from boy to man? Is it possible that I didn't notice that I finished the level? In any case, I did Forgot to save. "

Political works

Zerocalcare always sees its political works as the result of a collective. After joint deliberations and decisions in the group, he then puts the result on paper as the last link in the chain.

“In my opinion, political works must be approached and told together, they must be the result of a collective. I don't think that an individual can wake up one morning and make himself the speaker of the people. If there is a community, an assembly behind it, that decides (...) I am happy to be the last link in the chain. Understood in this way, Kobane's story is “mine”. So I feel legitimate to speak of it. (...) I went with a group of people on site, I dealt with this group, we thought it through and wrote it together. So it is on the one hand my personal experience, on the other hand a joint reflection. "

  • La nostra storia alla sbarra (2004), about the events of the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001 , later known as La memoria è un ingranaggio collettivo .
  • Il problema è che abbozzamo semper (2008) as a contribution to the ZeroTolleranza collection of 40 comic authors from the independent scene, in which he defends himself against the cross-party adoption of what is actually right-wing extremist or at least right-wing ideology in politics.
  • AFAB (2011) on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the G8 summit in Genoa, in which he describes two consequences of the abuse of power by the state: the silence due to the devastatingly absurd abuse of violence and the realization that there is no one to turn to the abuse by law enforcement officers was committed by those who were supposed to protect.
  • La Città del Decoro (May 10, 2015), 6-page publication in the La Repubblica newspaper , on the question of what decency actually is.
  • Kobane Calling , BAO publishing, 2016, ISBN 978-8865436189 , report already published in part in the Italian weekly magazine “Internazionale” in 2015, in German under the title Kobane Calling , translation from Italian by Carola Köhler, avant-Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-945034-63-7 . Kobane Calling is a comic report about the three trips of a Roman, left-wing autonomous solo group to the Kurdish region on the Turkish-Syrian border, in particular to the Kurdish autonomous region of Rojava . Zerocalcare embeds the stories about the everyday life of the Kurdish population under war conditions in a subjective framework in which other protagonists of his earlier comics appear in addition to himself. With this recourse to the familiar and the tried and tested humorous, sometimes cynical narrative style, he leads his readership to information about the Kurdish regions and especially the situation of Kurdish women. He consistently takes a subjective, left-wing autonomous standpoint. The Italian version was published in April 2016, followed by translations into French (September 2016), Spanish (March 2017), German (May 2017) and English (October 2017). For her translation by Kobane Calling, Carola Köhler will be awarded the Young Talent Award as part of the German-Italian Translator Award 2020.

Political commitment

As a teenager, Zerocalcare began attending autonomous centers (in Italian Centri sociali ) and, when he was 30, referred to them as his family. At the age of 16 and 17, he drew the first posters for hardcore punk concerts in the autonomous centers. As a “straight edge” punk, he doesn't drink alcohol, smoke or take drugs. In 2008, Zerocalcare described his art as punk “do-it-yourself” art: Since he could not make music, he made drawings for concert posters, CD covers and magazines (so-called fanzines). He published drawings in autonomous magazines or magazines dedicated to the underground, on cultural sites and on the web.

The events of the G8 summit in Genoa in July 2001, with the serious disputes between critics of globalization and the Italian law enforcement officers, were formative for the then 17-year-old.

In Genoa, under the responsibility of the then Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, hundreds of people were injured, many demonstrators were ill-treated by the police and the 23-year-old Carlo Giuliani was shot by a police officer. While the law enforcement officers - including the senior officials - were only mildly sentenced or sentenced due to gaps in the law despite proven human rights violations. Numerous proceedings were statute-barred until 2010, in 2009 ten demonstrators were sentenced to long prison terms (for damage to property and looting). In 2015, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously condemned Italy for the abused state power, described the police operation in the Diaz case as torture and reprimanded Italy for the loophole in the law that lawyers cannot be prosecuted for torture. In 2017, after years of pulling the rope, the Italian parliament passed a change in the law making torture a criminal offense. However, human rights groups criticize that the law does not meet the expectations and in particular the requirements of the UN .

Resistance to injustice and racism as well as abusive state power are addressed again and again by Zerocalcare, for example in his comic La nostra storia alla sbarra 2003 about the events of the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001 or in 2015 in which he opposed the appropriation by the right-wing Lega politician Salvini engaged in the “MaiconSalvini” campaign on the occasion of the far-reaching corruption incidents “Roma Capitale”.

Zerocalcare is involved in the squatter scene, where he experiences that society, culture, ways of life and trade can be changed. His identification with the scene of the autonomous centers and squatters, which is sometimes out of bounds, is great. For example, Zerocalcare rejects the regular collaboration it offers, including with left-wing daily newspapers, as a leading article that appears at the same time could be directed against its convictions. Left parties are also not allowed to use his person or drawings for political advertising. Zerocalcare therefore also perceives his great success as a comic artist as a contradiction between his moral claims and earning an income.

As of 2015, Zerocalcare will receive a lot of attention in Italy for its commitment to the Kurds . The comic artist visited the Kurdish region on the Turkish-Syrian border with a group of Roman left-wing autonomists; the three trips in 2014 and 2015 led in particular to the Kurdish autonomous region of Rojava. The group wanted to focus not only on the war, but above all on the barely told Kurdish everyday life. “The leading role of women, the fair distribution of income, the peaceful coexistence between culture and religion: it seemed to us that this revolution (in Rojava) speaks our language. It is important to support them and we wanted to go there to learn something from them. ”Zerocalcare processes the experiences of the group in the comic Kobane Calling . The comic report was at the top of the bestseller list in Italy for several weeks. About the German translation, Platthaus, editor at the conservative Faz, draws the conclusion about the left-wing autonomous Zerocalcare: "Whether you share your political judgments does not matter. What detailed observations he has to offer from a merciless war and a decade-long struggle for freedom, is of shocking intensity. "

Other works

  • Dodici , BAO publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-8865431801 , a fantasy story with zombies set in the Roman district of Rebibbia.
  • Illustrator of the book Kansas City, Anno II , by Diego Bianchi and Simone Conte (2013)
  • Mural of 40 square meters, near Rebibbia metro station (Rome), December 2014
  • For the film adaptation of La profezia dell'armadillo , Zerocalcare wrote the script together with Oscar Glioti, Pietro Martinelli and Valerio Mastandrea. Filming will take place from October 2017 under the direction of Emanuele Scaringi.
  • Illustrator of the video clip 'Ipocondria' by the Roman punk singer Giancane, in collaboration with the Roman rapper Rancore, May 2018
  • From October 10, 2018 to March 10, 2019, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome is dedicating a solo exhibition to Zerocalcare. The exhibition catalog is available as a book under the title Scavare fossati - Nutrire coccodrilli , BAO publishing, ISBN 978-88-3273-210-8 .
  • La Scuola di Pizze in Faccia del Professor Calcare , BAO publishing, 2019, ISBN 978-88-3273-325-9

Prices

Zerocalcare has received the following awards for its works:

  • 2012 Premio Gran Guinici, Best Short Story category for La profezia dell'Armadillo
  • 2012 Premio Attilio Micheluzzi , category Best WebComic for the blog
  • 2013 Premio Attilio Micheluzzi , Best Comic category for Un Polpo alla Gola
  • 2014 Premio Forte dei Marmi, category political satire
  • 2014 Audience Award for Best Book on Radio Rai 3's Fahrenheit program for Dimentica il mio nome
  • 2015 Macchianera Italian Awards, best draftsman

In 2015, Zerocalcare was nominated for the Premio Strega literary prize with Dimentica il mio nome .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Zerocalcare, lo street fighting man della matita. In: repubblica. September 28, 2014, accessed September 21, 2015 . and Zerocalcare: so finito in un museo. In: repubblica. September 21, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2018 .
  2. ^ Il murale di Zerocalcare a Rebibbia. In: fumettologica. December 2014, accessed September 21, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Da trenitalia a un polpo alla gola. In: La Stampa. November 1, 2012, accessed September 17, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Quattro chiacchiere con Zerocalcare: l'intervista che non ti aspetti. In: Il Barrito. May 30, 2016. Retrieved December 5, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Da trenitalia a Un polpo alla gola, l'irresistibile ascesa di Zerocalcare. In: La Stampa. November 1, 2012, accessed September 21, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Premio Strega 2015, Zerocalcare candidato con Dimentica il mio nome. In: Il fatto quotidiano. March 23, 2015, accessed September 22, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Zeocalcare, lo street fighting man della matita. In: repubblica. September 2, 2014, accessed September 21, 2015 . and Zero con lode. In: dagospia. May 23, 2014, accessed October 6, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Da trenitalia a un polpo alla gola. In: La Stampa. November 1, 2012, accessed September 17, 2015 .
  9. ^ Il disperato bisogno di pop di Zerocalcare e chef rubio. In: Rollingstone.it. July 5, 2015, accessed September 23, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Zerocalcare, l'insicurezza giovanile fatta fumetto. In: estense.com. October 4, 2015, accessed October 4, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Zerocalcare e Manuele Fior a Parigi, minute 9.10ff. In: Settimana cultura italiana all'Ecole normal supérieure. June 17, 2014, accessed October 1, 2015 .
  12. ↑ Tra Clash, tour svizzeri e accolli vari: intervista a Zerocalcare. In: fumettologica. October 16, 2014, accessed September 21, 2015 .
  13. ↑ www.zerocalcare.it
  14. ↑ Zerocalcare, Dimentica il mio nome , page 17 ff
  15. ↑ http://www.zerocalcare.it/2015/06/22/lannuncio-o-le-conversazioni-del-tavolo-accanto/#more-1179
  16. ^ "Sono fortunato: i miei amici non leggono i miei fumetti". In: Corriere della sera. May 4, 2018. Retrieved June 12, 2018 .
  17. ^ Zerocalcare torna a propaganda live con l'infirmiere Lele. In: Rollingstone.it. May 30, 2020, accessed June 3, 2020 .
  18. ^ Zerocalcare: Dimentica il mio nome è un punto di arrivo. Sono… In: L'Huffington Post. October 16, 2014, accessed October 6, 2015 .
  19. ^ Zero con lode. In: dagospia. May 23, 2014, accessed October 6, 2015 .
  20. ↑ "Zero tolleranza" 5 di 5. In: Andresa Plazzi. June 2008, accessed September 21, 2015 .
  21. ↑ Da Rebibbia a Kobane: conversazione con Zerocalcare. In: fumettologica. December 5, 2014, accessed September 21, 2015 .
  22. ^ Zerocalcare e la Diaz: "La nostra storia alla sbarra". In: TG3 comics. April 16, 2012, accessed October 6, 2015 .
  23. ↑ "Zero tolleranza" 5 di 5. In: Andresa Plazzi. June 2008, accessed September 21, 2015 .
  24. ↑ Zerocalcare e la G8 2001-11: "AFAB" In: TG3 comics. April 12, 2012, accessed September 22, 2015 .
  25. ↑ Zerocalcare nella città dei Puffi. In: la domenica di repubblica. May 10, 2015, accessed September 17, 2015 .
  26. ↑ Zerocalcare, Kobane Calling, Internazionale, n. 1085 anno XXII, Internazionale srl, January 16, 2015, pp. 33-74, ISSN  1122-2832 .
  27. ^ Il fenomeno Zerocalcare: dai centri sociali al boom. In: Gazzetta di Mantova. September 12, 2015, accessed September 24, 2015 .
  28. ^ German-Italian translator award. In: Literarisches Colloquium Berlin. June 3, 2020, accessed June 3, 2020 .
  29. ↑ Zeocalcare, lo street fighting man della matita. In: repubblica. September 2, 2014, accessed September 21, 2015 .
  30. ↑ "Zero tolleranza" 5 di 5. In: Andresa Plazzi. June 2008, accessed September 21, 2015 .
  31. ↑ http://www.zerocalcare.it/bio/
  32. ^ Il disperato bisogno di pop di Zerocalcare e chef rubio. In: Rollingstone.it. July 5, 2015, accessed September 23, 2015 .
  33. ↑ Da trenitalia a Un polpo alla gola, l'irresistibile ascesa di Zerocalcare. In: La Stampa. November 1, 2012, accessed September 21, 2015 .
  34. ^ G8 summit in Genoa in 2001: police violence condemned as torture. In: Tagesschau ARD. April 7, 2015, archived from the original on April 9, 2015 ; accessed on October 6, 2015 .
  35. ^ Tortura, via libera della Camera. In: Repubblica. June 5, 2017, accessed January 18, 2018 .
  36. ^ Vittime, avvocati e giudici: "La nuova legge sulla tortura è una truffa". In: Repubblica. May 17, 2017. Retrieved January 18, 2018 .
  37. ↑ Intervista a Zerocalcare, fumettista e voce generazionale. (No longer available online.) In: globalist. March 14, 2015, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on September 23, 2015 .
  38. ↑ Da trenitalia a Un polpo alla gola, l'irresistibile ascesa di Zerocalcare. In: La Stampa. November 1, 2012, accessed September 21, 2015 .
  39. ^ Il fenomeno Zerocalcare: dai centri sociali al boom. In: Gazzetta di Mantova. September 12, 2015, accessed October 6, 2015 .
  40. ^ Zero con lode. In: dagospia. May 23, 2014, accessed October 6, 2015 .
  41. ^ Intellettuali e politica, Zerocalcare: "La realtà è una cicatrice". In: L'espresso. June 15, 2016, accessed November 10, 2017 .
  42. ^ Zerocalcare, Kobane calling: "Da qua capisci questa guerra meglio che con qualunque infografica". In: Il fatto quotidiano. May 17, 2016. Retrieved November 10, 2017 .
  43. ^ Classifica libri 2016: i libri più venduti dell'anno. In: GraphMania. January 7, 2017, accessed January 18, 2018 .
  44. ^ Through civilized Kurdistan. In: Faz Blogs. June 6, 2017, accessed January 18, 2018 .
  45. ^ Il murale di Zerocalcare a Rebibbia. In: fumettologica. December 4, 2014, accessed September 24, 2015 .
  46. ↑ Da Rebibbia a Kobane: conversazione con Zerocalcaren. In: Fumettologica. December 5, 2014, accessed September 21, 2015 .
  47. ↑ La Profezia dell'Armadillo: partite le riprese del film tratto dalla graphic novel di ZeroCalcare. In: badtaste.it. October 2, 2017, accessed December 1, 2017 .
  48. ↑ Giancane Feat. Rancore - Ipocondria (Official Video). In: youtube.com. May 4, 2018, accessed June 14, 2018 .
  49. ^ Zerocalcare. In: Homepage Maxxi. September 21, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2018 .
  50. ↑ Lucca Comics 2012: ivincitori del Premio Gran Guinigi 2012. In: Mangaforever. November 3, 2012, accessed October 17, 2015 .
  51. ↑ Premio satrica politico. (No longer available online.) In: Museo della Satira e della caricatura, Forte dei Marmi. 2014, archived from the original on May 6, 2016 ; accessed on October 17, 2015 .
  52. ↑ Libro dell'anno. In: Il libraio. December 8, 2014, accessed October 17, 2015 .
  53. ^ Zerocalcare: Il trionfo ai Macchianera Italian Awards 2015 in the category “Miglior disegnatore”. In: C4 comic. September 21, 2015, accessed September 21, 2015 .
  54. ^ Edizione 2015, Candidati. (No longer available online.) In: Premio Strega. April 16, 2015, archived from the original on January 5, 2016 ; accessed on October 17, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Zerocalcare
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Right, Michele
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian comic book artist, comic author and blogger
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1983
PLACE OF BIRTH Arezzo , Italy