Manuele Fior

Manuele Fior, born in 1975 in the northern Italian city of Cesena, has published five substantial comic stories to date. His work, which has attracted considerable critical acclaim, has also been recognized with numerous awards.

Fior turned to comics as a creative medium after completing architecture studies in Venice in 2000. Five years later he lived in Berlin, where he worked as an architect and illustrator. From his collaboration with the avant publishing house based there arose a number of short stories, some with his brother Daniel as author, as well as the graphic novel »Les gens le dimanche« (2004; tr. »People on Sunday«). Drawing from his own experiences, Fior describes the day-to-day life of a group of Italians living in Berlin. Awarded an Icom Award at the Comicsalon Erlangen, the book is distinguished by an impressionistic line which appears fleeting, as if recording a spontaneous moment. After Berlin Fior moved to Oslo, where he lived for a number of years and created the graphic novel »Icarus« (2006). This book unites elements of Greek mythology with the story of an antiquities researcher who loses himself in his work. Published in 2006, it was recognised as Norway’s most beautiful book of the year. For his adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s »Fräulein Else« (2009; tr. »Mademoiselle Else), Fior developed a technique of direct colourisation with watercolours, lending this and other subsequent works a particular visual impact. A »Tagesspiegel« critic praised the 2010 book as an »elegant adaptation of a classic and a visual feast for freethinkers«. For the graphic novel »Cinq mille kilometres par second” (2010; tr. »Five thousand kilometres a second«), Fior developed his dramatic colour further. For the story of a love triangle the artist received the main jury prize at the Comicfestival Angoulême. »Fior works masterfully with mood colours, superbly created through watercolour technique« was the assessment of Andreas Platthaus in the »Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung«. For his current work »L’entrevue« (2013; tr. »The Interview«) Fior chose yet another drawing technique. The images in the science fiction relationship drama are rendered in charcoal. This graphic novel describes a society split between old and young, strange visions and an unconventional relationship between a psychiatrist and a young patient, who perceives unusual things. »Unsettling and moving« was the judgment of a »Süddeutsche Zeitung« critic.

Along with his graphic novels, Fior works as an illustrator, with his clients including »The New Yorker«, »Le Monde«, »Vanity Fair«, »Il Sole 24 Ore«, »Il Manifesto« and »Rolling Stone«. He currently lives in Paris.

Manuel Fior

Menschen am Sonntag

Avant

Berlin, 2005

Ikarus

Avant

Berlin, 2006

Fräulein Else

Avant

Berlin, 2010

Fünftausend Kilometer in der Sekunde

Avant

Berlin, 2011

Die Übertragung

Avant

Berlin, 2013