Drawings, exhibitions and film: images have steered almost my entire life. Born in 1967, I come from a family of artists - in which Felix Hartlaub, the Expressionist draughtsman and writer, already created graphic novels in the 1920s without referring to them as such. After studying at the HfG (Polytechnic of Design) in Offenbach, Germany and at St Martins College of Art in London, I have spent the past 20 years as a filmmaker in Frankfurt, New York and Barcelona.
At my side is the Frankfurt exhibition organiser and publicist, Florian Koch (born in 1967), who brought my work to a larger public in 2014 in a show that included images from the graphic novel. Florian Koch is a freelance manager in the field of arts and culture (www.kultur-am-main.de) and operates the non-book publishing company MeterMorphosen. He is a spin doctor, a consultant for dramaturgy and dialogue and is responsible for the project texts including press, marketing and e-communication.
The Frankfurt composer and music producer J. Peter Schwalm (born in 1970) creates Neue Musik for film, theatre and ballet in collaboration with international artists such as Brian Eno. His evocative sounds and rhythms brilliantly complement and suit the images in the world of '2048'.
The Museum of Applied Art, Frankfurt is an icon of contemporary architecture. Its main building was erected 30 years ago by Richard Meier as an anchor of the Frankfurt Museum Riverbank. In the novel, it plays a recurring and threefold important role: in 1986, in 2014 and in 2048 it stands - or, indeed, will stand - at the centre of our examination of basic questions about the cultivation of memory. Institutional collaboration on the project is provided by Matthias Wagner K, Director, by Martin Hegel, Director of Communication Design and Grit Weber, Manager of Press and Public Relations.
Further consultants and contributors include Heidi Hahn, human geneticist at the Frankfurt University Hospital; Benjamin List, chemist and director at the Max Planck Institutre for Carbon Research in Muehlheim an der Ruhr and Roland Wengenmayr, physicist, science journalist and draughtsman.
Publication: In the next eight months, sequences of the graphic novel will be published fortnightly in a groovy, rounded 70s format of 24 x 24cm. In addition, a digital sound file will accompany selected episodes and can be listened to on a smartphone or tablet. With a window view of the Frankfurt flea market on the Museum Riverbank outside, the graphic novel also becomes a utilitarian object in the Museum of Applied Art: each sequence will be offered as a tray lining - and spilled coffee will get you a new one! Each guest can collect and read them, listen to them and assemble them to a new and individual version of the story:
The future has already begun.
