Falyaz Jafri, Torso from Casualties of Love, 2008, Digital rendering, 17 x 11", printed on 19 x 13".
Wayne Horse (Willehad Eilers), Elephant Boy, (2007), film still, Courtesy the artist, Impakt Works and Medium Effort Productions.
Olaf Breuning, Chocolate, Snowman and Ice cream in Africa, (2004), Courtesy the artist and Metro Pictures, New York.
Ben Frost, Free while they last, (2007), acrylic and enamel on canvas 135 × 100 cm, Courtesy No Walls Gallery, London. |
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House of World Cultures
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
+4 - (0)30 - 39 78 71 75
Berlin
Pictopia
March 17-May 3, 2009
The explosion of character design at the beginning of the millennium has changed visual culture. These graphically pared down, bright-eyed pictograms spread like wildfire across digital media, advertising, fashion and art. They sample and remix visual codes of pop, folklore, brand logos and comics, but resist being restricted to any one genre. By engaging the viewer on an emotional level they bypass language and culture — but can abstract designs be the answer to Utopian dreams of global visual communication?
In spring 2009, Pictoplasma and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt will host the PICTOPIA festival, the world’s first ever large-scale presentation and celebration of reduced and abstract character design and art.
In March and April, Berlin will be transformed into a character biotope and a meeting point for an international scene of designers, artists, producers and an interested public. At the heart of the festival is an exhibition which explores the huge diversity of the character universe, where artists remix and sample, condense the surreal and uncanny, inflate all proportions and stage bizarre rituals to introduce their characters into contemporary culture.
The festival program also features the 3rd Pictoplasma Conference that since 2004 has set the standard for a playful yet concentrated approach to the subject. For the first time, scientific light will be shed on the character phenomenon in a symposium, which brings together experts from the fields of art history, cultural studies, robotics and media theory.
By engaging the viewer on a direct emotional level they are able to bypass language and cultural barriers - but can abstract designs really be the answer to our Utopian dreams of global visual communication?
House of World Cultures transforms into a character biotope and the meeting point for an international scene of designers, artists, producers and an interested public. At the heart of the festival is an exhibition which explores the diversity of the character universe, where artists remix and sample, condense the surreal and uncanny, inflate proportions and stage bizarre rituals to introduce their characters into contemporary culture.
CHARACTER WALK
Walking Tour
of Galleries and Project Spaces
as Part of Visit Pictopia
March 17-March 23, 2009
The walk leads visitors through 30 galleries and project rooms throughout Berlin, presenting outstanding international Character Design in all its diversity. The Argentine Juan Pablo Carambiere exhibits archaic, artfully carved wood robots. Francois Chalet (CH) animates geometric figures in a charming TV show projected onto the facade of the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin. Street Art-Artists the London Police (UK) and Flying Fortress (GB) transform a former gas station into spatial graffiti. The English designer duo Tado, masters of New Cuteness, stage an erotic shop for panda bears. In the gallery Bongout and the project space klub berlin, drawings rage against the sterility and perfection of digital images. And the gallery Neurotitan im Haus Schwarzenberg shows the analog realization of computer game worlds from the group "I Am 8 Bit" (USA) and the installation of the Russians Protey Temen, whose works combine pop and constructivism.
Gary Baseman, Goddess of plenty (2006), mixed media, ephemera 28 × 21,5 cm, Courtesy the artist.
Boris Hoppek, Negritos (2007), Courtesy the artist. |
