Pictoplasma Festival 2015 | An interview with cofounder Lars Denicke
This week the world’s leading and largest Berlin-based conference and festival of contemporary character design reopened its doors for the eleventh year running with a playground of character designs for us to feast our eyes on.
This week the world’s leading and largest Berlin-based conference and festival of contemporary character design reopened its doors for the eleventh year running with a playground of character designs for us to feast our eyes on. Kicking off with a talk by Helsinki based director and animator Lucas Zanotto, the festival showcases a plethora of talks, workshops and exhibitions by a stellar lineup of international artists, animators, graphic designers and more.
I caught up with co-founder Lars Denicke to chat about the festival, its origins and why Pictoplasma is that little bit more special than your average conference.
Pictoplasma and character design seem to embody a huge variety of different mediums, practices and domains, how would you best define the terms?
Characters aim at our empathy and emotional involvement and function around the very essence of what makes something an image: that it gives us ourselves, the feeling of being looked at. They often have an animist quality, as if they were real and alive, or at least create belief in a virtual existence, as a character in a play.
Characters also function on the principles of abstraction and reduction, as if they were typographic characters, taking away all arabesque details and contexts to maximize a common denominator for us to relate to, neglect of cultural difference. A post-digital play with media is a common strategy; artists and creators play with the same character design in different media. Many, for example, have a digital background for creation, and a longing to leave it behind and experiment with more permanent media. Staging the same character over and over again gives it a virtual identity, each single picture adds to depict this virtual character that supposes to exist somewhere else
How can we use character designs as tools to improve our own understanding of the real world?
Firstly, it’s hard to define the real world, but it is true we feel characters play with our understanding of reality in creating the virtual. Given this, they can increase our understanding of realities being relative to others, interdependent, constructed and not solidly defined. In their animist quality, they tickle us to reflect on the essence of what being alive involves.
“They tickle us to reflect on the essence of what being alive involves.”
Tell me about the initial stages of Pictoplasma and then the Festival, how did it develop? You began as an online and print based publication, right?
In1999 Peter started Pictoplasma as a research website, he came from animation and was looking for a new generation of characters that were more appealing, with fewer targeted audiences, less slaves to the ever same narration. This led to publications.
In 2004, coming from cultural studies and inspired by discourses of the iconic or pictorial turn, I joined Peter with the idea to make a conference out of it. We were looking for a way to present the loud, varied and playful aesthetics in a modest setting, so we thought a conference and not a festival or convention would be best. Just 40 minutes for an artist to talk about his/her creation. We managed to stick to this formula, as these talks get very personal – there is always a reason why someone creates these characters, and it gets through in every talk. Gallery exhibitions and animation screenings were part of this event from the very beginning, which made it a festival.
From 2006-2009 we started to produce ourselves, firstly giving characters designed by other artists a corporeality through the hands of costume designers who passed them on to dancers to discover how a character would change personality when having a certain body; then with installations that played with the idea of creating a world for us to get immersed - this culminated in the exhibition Prepare for Pictopia (2009, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin).
In 2010 we created the Missing Link, a character reflecting on the Yeti myth, and investigated artistic strategies of community, tribes and following in the digital age; this led to the exhibition Post-Digital Monsters (2011, La Gaîté lyrique, Paris). In 2012-13 we focused on characters in visual communication, the terror of photographic realism, and the commercial character as mascot, (White Noise, La Casa Encendida, Madrid 2013).
And then in 2014, the celebration of a decade of the festival was done in correspondence with the time-honoured genre of the portrait gallery, again giving each character that shaped our festival a place in an exhibition that performed the idea of being pre-digital, as in much earlier, or a memory of the digital age, as in much later.
NICOLAS MENARD
What makes Pictoplasma different to other conferences?
Pictoplasma encompasses all design practices – we don’t make a difference as such, we just follow characters, not the artists or concepts. Therefore it is open to all, it is not an elite fine art club as such. The contexts give the creation to the characters and we are accessible to all.
I think this is what is important. Often people are repelled by fine art, it’s an exclusive form of art, which character design tries not to be. Character design is a concept that is open to all and is rooted in the classic conference and exhibition style.
Is there a year that stands out for you?
2006 for me was a good year, the second big edition. It was that moment when you realise you’ve started something new. That feeling of continuity is very exciting. A bit like a puzzle, piecing it all together.
What is the theme for this year’s festival and the inspiration behind it?
Form Follows Empathy goes back to the basics of Pictoplasma and the empathic quality of characters. When everything gets so functional, tech-gadgety, planned characters remind us that we have to like things in order to be ready to interact. Obviously, it breaks with the Modernist credo (Form Follows Function), but not in a strict opposition: the graphic quality of many of the characters featured in the project obviously stand in a Modernist tradition.
German design is very serious and functional, with little space for fun at all. It is important to put a character on these things – it’s not just about pure function, you have to like it. Characters are there to remind us that it is not just about function but also appeal.
(Lars took the example of a mobile phone to demonstrate)
Mobile phones are like big eyes that watch you. They are completely fixed on the eye and the way you perceive things (such as watching, learning, touching). All very perfect. The appeal is neglected here and I think that, in the long run, the appeal has to be in a more comprehensive set up. The phone is now our mobile companion but is it our best companion? They improve function but what about empathy? Is the phone the right device for this? Form Follows Empathy plays with this idea.
A very interesting thought...
How is the digital age impacting contemporary character design today?
We started our project 1999 when the Internet became available for the masses, and implied the promise of a virtual world. In a time where photography was not yet that widespread due to slow data transmission of modems, graphical characters were the inhabitants of this supposed virtual world. At that time, the digital age informed the way characters looked. This is obviously over: we can play with styles and media and diffuse them instantly through digital media, so the digital age now is less about aesthetics and how characters look, but more about distribution and diffusion.
HIKARI SHIMODA
Now, the terror of photographic realism is everywhere - everything is depicted and consumed while we move. There seem to be less room available for characters, and yet the artistic production is blossoming. Maybe they function as an antidote to this photographic realism of today. And then there is the afore mentioned post-digital practice, where digital is just not interesting per se, but part of our reality and characters move from digital to analogue and back, or where everything is both at the same time.
You’ve managed to get some pretty impressive speakers on board – what is your selection process?
Step by step, we build up the line up. Research, chance, recommendations, even artists contacting us – this all leads to a growing watch list. In conversation of the two of us, Peter and I agree on the artists. Somehow, the fact that their characters are appealing to us in a very personal, empathic way is a secret rule. But the real love affair starts after we have met the creators and begin to get to know their characters.
“The real love affair starts after we have met the creators and begin to get to know their characters.”
Every year I worry that I won’t be affected in the same way that I have been before, but it always happens, both in terms of the artists as people, and their creations, the characters.
Special thanks to Lars for taking the time to talk to us
Pictoplasma Festival | April 29 – May 3 2015
GALLERY FIX 5 Contemporary Galleries in Berlin working with fresh, emerging talent
This year it’s all about Berlin, the German capital of trendsetting and creativity, and with it, a dynamic expanding art scene, rivaled by few other cities in the world
This year it’s all about Berlin, the German capital of trendsetting and creativity, and with it, a dynamic expanding art scene, rivaled by few other cities in the world. And with its influx of art spaces and galleries, the city is show casing some of the hottest, youngest emerging talent for us to discover, and better still, before their meteoric rise to the top.
Here is my list of five contemporary art galleries showcasing diverse, cutting-edge material and the work of a generation not afraid to challenge the nature of art in the digital realm.
BERLINARTPROJECTS | Recharged Reality
Founded in 2006, Berlin Art Projects promotes and supports the work of recently graduated, emerging contemporary artists based in Berlin and Istanbul.
Their up and coming show Recharged reality will display the work of six emerging international artists, Daniel Harms, Ulrich Riedel, Yasam Sasmazer, Eda Soylu, Claudia Vitari and Meike Zopf in a series of drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures that comment on the duality of everyday objects and how our own perception of these objects are shaped by our own thoughts and experiences.
Don’t miss recently graduated Eda Soylu and her beautiful rendition of Dying Flowers, expected to make an appearance towards the end of the show.
‘Recharged Reality’ | 14. March – 23.March
DUVE Berlin | LARSEN
Founded in 2007 by Alexander Duve and Birte Kleemann, DUVE Berlin is a gallery based in Kreuzberg, which has gained a reputation as a leading space for emerging conceptual and minimalist artists at the cusp of their peak. The gallery also exhibits concerts and screenings.
Opening this week, artists Lucas Jardin and sculptor Jean-Sébastien Grégoire will be exhibiting their first German show, LARSEN. Expect a display of large-scale installations, nature and all things modern.
LARSEN | March 6 - April 11, 2015
Johann König Gallery | Alicja Kwade
Situated within the art infused district of Kreuzberg and founded by gallery owner Johann König in 2002, the Johann König Gallery is a contemporary art space for emerging and established artists of a mostly younger generation. The gallery currently represents 27 artists that use a variety of mediums ranging from sculpture and painting, video and photography to performance to sound, which provoke, question and challenge the spaces of the otherwise white walled gallery.
Currently exhibiting are the works of Polish berlin-based artist Alicja Kwade whose works mix art with science to question theories of time, space and light.
‘Etwas Abwesendes, dessen Anwesenheit erwartet wurde’ | 28. February – 18. April 2015
Galerie Nordenhake | GATHERED FATES
The multicultural district of Kreuzberg is one of the trendiest art spots in the city and home to Galerie Nordenhake. Originally founded in Malmo in 1973 and with spaces in both Berlin and Stockholm, Galeria Nordenhake is committed to exhibiting contemporary art in various mediums, with an international focus on both established and emerging artists.
Currently exhibiting are the works of Ignasi Aballí, Mirosław Bałka, Gerard Byrne, Ceal Floyer, Spencer Finch, Hreinn Friðfinnsson, Georg Herold, Sofia Hultén, Zoe Leonard, Meuser, Helen Mirra, Sirous Namazi, Mikael Olsson, Michael Schmidt, Florian Slotawa, Johan Thurfjell, Not Vital and John Zurier, curated by Ignasi Aballí.
January 17 – March 7, 2015
Gallery Taik Persons | Displacement
Gallery Taik Persons is a contemporary art gallery representing established and emerging artists who use photography as their primary medium. Founded by Timothy Persons in 1995 in Helsinki/Finland, the gallery relocated to Berlin in 2005 and continues to display the works of those who make up The Helsinki School.
On March 13, Gallery Taik Persons will present Displacement; the first in a series of curated group exhibitions by young artists Kalle Kataila, Jaana Maijala, Tanja Koljonen and Mikko Rikala, working with (and around) the medium of photography. Maya Byskov and Terhi Tuomi will curate the exhibition.
Not to be missed are the works of Kalle Kataila and his visuals of man tarrying in the face of nature.
March 13 – April 25, 2015
Daniel Keller : An omnipresence of the digital in our daily lives
Berlin-based American artist Daniel Keller creates spatial and sound installations that fuse art and technology to speak to the visibly forming prognosis of a culture where technology replaces manpower
At a time when technology seems to be filling the minds of a generation that has become so accustomed to being constantly connected, Berlin-based American artist Daniel Keller creates spatial and sound installations that fuse art and technology to speak to the visibly forming prognosis of a culture where technology replaces manpower. Mixing the urban city with the suburban landscape, Keller also uses the internet as a platform to display his performances and interventions.
Central to the work of Keller is the concept of the ‘prosumer, an idea put forward by Alvin Toffler who in examining the progression of new pioneering technologies, recognised the increasing similarities between the roles and objectives of the producer and consumer. These ideas of progress and technological disruption sit at the forefront of Keller’s most recent works and successfully consider the views of the ‘prosumer’ artist.
I was drawn to Keller’s Freedom Club Figure (2013), the elegantly poised figure of a female mannequin and hand-made rucksack of technophobic mail bomber Theodore Kaczynski. Serving as a visual representation and exploration into the seminal essay published by Sun Microsystems founder Bill Joy on, ‘Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us’ (2000), Keller skillfully merged natural forms with man-made materials to highlight the opposing values of a mass producing, consumer driven society and a non-materialistic, nature-fixated self-consciousness.
Personally, I think that Keller’s overlaying of a rucksack onto the female body could also reference nature’s undervalued contributions to the dynamics of modernity. These spaces for technologies derived from nature’s landscapes, after all.
Keller’s juxtaposing of natural forms and technology is also evident in his mixed media, sculptural installation for the ongoing project Absolute Vitality Inc. Created by the Aids-3D duo Daniel Keller and fellow artist Nik Kosmas, the project provided a series of pioneering initiatives that challenged man’s relationship with nature and his surroundings. The result was a scintillating display of LED back-lit chrome lettering planted in a growing wall of shrubberies, analogous to the man-made structures that delineate the spaces of our otherwise natural landscapes.
Daniel Keller is currently exhibiting his new series of works titled The Future of Memory at the Kunthalle Wien in Austria. The exhibition explores the omnipresence of digital media in our lives and draws upon the modern methods of communication that are increasingly becoming shaped by the virtualisation of our interactions.
Exhibition February 4 – March 29