Virginie Calvet and Felix Hunger have been awarded the Förderpreis für junge Buchgestaltung der Stiftung Buchkunst for their bachelor’s thesis in Media Design at DHBW Ravensburg. Their project “Between Euphrates and Tigris – Archive of a Deconstructed Destruction” shows photographs from the war in Iraq in aesthetic abstractions.
Virginie Calvet and Felix Hunger’s book is based on 4,558 press photographs from the Iraq war. At first glance, these are neither aesthetic nor beautiful sights. But what happens when we look closer and go deeper, the two asked themselves. Abstractions of the photographs lead to a completely new aesthetic and the horror dissolves. Often, details such as the sky, the patterns of the camouflage suits or the colours are analysed or recomposed in the process. “An astonishing contemplation on the senselessness of war,” the jury of the Förderpreis für Buchgestaltung praised the work.
The competition honours particularly innovative and forward-looking concepts pushing the boundaries of the book as a medium. 170 books were submitted, three of the books were awarded the promotional prize of 2,000 euros each. “A really special award for this outstanding work – theoretically well-founded, methodically reflected and at the same time at the cutting edge of contemporary design discourse,” praises Prof. Dr. Klaus Birk, who supervised the Bachelor’s thesis. Additional supervision by Betty Schimmelpfennig, Martin Hesselmeier, Thomas Sali and Nicolas Bernklau.
After graduating from DHBW Ravensburg, Virginie Calvet is working as an editorial designer at Bureau Johannes Erler in Hamburg, Felix Hunger as a digital editorial designer at Süddeutsche Zeitung in Munich.
