Fighters in the Crash Zone. A book about living with ME CFS

Help raise awareness of ME/CFS and complex chronic diseases with your donation and make visible those who are in the dark!

Project description

My name is Matthias Mollner and I am a visual artist.

With my art collective “Black Ferk Studio”, which I founded together with my partner Judith Schossböck, who died of ME/CFS in 2024, I explore the social and existential dimension of this serious multisystem disease.

I am interested in the realities of the lives of those affected and their families and would particularly like to show the strengths of these people who are fighting a daily battle for survival with their illnesses and a fight for recognition and help.

I portray people with ME/CFS or Long Covid in photographs and personal interviews and will publish a high-quality photo art book in the fall, for which I ask for your support.

How do people with these chronic diseases live, what does their everyday life look like? What are their strengths and what dreams and hopes do they have?

The book features people across the entire spectrum of ME/CFS severity. “Mildly” affected people who are perhaps still able to go for a walk around the house, do a little shopping or attend a doctor's appointment.

Severely and very severely affected people who are permanently bedridden, live isolated from the outside world in dark rooms due to their extreme sensitivity to stimuli and stress and exercise intolerance, are unable to visit a hospital and speak of constant torture and near-death experiences.

Young people who wanted to build a good life for themselves and go out into the world and are now housebound and unable to complete an education.

And people for whom the healthcare system creates one hurdle after another, who have to pay for all their medication and treatments themselves and whose health deteriorates even further due to exhausting bureaucratic battles.

I would like to ask you for your donation so that this book can be printed and the lives of ME/CFS and Long Covid sufferers can be made more visible.

The aim is to help ensure that chronic multisystemic diseases are better recognized, that misconceptions about living with the disease are corrected and that those affected can be better integrated into society.

Written in German and English, the book includes photos and interviews with around 20 sufferers and their relatives as well as texts by several authors on the topic.

The donation will be used for the production costs of the book:

Information about the book:

At least 204 pages, numerous illustrations

Format 330 x 240 mm, hardcover

Texts in German and English

Disclaimer:

No raffles, sweepstakes, giveaways, or returns on investment are offered in exchange for any donations made to this GoFundMe.

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Hilf mit deiner Spende, das Bewusstsein für ME/CFS und komplexe chronische Krankheiten zu schärfen und diejenigen sichtbar zu machen, die im Dunkeln sind!

Das Buch soll einen Beitrag leisten, dass chronische Multisystemerkrankungen mehr Anerkennung finden, falsche Vorstellungen des Lebens mit der Krankheit korrigiert und die betroffenen Menschen besser in die Gesellschaft integriert werden können.