Can comics be understood as an invisible art, or as an art of the invisible? How can they be a tool for telling stories that rarely find space within the ordinary ecology of visual media? Is this art of the invisible an instrument to connect with other dimensions?
“Comics and the Invisible” calls for ideas, analytical methodologies, and theoretical vocabularies to articulate the limits of visibility within comics culture. Inspired by the EU funded project “Invisible Lines” the conference investigates different aspects of the invisible in comics culture, as a complex notion that can offer a fresh perspective around what is seen and what is not seen – and the motivations behind these absences – within the historical and/or contemporary traditions of the ninth art.
All panels will be translated in English.
Welcome greetings
Francesco Piraino, Director of the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations and Spiritualities
Matteo Stefanelli, Catholic University of Milan
Emilio Varrà, Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna
Tracking and Teaching the Invisible: Lynda Barry’s comics
Maaheen Ahmed, Ghent University
Playing with the Invisible: Novel, Movies, Comics
Daniele Barbieri, Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna
How to Make the Invisible Visible? Some Innovative Approaches in 21st-Century Comic Art
Francesca Pietropaolo, Art Critic and Curator
The color next door: Forms, functions, and politics of the chromatic hypallage in clear line comics
David Pinho Barros, University of Porto
Making visible the invisible: representations of the spiritual in religiously themed Japanese manga
Carolina Ivanescu, University of Amsterdam
Artists’ round table
Yvan Alagbé, Dominique Goblet, Stefano Ricci
moderator: Ilaria Tontardini
(in French with English translation)
Artists’ round table
Lorenzo Mattotti, Manuele Fior
moderator: Emilio Varrà
(in Italian with English translation)
Stefano Ricci and Manuele Fior (illustrations)
Giacomo Piermatti and Daniele Roccato (music)
‘I Envy the Lichen’: Yulia Nikitina’s Landscapes of the Russian Soul
José Alaniz, University of Washington
Lived and abandoned spaces: invisibilities in comparison
Rodolfo Dal Canto, University of L’Aquila
The Color of Paper: Racial Invisibility in the Comics Medium
Chris Gavaler, Washington Lee University
The invisibility of comics made in isolation: Charlotte Salomon, Karel Frans Drenthe and Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro
Erwin Dejasse, Université Libre de Bruxelles
Dancing with the (in)visibile: graphic fragments of forced migration from the Mediterranean
Silvia Vari, University of Warwick
Matteo Stefanelli, Catholic University of Milan
Lectio magistralis
Juraj Horváth
Lectio magistralis
David B.
(in Italian with English translation)
with: Stefano Ricci, Manuele Fior
music: Giacomo Piermatti, Daniele Roccato
Admission is free. Reservation is required.
Click here to reserve your place