Megan Whitmarsh at “Post-Digital Monsters” exhibition (04)
JOIN THE CHARACTER WALK
AND DISCOVER EXCITING EXHIBITIONS,
INSTALLATIONS AND ART HAPPENINGS
THROUGHOUT BERLIN
11 - 15 APRIL 2012 (12:00 - 20:00)
Starting Point: .HBC, KARL-LIEBKNECHT-STRASSE 9
ALL EXHIBITIONS FREE ENTRY!!!
As the official exhibition program of the Festival, all of the partnering exhibitions, installations and shows open on Wednesday, the 11th, with most of the locations celebrating their welcome receptions in the early evening, before the day concludes in a first festival gatherings at the Ballhaus-Berlin.
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Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 9
berlin.pictoplasma.com/workshops
hbc-berlin.de
Character Walk Central Station
11 - 15 April, starting at noon
Daily Character Lab sessions
12 - 14 April, 16:00 - 22:00
Post-Pictoplasma Party
14 April, 22:00 - …
As the central starting point for the Festival’s Character Walk, the .HBC invites you to stroll through a portrait gallery of greatness from Pictoplasma’s fresh-off-the-press Character Compendium. It also hosts the Character Lab, which is all about getting YOUR hands dirty. This is where you can watch conference speakers at work in live painting performances, while you do your bit to bring the world’s largest felt monster to life. With additional doodle-ins, indie game tents and a string of performances, the .HBC is the perfect late night hangout. Make sure to return on Saturday night for the crazy Post-Pictoplasma Party finale.
Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30
babylonberlin.de
12-14 April, 11–20h
berlin.pictoplasma.com/conference
12-14 April, 20–22h
berlin.pictoplasma.com/screenings
From April 12 to 14, the Babylon forms the meeting point for illustrators, graphic designers and animation filmmakers from all corners of the globe to witness conference lectures and artist presentations by some of the world’s most innovative and influential visual creators. Every evening at 20h, short film programmes bring Characters in Motion to the big screen, followed by talks with the filmmakers, including 2012 Oscar nominee Grant Orchard (April 12), animation shooting star Julia Pott (April 13), and music video enfant terrible Joel Trussell (April 14).
Chausseestr. 102, 1st backyard
ballhaus-berlin.de
OPENING PARTY:
11 April, 21h
Conclude your marathon of exhibition openings by joining us at Berlin’s most beautiful classic ballroom, for the official Pictoplasma Welcome Party. Turning strangers into friends is easy thanks to the old-school table phones, while Will de Faria performs some extended balloon twisting to the sounds of DJ Künstler Treu.
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 7
soulofagiant.com
thiscountryside.com
zentralbuero-berlin.org
Two old friends from Bristol reunite to mingle their visions on an unprecedented scale. Jon Fox likes to mastermind emotional and mental conflicts on the battlefield while Dan’s fascinations lie with the simplicity of the single circle, cell or atom, that forms the basis of everything that exists. Dan has recently returned from an 8-month residency at a community centre in Malawi where he set up sustainable food programmes and libraries, and painted frescoes on anything from walls to canoes.
Rosenthaler Str. 39, 2nd yard, 1st floor
jeanspezial.tumblr.com
neurotitan.de
haus-schwarzenberg.org
Just a few months after they unearthed a mysterious second Mona Lisa painting, the French art collective looks set to re-write art history one more time. No less than seven brand new versions of Vermeer’s ‘La Laitière’ have appeared, all mysteriously signed Jeanspezial. Is nothing sacred for these people?
Rosenthaler Str. 39, 2nd yard, 1st floor
sauerkids.com
neurotitan.de
haus-schwarzenberg.org
A collection of zany paintings, drawings and prints by Dutch art collective Sauerkids. They might have been accused of ‘being on medication’ many a time, but their work is better described as a mash-up of childhood imagery with a dash of perverse imagination that reflects the mental turbulences of everyday life.
Linienstr. 160
bennewman.co.uk
feltmistress.com
berlin-weekly.com
Inspired by ceremonial and tribal masks from around the world and the aesthetics of Constructivism, Art Deco and Futurism, Ben Newman’s prints have rigourous geometrical and colour-theory underpinnings. He worked with his father Colin Newman to create a series of wooden masks and teamed up with Felt Mistress, aka Louise Evans, to re-envision his designs as fabulous felt constructions that float freely in the room.
Torstr. 170
surlamontagne.de
pictoplasma.com
An exhibition of ‘post-digital’ works that embrace the principles of digital aesthetics, but apply them to analogue media such as painting, drawing, stitching or sculpture. The selection was part of a group show by the same name at La Gaîté lyrique, Paris, in December 2011. Featuring works by Steven Alexander, Nina Braun, Rina Donnersmarck, Hyein Lee, Joshua Ben Longo, Raymond Lemstra, Jordan Metcalf, MYMO, Overture, Nick Sheehy, Henning Wagenbreth and Megan Whitmarsh.
Torstr. 138
delasoup.com
dudes-factory.com
Works based on character design’s most central element: the head. Funny Fun and Dudes Factory present a selection of T-shirts, scarves and miscellaneous objects that are meant not to be hung on the wall, but wrapped around your body. In collaboration with multimedia artist Say Nono, Funny will also present their interactive installation ‘Sieg über die Sonne’.
Weinbergsweg 1a
gemmacorrell.com
circus-berlin.de
Gemma Correll’s work is narrative based with a strong emphasis on wordplay, humour, observational journalism and cats. She also devotes a large portion of her time to updating her pug blog. In Berlin, she reinvents the game of ‘I-Spy’ with an exhibition of simple, quirky drawings and an interactive mural… also featuring a life-size, doodled-up dog figurine!
Torstr. 110
fcatak.de
bongout.org
For many years now German artist ATAK has been creating a pictorial universe of shooting targets on round wooden boards and paper sheets. To date he has created over 500, and he’s still going strong. At once victim and trophy, the target is a tableau for the subtle nuances and pictorial potential of everyday drama.
Torstr. 68
juliapott.com
boldberlin.com
No one depicts self-consciousness quite like illustrator and animator Julia Pott. Her short films ‘My First Crush’, ‘Howard’ and ‘Belly’ attracted attention for so exquisitely laying bare the vulnerability and melancholy of human interactions. In this exhibition, Julia will present a collection of print work that explores confusions about love, odd friendships and awkward social situations.
Torstr. 68
etsy.com
boldberlin.com
This exhibition will showcase the spectrum of illustration work available on Etsy.com – the world’s handmade marketplace. Artists featured in this group show include (Etsy usernames): alfalfalovesme, AllysonMellberg, MisNopalesArt, futurecolors, ChasingtheCrayon, ValeroDoval, ilovegreyskies, therunnybunny, PrintsByLaura, AnimaliaShop, crankbunny, medusawolf, spinstersummer. Empowering artists to make a living from their passion, the platform also encourages everyone to bring heart to commerce and make the world more fair, more sustainable, and more fun.
Torstr. 66
markgmehling.weebly.com
made-my-day.com
Mark Gmehling lifts 3D illustration out of this world, contorting his characters on their axes and endowing them with divine properties. Turning down the colour to white, gold and grey, glossiness is brought to the fore and laid on in spades. These are the gods of visual noise and virtuality, mantras of pop elevated into epic entities that trip the light fantastic.
Torstr. 66
soulofagiant.com
made-my-day.com
Jon Fox probes deep into headspace for inspiration. Complex structures emerge of battling creatures, ruling gods and conspiring humans that draw on the tradition of classical Japanese woodcuts. What plays out in his large scale paintings and drawings are internal battles, conflicting thoughts and emotions, all set within billowing mindscapes and dream worlds. A voyage to the centre of the self that asks “Who’s really in control here?”
Alte Schönhauser Str. 3
pleix.net
platoon.org
Animal rights on acid, or what happens when animals take revenge on their worst enemy. Hybrid is an interactive video installation by French collective Pleix, whose hyperreal, hyper-glossy renderings play with limits, contradictions and accidents to reveal the fragility of the digital world. The installation formed part of their recent show at La Gaîté lyrique, Paris.
Torstr. 67
misslotion.com
emdalcolorknit.dk
happyshop-berlin.com
Illustrator Miss Lotion has developed a series of characters based on warriors from across the cultural spectrum. Inspired by medieval aesthetics which were less about depicting realistic human bodies than showing spirituality, vice and virtue, Miss Lotion added a twist of modern-day humour to make them appear all the more naïve, flat and stylised. Danish textile designer and artist Signe Emdal then translated these designs into spectacular digital knitted tapestries, which will cover the entire gallery space.
Schwedter Str. 262
billyandalex.com
facebook.com/lowbros
f-i-t.org
Alex Godwin, aka Billy, is teaming up with the Low Bros, Qbrk and Nerd. The British artist draws on contemporary African visual culture to produce bold, cheerful designs that we think will make the perfect bedfellows for the boxy graffiti bestiary of the boys from Hamburg. Together they will transform a former gas station into a dark forest populated by strange characters that like to surprise city dwellers in the dead of night.
Schönhauser Allee 167c
melissagodoynieto.com
generalpublic.de
Fresh out of college, Pictoplasma’s 2012 artist-in-residence Mexican-born Melissa Godoy Nieto is already starting to make her mark as an industrial designer. In Berlin, she presents her experimental murals that refuse to stay flat on the walls, encroaching on the space in a combination of paint, hand-dyed yarn, push pins, and spray-paint cans to playfully reenact their own creation. Inspired by Mesoamerican imagery, temples and Mexican textiles, the installation conjures up ancestral creatures and the nostalgic spirit of folklore.
Saarbrücker Str. 25
mymonsterworld.com
siya-bengezela.org
Kollaborativ.com
Siya Bengezela eV presents ‘Little Moon Monsters’, strangely beautiful creatures created from the pickings of waste dumps in Cape Town’s Nyanga township. Ten teenagers joined renowned Berlin urban artist MYMO in an upcycling art workshop to produced these truly mixed-media sculptures. All sales proceeds go to SHAWCOs Little Moon Literacy Program for children ages 5-7, to help them get into Nyanga primary school.
The Parkhaus, Straßburger Str. 6-8 (backjard)
beekingdom.ca
berlinglas.org
April 11, 14–19h + April 15, 12–17h:
Hot glass demonstrations
Four artists from Canada have branched out into glass blowing to invest their character designs with a new level of fragile beauty. Fresh to Berlin they teamed up with Nadania Idriss Contemporary to found Berlin Glas e.V. – the first public access hot glass studio in the city’s history. The collective will show recent works and give live demonstrations – be sure to wear clothing that protects your skin from the heat.
Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 15
andyrementer.com
theearlybirdhype.net
Large hats, intense hair and wild patterns abound at ‘Pronto’, a show by US artist and illustrator Andy Rementer. Famous for his easy-on-the eye, dude-style 70s comic imagery with killer deadpan humour, Andy will be showing a series of character-based ink paintings that are guaranteed to make you sigh with relief.
