13th
PICTOPLASMA
FESTIVAL
BERLIN
2017
MAY 10 – 14 / 12 – 20h
CHARACTER WALK
EXHIBITIONS
2017
12
ART VENUES &
PROJECT SPACES
IN BERLIN
Free Entry
In its 13th edition, Pictoplasma embraces full immersion. The uniquely interdisciplinary festival of character design and art once again blurs all boundaries of reality: Virtual characters are exhibited in a broad bandwidth of genres and media, acting autonomously and free from narrative stereotypes, drawing us into their various worlds.
From illustration to animation, toy to product design, urban to fine art–The festival invites you to take the Character Walk through sixteen exhibitions at eleven art spaces in Mitte–and one at Urban Spree, where you will witness the upcoming talent from the Pictoplasma Academy.
Free printed Character Walk maps will be available at all participating venues to help you navigate between the exhibition, but as a start, the online map version below should hopefully be able to point you in the right direction…
Peter Millard (UK)
Boogodobiegodongogogodingodongbo
Verwalterhaus, Alter St.-Marien-St.-Nikolai-Friedhof
ag friedhofsmuseum berlin e.V.
Kindly supported by Ev. Friedhofsverband Berlin Stadtmitte
Prenzlauer Allee 1
Peter Millard is a British person who draws and paints short films. His films are chain reactions, with all the everyday stuff of life transformed into a child’s drawing—joyful, unnerving, funny, loose and daft, yet anything but throwaway. He’s also ventured into the world of clay sculpture and sound—and in this exhibition, will present a combination of all three.
ERAN HILLELI (ISR)
Character Synth
Verwalterhaus, Alter St.-Marien-St.-Nikolai-Friedhof
ag friedhofsmuseum berlin e.V.
Kindly supported by Ev. Friedhofsverband Berlin Stadtmitte
Prenzlauer Allee 1
Sophie Koko Gate (UK)
Hot Bod
Verwalterhaus, Alter St.-Marien-St.-Nikolai-Friedhof
ag friedhofsmuseum berlin e.V.
Kindly supported by Ev. Friedhofsverband Berlin Stadtmitte
Prenzlauer Allee 1
Sophie Koko Gate is an animation director and illustrator, whose films venture out into scientific and existential topics. This collection of work sees the artist strip down her characters to their bare essentials. Expect shiny butts and wonky abs.
Pooya Abbasian (IRN/FR)
Talismans
Verwalterhaus, Alter St.-Marien-St.-Nikolai-Friedhof
ag friedhofsmuseum berlin e.V.
Kindly supported by Ev. Friedhofsverband Berlin Stadtmitte
Prenzlauer Allee 1
The Paris based Iranian artist Pooya Abbasian has always been inspired by ancient Persian talismans, and fascinated how these ancient drawings are so close to modern and contemporary illustration and character design. Talismans are objects believed to contain magical properties. They provide good luck for the possessors or offer protection from a possible evil or harm. Their iconography has frequently been incorporated in geomantic divination with magical connotation, such as figures, scents, symbology, patterns, Kabbalism. This exhibition will show work based on this research.
Louise Rosenkrands (DK)
Girls
Bold Room Berlin
Torstraße 68
Danish illustrator Louise Rosenkrands, formerly known as Miss Lotion, has created a series of brush drawings that explore the female body in a stylized form. The ‘Girls’ have bags of character and are most definitely the granddaughters of goddesses.
Jack Sachs (UK)
Fizzy Buzz
VOLUME
Brunnenstraße 22
In his first solo exhibition, illustrator and animator Jack Sachs plays with visual narratives across spatial dimensions. He has created an entirely new body of work featuring sculpture, painting, animation, 3D modeling and more. In his strange and lumpy world, visions of formation and genesis blur into one, scientific facts collide with DIY tips.
Nathan Jurevicius (AUS/CA)
Edamame
Rainbow Unicorn
Anklamer Straße 50
Illustrator, author and director Nathan Jurevicius is inspired by small, everyday objects. In this series, he takes the humble edamame bean and transforms it into a series of wobbly characters, finely rendered in color pencils. They are another expression of the deep adoration for mystical creatures and nature’s energies that defines so much of his work.
Lucilux (CL)
My Life is a Video Game
Institut für Alles Mögliche
Ackerstraße 18
Lucilux, Chilean artist based in Berlin, creates stop-motion puppet animations to investigate the nature of our emotions. In this exhibition, she invites you to enter the parallel universe where the puppets are trapped, without knowing they are living inside a virtual world created only for them. They live carefree, playful lives, oblivious to the destruction of nature outside.
Sean Charmatz (USA)
The Secret World of Stuff
Paulina’s Friends
Gartenstraße 114
Animation designer and writer Sean Charmatz is the creator of some of the Internet’s most viral content—the finest in contemporary animism. With his explorations into ‘The Secret World of Stuff’ he combines his talent for design and visual storytelling to create experimental images, playful animations and digital collages of simple and reduced characters imposed on found objects observed in everyday life.
Das Ghost
Poptales
Fata Morgana
Torstraße 170
‘Poptales’ features new work by Das Ghost, a collective of illustrators, graphic designers, animators, and street artists from around the globe. The show brings together contemporary myths, heroism, pop culture, adventures and illusions, creating colorful stories–your imagination can run wild!
Mate Steinforth (DE)
Internet: The Final Frontier
Kunsthaus Kule
Auguststraße 10
Mate Steinforth, creative director at Sehsucht Berlin and seminal 3D artist, presents an investigation about the relationship between the body and the digital, afloat in the alternate reality of social media. Loneliness, addiction and FOMO—Fear of missing out—manifest themselves in clean CG images. Explore strange new worlds and boldly share what no man has shared before.
DXTR (DE)
The 25th Hour
PictoPop-Up
Auguststraße 26A
‘But in a 24-hour day, the 25th hour is also the impossible hour, an hour that doesn’t exist, that can only be created by the imagination.’ This body of new work by DXTR, founding member of the street art and graffiti collective The Weird, celebrates the beauty of the night. When ideas float, perspectives change and everything is imaginable—midnight in a perfect world.
Nathalie Choux (FR)
Love me tender
Neurotitan
Rosenthaler Straße 39, 2nd backyard
Nathalie Choux, renowned illustrator of more than fifty children’s book, embraces the dark side with her fairytale-inspired bestiary of ceramic animal/girl hybrids. Lost in nature, vulnerable and innocent, trouble cannot be far away…
Chris Haughton (IRL)
Colours, Shapes and Pixels
Neurotitan
Rosenthaler Straße 39, 2nd backyard
While many people will be familiar with Irish author and illustrator Chris Haughton’s children books ‘SHH! We Have a Plan’ and ‘Goodnight Everyone,’ few will connect them with his social platform, Node, that works to combine design and fair trade. As part of this group show, Chris will present rugs from Nepal and a selection of illustrations.
Ton Mak (CHN)
Flabjacks—Very Happy Chub Club
Neurotitan
Rosenthaler Straße 39, 2nd backyard
A celebration of muffin-topped creations by the Flabjack club, brainchild of Hong Kong and Shanghai based visual artist Ton Mak. Her familiar animals, creatures and everyday objects have all been rounded off with an extra helping of love handles and chins. It’s Ton’s way of animating the world to bring a smile to you, and you, and you.
Rob Flowers (UK)
Ritual
Neurotitan
Rosenthaler Straße 39, 2nd backyard
Rob Flowers’ bold illustrations are defined by a bubblegum palette, eccentric characters, and grotesque humor. Stationed in his ‘Flowers Towers’ studio, he is an avid collector of kitsch—with a treasury of 70s cartoons, 80s gross-out toys, and early McDonald’s advertising memorabilia. The work in this show draws on his fondness for mythology, combining whimsical imagery with symbolism and folklore.
Samuel Boucher (CA)
Kinetic
Neurotitan
Rosenthaler Straße 39, 2nd backyard
Samuel is an artist from Montreal. His work is populated by curvy worlds and minimal characters shaded with saturated colors. Sam’s main interest is in juxtaposing art, characters and interactivity through games and bringing his creations to life. Inspired by humor, dreams and emotions, he hopes that his work can create connections between the virtual and the reality.
Henning Wagenbreth (DE)
The Tobot Tower—A Semiotic Skyscraper
MFI—Ministerium für Illustration
Chausseestraße 110
Play and automating form the heart of the ‘Tobot’ (‘toy’ and ‘robot’) enterprise, a tower built from an ever-growing set of wooden building blocks that illustrator Henning Wagenbreth has been painting, with words or images, for almost a decade. The 1000+ blocks can be endlessly recombined to function as a creative machine or a tool for analyzing the principles of visual communication. The shrine-like ‘Tobot Tower’ materializes thoughts and random ideas into a sculpture at which to worship the wonder, beauty, and infinite potential of language.
The exhibition remains open through June 3, Thursdays–Saturdays, 13–18h.
From exhibition #11, the streetcar M10 will take you directly all the way to #12.
PictoAcademy 2016 Alumni
Academy All Stars
Urban Spree
Revaler Straße 99
In its fourth year, the annual masterclass for character design and art brought together 24 postgraduates from 18 countries. Challenged by renowned illustrators, artists, animation filmmakers, and sculptors, participants explored and developed their personal, character-driven projects. The Academy All Stars group show presents their diverse talents and features sculptures, paintings, drawings, interactive installations, and a multitude of new character worlds. The next master class is scheduled for the last week of September—deadline for application is July 17.
PARTIES,
PERFORMANCES
& CLUB NIGHTS
Pictoplasma Welcome Party
May 10, 21h
ACUD MACHT NEU
Veteranenstraße 21
ACUD MACHT NEU invites you in for art happenings, performances, animation screenings and lively character interaction on the first two nights of the festival. After the opening stampede through the Character Walk exhibitions on Wednesday, hook up with familiar faces, make new friends and get into character to the sounds of Deadbeat, a steady mix of dub and electronic beats. Come early and secure yourself a seat in the second-floor cinema to time travel through the Best of Characters in Motion from previous years, compiled in a special Pictoplasma screening.
Character Gathering
May 11, 21h
ACUD MACHT NEU
Veteranenstraße 21
On Thursday, this year’s featured artists turn ACUD MACHT NEU into a creative playground. Sophie Koko Gate performs with her band, John Daker, followed by a mix of tropical bass music by Daniel Haaksman. In the cinema upstairs, the Incredibly Short Film Festival awaits you for a curated selection of animated GIFs—pearls only!
Character Club Night
May 13, 22h
Urban Spree
Revaler Straße 99
Shake off your visual overload at the closing party at Urban Spree, with one of Debruit’s rare performances in Berlin—a wonky fusion of Congolese sound systems, weird L. A. block parties and freaky Tunisian backstreet souks, all powered by a fat hip hop engine.
Featuring Debruit, Henning Specht,
Le Feu, Maxwell Farrington & François Club
CHARACTERS
IN MOTION
SCREENINGS
Animation Programme
May 11-13, 20h
May 12, 22h
Babylon
Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 30
The Festival brings outstanding new character-driven animation to the Babylon big screen, whisking the audience around the world in four freshly curated programs brim full with psychedelic eye-candy and storytelling genius. Take a trip with ‘A Character’s Journey’ on Thursday, feel the love with ‘Character-Care for Troubled Creatures’ on Friday, followed by the legendary ‘Psychedelic Midnight Mix’—and get ready on Saturday to be ‘In Awe of Creation.’
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