Albertine Zullo

I’m an illustrator and graphic designer. I do editorial cartoons and book illustrations, including a number of children’s books in partnership with the poet Germano Zullo. I’ve also created posters, worked on animated films and had several exhibitions. And I did a fashion show of funny, strange and colourful dresses that came straight out of my imagination and the two books I co-wrote with Germano : Grand Couturier Raphaël and Les Robes (published by La Joie de Lire). I teach at the Geneva School of Art and Design (HEAD) and have taken part in numerous exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad. I’ve also received several prizes : I was the first Swiss artist to get the prestigious Golden Apple award in Bratislava, for Marta and the Bicyle, and I won the Prix jeunesse et médias for La Rumeur de Venise in 2009. And with Germano, I won the Prix Sorcières for Les Oiseaux, which was published in 2010. Then in 2012 the same book was among the top ten books of the year in the New York Times Book Review. And in a hotel in Carouge, you can find some dreamlike work of mine, a project for which I was commissioned along with six other artists, with each of us given our own floor of the hotel to work on.

My passion. I don’t think of what I do as a job. For me, it’s a game, a serious and essential game. I enjoy meeting readers and the public in general.

My career path. I attended the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs and the Ecole Supérieure d’Art Visuel (ESAV), graduating in 1990 in screen-printing and illustration. I then immediately set up my screen-printing workshop. I’ve been teaching at the Geneva University of Art and Design since 1996, and I often team up with my husband, Germano, who’s a writer and a poet. We have created more than 20 children’s books with the publisher La Joie de Lire, as well as some erotic books with the publisher Humus. We’ve also produced animated films such as Le Génie de la Boîte de Raviolis. In 2016, I exhibited some of my work at the Art7.

Even when things got complicated, I’ve never given up. I’ve always given priority to the things that come from me rather than to myself. And there have been some important encounters along the way, especially meeting my husband, the writer Germano Zullo, and my publisher, Francine Bouchet. My support system : some teachers, part of my family, and above all Germano.

A downside or obstacle ? Illustration is considered a craft when in reality it’s an art form in its own right.

I try to be as sincere as I possibly can and never consider anything to be a given. I’m always questioning and exploring how I can express myself.