Frozen Unfrozen, A Poster Novel - Katja Jug

An encounter between “Frozen”, a woman, and “Unfrozen”, a man, in the Chinese metropolis of Chongqing during the subtropical winter. Their bodies never physically leave the unheated apartment building, but their gazes do. Slowly, they explore their inner and outer worlds.

Swiss artist Katja Jug’s intriguing book “Frozen Unfrozen” (termed a ‘poster novel’ by the artist) tells the story of this multi-layered encounter using photography, drawing and typography.

The story progresses as the reader continues through the book, thereby unfolding one by one the loosely interlocked, interconnected pages of the 33 large-scale posters. This approach to storytelling, with its physical, almost interventionist nature, is meant to resemble echoes of silent movies and their montage technique.

“Like on a catwalk they take frozen poses, which reminds us of a voguing dancer. The interplay of their bodies and gazes transform their states of aggregation and being. An interplay of freezing and thawing, solidification and re-release occurs.”

Edition Fink, 2021
Softcover, 64pp
English & Chinese texts
420 x 297mm