Jean Willi

Jean Willi (Basel, Switzerland 1945) Painter, writer and columnist for various European publications. He discovered Ibiza in 1973 on his way back from a trip to Africa. He stayed for six months and began to paint. Two of his paintings from that stay were exhibited then at the Ivan Spence gallery, but his work as an advertising draftsman in Basel and Paris required him. However, he tried to find a way to dedicate himself exclusively to painting and thought again of Ibiza. He settled there definitively in 1975. On the island he interacted with other artists such as Felix Waske, Erwin Bechtold, Eduard Micus and Zush and exhibited with them at the El Mensajero gallery in Santa Eulària. He developed several techniques ranging from drawing and engraving to minimalist symbols and automatic writing. With the latter he acquired a certain fame by recording news texts at the Alte Frankfurter Oper or the writing of the famous novel by James Joyce, “Ulysses“, which is read every June 16 on the occasion of Bloomsday on the Irish radio for 30 hours straight. This work was exhibited the following year at the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz. He held multiple exhibitions in Ibiza, Switzerland and Germany. In the eighties he began to investigate another field: literature. In 1989 his first novel was published in the form of a chronicle that describes the coexistence of the Ibizan farmers of Corona with newcomers from all over the world. “Der Tag von Santa Inés“ was later translated into Catalan. The second novel “Sweet home“ appeared in 1999 and the third “matar“ in 2005. 2009 appeared “Corona, un dia de festa“. 2014 “Ödipus im Hier und Jetzt“. 2016 “Morituro Sat”. 2017 the photo book “Steingesichter”. 2022 the novel “Closing Party“ and 2024 a poetry collection “Als wir dort ankamen“. In the following year he showed his work at the Refectorium in Dalt Vila.

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