CHINA MEETS NORWAY IN A BOOKSHELF NO.3

Highlights of our Bookshelf No.3 include comic performance Sound of Aurora by Fredrik Rysjedal, which was performed both in Beijing and Shanghai; Stand in the Unfold Shanghai Art Book Fair, where we released both Elsewhere, the first book published under our own publisher Kinakaal Forlag and the Norwegian Mini Zine boxsets. We also presented Norwegian experimental comic books from Jippi Comics; Norwegian Mini Zine Exhibition in PageOne Bookstore in Beijing.

Our China Meets Norway in a Bookshelf project has come to its third year. This time we set our focus on non-commercial comic art from Norway, which is something totally different from the Japanese Manga style that dominants the comic scene in China.

We worked closely with Pamflett and Jippi comics, as well as comic artists like Fredrik Rysjedal and Wang Shuo, and others who contributed in our Mini Zine project.

Sound of the Aurora is a comic performance where Fredrik Rysjedal performed the two digital comics: Sound of the Aurora and Close, Closer, Closest. Both stories are based around this grandfather that was a war sailor, and the themes of the stories build around family legacy and forgiveness. The stories are based on real events. 

Comic Performance is a scenic presentation of a comic, Fredrik edited live the comic panels and visuals together with the musicians that played the Soundtrack live. This time Fredrik played together with Stephan Miedell, experimental composer and guitarist from Norway, and Chinese musician Lucy Luan (GUZHENG 古筝) and Jacqueline Fan (PIPA 琵琶) with traditional Chinese instrument.

In Beijing, the performance took place in Bento One. Fredrik and Stephan cooperated with Guzheng-ist Lucy Luan. Many renown and professional comic artists joined the audience. Many expressed admiration afterwards. They didn’t know that comics could be ‘played’ this way. In Shanghai it was Jacqueline Fan who stepped in with Pipa. Due to some technical problem she and Stephan didn’t even get chance to rehearsal before the show. But they improvised as beautiful as they’ve been playing for like always. They enjoyed so much that none of them were willing to stop long after the screen of Fredrik faded to black.

Fredrik is the first and up to now the only comic artist holding a doctor equivalent degree in Norway, and Wang Shuo is also the only comic doctor in China. This time they cooperated through invitation of the Kinakaal, the new established publisher under Northing, on the comic book named Elsewhere. By using their unique comic languages on four common topics, they improvised and delivered eight comic stories, which displayed their different understandings, ways of deepening, and expressions, so that the readers could have a glimpse in the similarities and differences between the two remote cultures from two ends of the earth - two apparently distinctive cultures, Norway and China, started to entangle and resonate with each other through the visual depictions of the comic artists.

As a publication project planed by Northing, Kinakaal publisher wish to open up new possibilities for dialogues, through cooperation with different artists from the two countries, on different cultural (visual, independent, academic, unknown, etc.) dimensions, and facilitate communication. Kinakaal means Chinese cabbage in Norwegian, which is the most common vegetable you find in a Norwegian supermarket. It could be the most direct connection a common Norwegian people has with the word Kina (China). That’s why Northing named it’s publishing house Kinakaal, and hope to inspire discoveries of the subtle connections in disguise between the tow remote cultures. Elsewhere is the first book that will be published under Kinakaal.

Norwegian Mini Zines were released the very first time at the Shanghai Art Book Fair 2019. After that, Norwegian Mini Zines also showcased in PageOne Bookstore in Beijing. In the autumn of 2019, they will travle back to Norway to start its tour exhibition around the world.

The ongoing anthology Forresten has been the place both for new talents and for the established creators to test out new concepts. This time, Northing will introduce some of the most experimental tittles from Jippi to China.

Jippi Comics was founded in 1997, and has published more than 100 comic books mainly by Norwegian artists. Norwegian comics have been breaking new grounds in the period, and Jippi has played an important role in this positive development and improvement of the Norwegian comics scene.