Escaping Wars and Waves
Encounters with Syrian refugees
Olivier Kugler's series of brilliant drawings of refugees from Syria establishes this award-winning artist as one of the most important graphic reporters of our day. Collected here for the first time, the drawings in Escaping Wars and Waves document the lives of individuals and families Kugler met in Iraqi Kurdistan, the tourist island of Kos, and the jungle camp at Calais, mostly on commission for Medecins Sans Frontieres. Kugler's work has been widely exhibited and published, by The Guardian, Harper's and the European press. The German language edition of ESCAPING WARS AND WAVES (Edition Moderne, 2017) won the Jury Prize of the European Design Awards in June 2018. `Olivier Kugler is an extraordinarily skilled journalist and cartoonist who is taking comics journalism to a new level. These potent profiles from the migration front lines will leave an indelible impression on your brain and heart.'-Joe Sacco As well as his work with Medecins Sans Frontieres, Kugler recorded the experiences of refugees in London, Birmingham and Simmozheim, the small village in Germany where he grew up. The stories he tells are often tragic but also uplifting, testimony to both human senselessness and resilience. Based on many interviews, thousands of reference photos, and an acute observation of the objects, locations and conversations making up our daily lives, the effects of what he records will be felt for decades to come.
Olivier Kugler studied visual communication in Germany and illustration at the School of Visual Arts, New York. He is a reportage illustrator based in London, and has won many awards, including the Association of Illustrators (AOI) Gold Award in 2004 and 2008. He was overall winner of both the V&A Illustration Award in 2011 and AOI World Illustration Awards in 2015. In June 2018, he won the Jury Prize of the European Design Awards and in November 2018, he won Prix du Carnet de Voyage International and the Coup de Coeur Médecins Sans Frontières at the Rendez-vous du Carnet de Voyage. He was shortlisted for the Broken Frontier Best Nonfiction Graphic Novel 2018 as well as the 2019 AOI World Illustration Awards 2019. Most recently, Olivier was shortlisted for the British Book Design and Production Awards and highly commended in the BMA Medical Book Awards 2019.
Escaping War and Waves, first published in German in 2017 as Dem Krieg Entronnen by Edition Moderne, was published by Myriad in June 2018. Escaping War and Waves is a collection of reportage drawings documenting the circumstances of Syrian refugees Kugler met on assignments in Iraqi Kurdistan, Greece and France for Médecins Sans Frontières, as well as drawings of Syrians he met in England, Germany and Switzerland. His drawings are peppered by speech from the conversations around him as well as those he is interviewing.
His work has been featured in The Guardian, Harper’s, XXI, New York Times, New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Le Monde Diplomatique, Internazionale, Süddeutsche Zeitung and elsewhere. His first book, Der Elefanten Doktor in Laos, was also published by Edition Moderne in 2014. His drawings have been exhibited at Lucerne International Comics Festival, London’s RichMix Gallery, the House of Illustration and Peterborough Museum.
