I have not long returned from my trip to Berlin to visit the Pictoplasma Festival 2018!
It has been an amazing week experiencing the colourful and gorgeous city of Berlin, going around the character walk and speaking to much admired artists. Because I have seen and done so much in the space of a week I have decided to summarise each day in to paragraphs to make it easier.
01/05/18 - Day One
On day one we all met up at the airport to get ready to fly out, because the flight was didn't arrive until after 10pm in Berlin there wasn't too much of a rush (until we were paying for our meals and running for our plane).
When we arrived in Berlin, we went straight to the coach which took us to our hostel. This was just a settling-in night in comparison to what was to come so whilst uneventful in the way of art and illustration, there was plenty of excitement amongst the class and we had a sit-in night with a few drinks.
02/05/18 - Day Two
The second day was very informative and gave us all the chance to get-to-know the city, getting to know how the trains work, and being given free reign to wander without restrictions. I had fun being a tourist and getting to see all the attractions.
After a little look around the city, we all met up to go to Urban Spree which exhibited artwork from contributing artists and had stalls where merch such as clothing and artist prints were up for sale.
During the evening we attended the Pictoplasma Opening Party that had an array of different things to see, one of the highlights being the staredown room, a reference to the recent call for entries the Character Staredown.
After a long and expensive day we made our way back to the hostel to prep for the following day.
03/05/18 - Day Three
On the third day myself and several others in my class were determined to go visit a local store known as The Dudes where everyone managed to get a hold on some high quality and gorgeously designed tees.
After our adventure to the Dudes Factory we decided to have a little chill time and doodle in a park whilst the sun was out.
04/05/18 - Day Four
On the fourth day myself and my class were on a mission to conclude this trip by going around the character walk in a day.
One of the first exhibitions we had a look at was Moomins. The Moomins are a family of white and roundish trolls with large snouts created by the illustrator, writer, and artist Tove Jansson (1914-2001). Keeping the heritage and the original Moomin artwork alive, one of the latest projects has been the animation feature film ‘Moomins on the Riviera,’ created by Xavier Picard in 2014 and based on the comic strips by Tove and her younger brother Lars. This exhibition showcases original pencil drawings and scenes from the experimental animated family comedy.
One of the first exhibitions we had a look at was Moomins. The Moomins are a family of white and roundish trolls with large snouts created by the illustrator, writer, and artist Tove Jansson (1914-2001). Keeping the heritage and the original Moomin artwork alive, one of the latest projects has been the animation feature film ‘Moomins on the Riviera,’ created by Xavier Picard in 2014 and based on the comic strips by Tove and her younger brother Lars. This exhibition showcases original pencil drawings and scenes from the experimental animated family comedy.
And one of my favourite exhibitions was set just as you enter a graveyard on Verwalterhaus. Which displayed work from several artists such as Victor Castillo, a Chilean artist presents a series of new paintings created especially for the festival. They explore the laws of the jungle and the age-old story of ‘man eats man.’ Inspired by vintage animation, Castillo’s paintings are like theatrical sketches of tragicomic scenarios. With cartoon-like figures foregrounded against classical landscapes, Castillo’s baroque lighting completes the dramatic effect of exposing lost innocence.
Castillo has definitely been one of my far favourites out of the few we seen. His work inspired me on a whole other level and the setting of the exhibition was too perfect.
Within the same exhibit was the work of Moki, an artist and illustrator who blurs the lines between the mental and the physical, allowing for the creation of a series of unique spaces of sanctuary, protection and solace. A sophisticated painterly skill is employed to give a staggering degree of reality to her paintings, no matter how fantastical the content may be. However, more recently Moki has been veering away from unreality, instead drawing inspiration from the seemingly endless sources of concern for the well being of many of planet earth’s creatures, including much of humanity. In her new comic novel, ‘Swamp Land,’ the artist Moki tries to picture this complexity, weaving stories into one other, both mysterious and visionary. This exhibition further explores the cosmos of ‘Swamp Land.’
Next on our travels was another amazing exhibition at Neurotitan which displayed the work two of my favourite artists Kévin Gemin and James Curran as well as another two talented illustrators/animators Jim Stoten and Cachetejack.
Although he goes by Kévin, he is very popularly known as Kéké. He is a 2D animator and illustrator and a big fan of animals, so much so that they inspre him to create stories and short animated GIFs to share happiness and fun. He animates with the application known as Flipnote Studio on a Nintendo handheld gaming system (such as 3DS and DSi) which has enabled him to teach himself how to animate and experiment with the pixel effects.
As a long time, loving fan of Kéké's I was very inspired to make little doodles along the way on our character walk so I made a simple little doodle page of all his characters that represent him. I was going to give it to him in person but unfortunately did not go to his conference as I couldn't afford the tickets. I decided to leave them at his exhibit for him but due to the restrictions on taking pictures in the exhibition I don't expect it to go very far.
My second favourite illustrator and animator is James Curran who made work towards his Gifathons. He spends 30 days in a different city making a short looping animation each day based on his experiences during his stay, from strip clubs, to tacos and toilets. For this first Gifathon exhibition, all 90 animations made in New York, Los Angeles, and Tokyo will be shown together along with a brand new mini-Gifathon on seven days spent in Berlin, created especially for Pictoplasma.
In the same building was Jim Stoten, an artist and illustrator living in Hastings. He produces work for a long list of clients and pushes his creative boundaries in personal projects, exploring painting, animation, collage, and music.
And finally, to conclude our character walk was the work of Cachetejack, a Spanish illustrator duo presents a series of new gouache works on paper and silkscreen prints. Their illustration universe is full of colors, energy, humour and irony. The hand drawn work of Cachetejack takes a fresh and unique style working in a variety of mediums, including—but not limited to—books, magazines, newspapers, clothing, drawing, painting, walls and illustration. Cachetejack combines reality with a quirky point of view to create situations and environments closer to the viewer.
After a long and tiresome day of walking around the city of Berlin, our class went for a final dinner together before a couple drinks and wind down.
05/05/18 - Day Five (The Last Day)
The last day was a very mellow and relaxed day, we were up early for breakfast and to clean out our rooms. We made an early trip to Babylon to pick up some very pretty merch and were even given free posters.
After our return from Babylon, all that was left was to wait around on our coach to the airport and hop on our flight. I found this to be the worst part of the trip as there was a lot of waiting to get out of a place I didn't wanted to leave. I absolutely love Berlin, it's been an amazing experience meeting all the amazing like-minded creatives visiting the festival from abroad and exhibiting. I am also incredibly lucky to have been surrounded by the amazing people residing in my class who were excellent company to have on my travels. I will definitely be back next year and look forward to seeing what's in store.
