In search of a personal narrative
Three months before the deadline set by the publisher, Concejo put her book Il Signor Nessuno [Mr Nobody] into print. Before it was published in Italy in 2007, the text and illustrations laid in a drawer for several years. After an exhibition of her works in Bologna, the artist entered the Calabria Incantata competition, which she won, and soon received a proposal from the Topipittori publishing house. She drew the book again, from scratch, and, as she herself admits – better.
She likes books that are unique and personal. Such is the picturebook she created, When the Red Currants Ripen, published in 2017. The reader has the impression of interacting with an album with memories pasted into it. There are landscapes and single objects, mysterious blurs, disappearing faces and figures 'frozen in gaze' – all the motifs that, with more or less intensity, appear in Concejo’s other works. In addition, some drawings look unfinished, interrupted in half a word, which corresponds with one fragment of the text: 'He took the remnants of an old pencil out of his pocket and wrote on the door: I’ll be back.'
Concejo’s works are constant returns, not only to her favourite motifs but also to old legends and fairy tales. However, the illustrator does not follow well-trodden paths, but creates visual stories against conventions, giving them a second life. Her versions of Little Red Riding Hood or Wild Swans have been given a modern and symbolic space, lined with fear and humour.
From her first cartoon fascinations, Concejo best remembers Przygody Gąski Balbinki [The Adventures of Little Geese Balbinka]. However, as a child she mainly reached for adult books. Her works also combine two worlds – they allow one to find the child within an adult. This is also the case with her book M jak Morze [S as in Sea], which, after its success in Italy, was published in Poland in 2021. It is a story about growing up, searching for one’s identity, struggling with one’s own emotions. It contains many important thoughts and even more understatements, with which the artist encourages the reader to read carefully. The motto of the book is a quotation taken from Eran Kolirin’s film The Band’s Visit: 'In the morning, by the sea, you can hear the whole world.' Paraphrasing these words, one should say that in Concejo’s paintings one can see the whole world.