The Daily Heller: Clearing the COVID Cloud

In today's Daily Heller, Steven Heller is movingly describing his encounter with Covid infection.

"But the most incredible consequence of my particular variant (and I wonder if other sufferers have had the same experience) is that many of my daily disorders, including movement issues and insomnia, simply disappeared. It was as though my system is designed to handle only one major crisis at a time. The fog, while uncomfortable and unknowable, blocked out everything I did not want to deal with, either overtly or covertly. Of course, anyone who is even the slightest bit ill could not care less about fulfilling their daily routines and one-off responsibilities. When the one responsibility you have is fighting and beating the viral enemy and protecting (as best as possible) your family from catching it too, writing Daily Heller columns, meeting deadlines and editing other projects is not as compelling or important."

To illustrate his story, he used two comics from my A.C. 2020 series. "Thanks to Mirko Ilic for generously allowing me to use his AC (After COVID) 2020 comic strips. They are perfect representations of exactly how I was feeling."

 

My Comics in American Illustration 40 Book

For the 40th anniversary American Illustration annual book, the jury selected two of my comics from my visual essay series A.C.2020.

You can see more comics in the series here.

 

Comic "The Medium is the Massage"

My new comic for the A.C.2020. (After Covid) series. This one is a visual pun on the title of the most famous Marshall McLuhan's book The Medium Is the Massage. 

Why is the book title “The Medium Is the Massage” but not “The Medium Is the Message”? Actually, the title was a mistake. When the book came back from the typesetter, it had “Massage” on the cover as it still does. The title was supposed to be “The Medium Is the Message” but the typesetter had made an error. When Marshall saw the typo he exclaimed, “Leave it alone! It’s great, and right on target!"

Another interesting piece of information about this book is that Quentin Fiore, the designer of the book shared the cover billing with Marshall McLuhan. 

 

Here is the link to a witty post about this comic by Steve Heller in The Daily Heller. 

You can see more of my A.C.2020. comics here.

 

Cover of the first edition of "The Medium Is the Massage".

 

 

Blast From the Past

In April of 2020, I printed and arranged for posting my Corona awareness posters throughout New York. I did that to raise awareness among my fellow citizens.

In the following months, I designed the translated versions of the poster, and they were posted in 8 different countries around the world. You can see more about that here.

Today on my way to my studio, to my total surprise, I saw some of those posters on the scaffolding in the construction site on 21st Street. I don't know how, but they survived for more than a year and a half, moving from one construction site to another.

 

Topsy-turvy A.C.2020 comic

 

More comics here.

My A.C.2020 comic inspired by Avenue of the America.

More comics here.

A.C. 2020 comic inspired by Tomaž Pengov

My A.C. 2020 comic inspired by Tomaž Pengov song ′′ In the smile of someday ′′ From the album ′′ Travel ′′ (1973).

V nasmehu nekega dneva V nasmehu nekega dneva, stopiš na svoje križišče, in streseš pesek iz popotnih čevljev. Nekdo te vpraša kam hočeš, ti skriješ utrujene noge, in poveš, da si bil tam. Prijatelji ti odpirajo okna, in ne veš koga si ranil. Tvoja roka nikoli ni prazna, karkoli si storil, v nasmehu nekega dneva, si prinesel, prinesel s seboj. Med glasbo in njeno tišino, med senco in njenim telesom, med žensko in njeno lahko stopinjo, čutiš pot med besedo in molkom, in zemlja na katero si stopil, ti je vzela del potovanja Ko se vrneš, si sam. Ptice so zaprle poletje, in dež je ustavil ceste. Nad praznim vrčem prsti napnejo strune, in spomin ti verjame. V tišini pretrgaš zaveso, in stopiš, pred drevo, ki si ga posadil, v nasmehu nekega dneva, da odlomiš vejo, za na pot. In the smile of someday In the smile of someday, you set foot upon your crossroad, and shake the sand from your traveling shoes. Somebody asks you where you wish to go, you hide your tired legs, and tell them, you have been there. Friends open their windows to you, and you know not who you have wounded. Your hand never empty, and whatever you have done, in the smile of someday, you have brought, brought with yourself. Between music and its silence, between a shadow and its body, between a woman and her light footprint, you feel the path between word and silence, and the ground on which you tread, has taken from you a part of your journey, when you return, you are alone. The birds have brought summer to end, and rain has halted all roads, Above an empty jug your fingers draw the strings, your memory believes you. You tear apart the curtain in silence, and step, before the very tree you have planted, in the smile of someday, and break off a branch, for your journey.

More comics here.

JDP, Yugoslav Drama Theatre

JDP Yugoslav Drama Theatre in Belgrade, Serbia is having a premiere of the new play Siroka zemlja (Undiscovered Country) by the Austrian playwright Arthur Schnitzleron on Tuesday, June 17th.

With this play, I wrapped up my four seasons of designing posters for JDP. It has been a pleasant experience for me despite the turbulences in the past year. The theatre only managed to put out only three new shows in season 2019-2020. But in season 2020-2021, despite the Covid-19 infection of staff and actors, cancellations and reschedulings of shows and openings, the theatre still managed to have five new shows on the stage.

Not a small achievement!

Here you can see the high-res images of the JPD posters here.

 

A.C.2020.5

Here is the fifth part of my visual essay A.C.2020. I created them to express the anxiety and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The visual essay is comprised of self-contained single-page stories.

The first page is my take on Winsor McKay's Little Nemo in Slumberland. As Steven Heller eloquently put in his The Daily Heller blog: "Throughout the pandemic, Mirko Ilic has evoked his own emotional spectrum (light to dark) through a continuous series of sequential images... 'Little Mirko in COVID Land,' so clearly expresses the common angst—a universal feeling of, at once, isolation, separation, lamentation, liberation and, now, the undefinably discomfiting excitation of being released back into a (hopefully) COVID-free world."

The second page is about the deserted Lincoln Center in New York City which evokes association to Giorgio de Chirico's painting.

You can see more high-res images of this comic series here.

The World After

 

The new book The World After, with the subtitle Posters That Question Our Future is a collection of posters with a Covid-19 pandemic theme. The book was created by Olga Severina and Donna Jackson.

I am pleased that my Corona Awareness poster is included in the book too. You can see and read more about my Corona Awareness Poster campaigns here.

A.C.2020.4

Page from my a visual essay A.C.2020. I created this to express anxiety and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 epidemic.

 

In 1918 Egon Schiele died from the Spanish Flu pandemic. He was 28 years old.

"Sometime in mid-October, Egon Schiele’s wife, Edith falls ill with the flu. She is 6 months pregnant and despite the desperate care from her husband Egon, she succumbs to the flu on October 28. Three days later, on October 31, Egon Schiele followed his wife and unborn child into the after world in the early hours of the day."

This comic is based exclusively on the photos of Egon before and after his death.

More here.

 

 

A.C.2020.3

Page from my a visual essay A.C.2020.

I created this to express anxiety and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 epidemic.

 

More here.

 

 

 

 

ApARTe° the magazine

One of my pages from the A.C.2020 visual essay created to express anxiety and uncertainty caused by Covid-19 was published in Italian magazine ApARTe°. The magazine turns twenty this year and it celebrates its birthday with this special edition.

ApARTe° is a magazine that explores explores organically the relations between anarchist and libertarian thought and the Arts. It is a semi-annual magazine, printed on quality paper and hand-tied. It usually offers its readers inserts of various kinds and always a CD or a DVD.

Writers, editors, graphic designers and distributors lend their work without any compensation. The magazine does not host any kind of advertising and it does not depend on any sponsor. Its balance sheet has been miraculously positive for twenty years thanks to the steady support of its subscribers and readers.

More about A.C.2020 here and here.

A.C.2020.2

One more page from my a visual essay A.C.2020.

I created this to express anxiety and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 epidemic.

More here.

 

 

A.C.2020

Here is a one of my pages from a visual essay A.C.2020.

I created this to express anxiety and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 epidemic. More here.

Covid Exit, Madrid 2020

As part of Madrid Gráfica 2020, an international event dedicated to graphic design, they organized Covid Exit poster exhibition. From submitted posters by 572 graphic designers from 45 countries, the jury selected 100 posters. They are being exhibited both in the city’s squares and at the Central de Diseño at Matadero, Madrid. I am pleased that my poster is among the selected.

Anti-Coronavirus posters

Today on 20th street between 5th and 6th avenues, I was surprised to see, still untouched, the Anti-Coronavirus poster posters I designed and posted more than 6 months ago.

I was one of the artists invited by Poster House and Print magazine to do Anti-Coronavirus poster.

https://observer.com/2020/04/artist-psa-digital-art-campaign-nyc-times-square-billboards/

NYC Street Version of the Anti-Coronavirus poster

That was enough for me I wanted the poster/message to appear on less official ad spaces and that way could get attention of more of the community in NYC. I paid to print and distribute poster on Manhattan Bronx and Queens.You will see in the link even David Byrne put my poster on his instagram with a comment.

https://mirkoilic.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-street-version-of-coronavirus-poster.html

Anti-Coronavirus poster in Ljubljana

I also managed to arrange printing and distribution of poster in Ljubljana, Slovena. 

https://mirkoilic.blogspot.com/2020/04/anti-coronavirus-poster-in-ljubljana.html

Anti-Coronavirus billboards in Zagreb

And also managed to arrange printing and posting of 40 billboards around the city of Zagreb in Croatia.

https://mirkoilic.blogspot.com/2020/04/anti-coronavirus-billboards-in-zagreb.html

Stay-Sane-Stay-Safe in Breda

The tree installations are traveling through Breda. They are aiming for seven locations in three weeks. I’m very pleased that my poster is one of the posters included in them.

https://mirkoilic.blogspot.com/2020/05/stay-sane-stay-safe-in-breda.html

https://mirkoilic.blogspot.com/2020/07/stay-sane-stay-safe-in-breda-3.html

Anti-Coronavirus posters in Belgrade, Serbia

I also managed to arrange printing and posting of 1000 posters around the city of Belgrade in Serbia.

https://mirkoilic.blogspot.com/2020/05/anti-coronavirus-posters-in-belgrade.html

Anti-Coronavirus posters in Belgrade, Serbia

Here are a few photos of my design for an Anti-Coronavirus poster in Belgrade, Serbia. This campaign was organized in collaboration with Kulturni center GRAD.

Photos by Stefan Gajić.

Stay-Sane-Stay-Safe in Breda

Lennert & De Bruin and Overdeschreef initiated the Stay-Sane-Stay-Safe project. By now they have 1,759 posters from 85 different countries. The project was posted on Instagram, only visible online and mainly seen by the design community. 

Graphic Matter from Breda, Holland decided these posters belong out on the streets, and should be seen by as many people as possible. They bought 275 poster positions, the whole of Breda has 350, for three weeks. Now Graphic Matter prolonged the project with two pop up museums each has twenty three posters and one poster with an introduction story. The two installations are traveling through Breda. They are aiming for seven locations in three weeks. Here are images from the first four locations (Westerpark, Leystroom nursery home, Dr. Struycken Square and Rogdijk - Zwarte Dijk).

So many people requested posters, that Graphic Matter decided to distribute these thru six local shops, and give them away for free.

I'm very pleased that my poster is one of the posters included in the show.

Photos by Joost van Asch and Rosa Menkman.