It’s a mad world
The Makers: Interview with artist ATAK
A mouse chasing the cat, a hare shooting the hunter and an animal tamer jumping through a burning hoop. In his great picture book Verrückte Welt Berlin-based artist ATAK turns the world upside down. Every time I flip through it I discover more and more funny details which I haven’t seen before: There’s Ernie from Sesame Street sitting in a window and there’s a Matisse print hanging on the wall. The remarkable thing about ATAKs book is the rough and handmade look of his paintings. You can even see every brushstroke. And although it looks like a children’s book it surely is also suitable for adults.
ATAK is an all-round artist and always very busy. He’s drawing comic strips, illustrating books and writing columns. Above all he recently became a professor for communications design in Halle. So I really understand why it was so hard to get him on the phone. But fortunately I did catch him for an interview for our series The Makers. After the jump ATAK tells us what advantages Berlin has compared to Paris and London.
