Pictoplasma

15th International Festival of Character Design and Art

May 03 2019 by fran attié

To celebrate the festival’s 15th anniversary, Pictoplasma presents an all-new selection of trailblazing and trendsetting character design under the heading INTER__FACES from 8 to 12 May 2019 throughout Berlin. It brings together artists from around the world, working in such diverse genres as illustration, animation, digital design, games, urban, and the fine arts.

The festival focuses on the power of abstract characters to trigger what we perceive as interaction - shifting the conversation away from the hype of AI and seamless immersion towards an investigation of what actually happens in the charged space between the viewer and the viewed. The main exhibition INTER__FACES will take place at Silent Green, a former crematorium in Wedding.

Parallel to the exhibition, a project space tour, the Character Walk, leads through seven project spaces in Berlinʼs Mitte district, showing the work of ten artists in the fields of illustration, animation, digital design, and comics to a Berlin audience for the first time.

The animation section of the festival screens 80 shorts, music videos, and experimental films at the historic cinema Babylon am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in four different programs (May 9th—12th). Four screening programs present experimental animated shorts a far cry from family entertainment. International filmmakers and studios explore such themes as self-discovery, cultural identity, future, loneliness, malice, play, and social media.

On the final day, Sunday May 12th, the festival culminates with an open day in Silent Green, featuring talks, panels, performances, and a workshop for kids. In the Cupola at Silent Green scientists and artists explore aspects of interfaces and interactivity.

OCTANE TRAILER from Jeron Braxton on Vimeo.

This yearʼs line-up includes Wes Andersonʼs go-to character creator, Félicie Haymoz; Sundance 2018 winner, Jeron Braxton, who explores the Black American experience via surreal Playstation 2 aesthetics; illustrator Laura Callaghan, whose detail-saturated depictions of strong young women introduce a fresh criticality to female representation; creator of bestselling graphic novel and style-defining Netflix series Hilda, Luke Pearson; animation filmmaker Elenor Kopka, whose ghosts and eerie blobs are set in occult worlds; filmmaker Nikita Diakur, who shifts the boundaries between live action and animation; illustrator Yukai Du, who elegantly fuses Impressionism and Brutalism; and digital artists Eran Hilleli, Julian Glander, and Laurie Rowan, who move effortlessly between art, games, and animation.

INTER__FACES - Exhibition Silent Green, Concrete Hall, Gerichtstr. 35, 13347 Berlin 09–12 May, 12–10 pm, opening 8 May at 6 pm, free entry

Character Walk - A series of exhibitions in Berlin Mitte Starting at the Alter St.-Marien- und St.-Nikolai-Friedhof, Prenzlauer Allee 1, 10405 Berlin 08–12 May, 12–8 pm, free entry

Characters in Motion – Film Screening Programs at Babylon - Babylon, Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30, 10178 Berlin

09 May, 8:30 pm Character Journey

10 May, 8:30 pm Character Crisis

10 May, 10:30 pm Psychedelic Midnight Mix

11 May, 8:15 pm Character Comfort

11 May, 10 pm Psychedelic Midnight Mix

12 May, 6 pm Best of Pictoplasma 2019

Entrance 9€, tickets at the box office

INTER__FACES - Open Day. Silent Green, Gerichtstr. 35, 13347 Berlin. 12 May, 1–8 pm, free entry, Aïsha Devi concert 10€

Image credits:

(1) Gif. Elenor Kopka, Character Proxemics, preview for the interactive Hologram at Silent Green, 2019

(2) Cabeza Patata, Dancer, digital illustration 2018