Exhibition of video installations under the Multivision XIV International Festival of Animation Arts
Multivision Festival continues to study animation as visual art. It’s been 6 years since the festival has been featuring the “The Best Video Installation” nomination. Animations which are closer to a living painting, sculpture, or scenery “in motion”, rather than to a movie, are selected for the competition in this nomination. The finalists — 13 video pieces from around the world — as well as specially created installations, will be presented at the exhibition in Erarta.
The exhibition explores how contemporary digital and video arts reflect nature: the impact of the specifics of animation as a genre on depicting of nature, the current transformation of animalistic art and the whole attitude to nature under the influence of the progress in human values and the struggle for environment protection and animal rights nowadays, development of the concept of animal in art in the era of social networking.
Inspired by the development of technologies and their infusion into art in XXI century, contemporary artists create a new Rebis depicted in the piece of the Italian artist Alessandro Аmaducci. This new Rebis made of flesh and digits becomes an inception to creation of fantastic worlds populated by bizarre Flora and Fauna that we can see in the pieces “Branded Dreams” by Ton Meijdam, Thom Snels and Béla Zsigmond (Netherlands) and “POPS”, Shiro Ichige (Japan).
Modern alchemists of digital art derive quintessence of the living world that allows them to see abstraction of the rabbit hole, as in the new work by the French video artist Boris Labbé "Any Road” or a trace of a sparrow flying as in the work by the American artist Steve Socki “Sparrow Duet”. The work by Andrei Sikorsky “Fish Day” breathes life into the rubbish collected on the sea coast, creating fish-golems that are observing the process of their creation.
Unlimited creative freedom provided by development of technology leads artists to understanding of responsibility for their creations and awareness of their fragile existence in the wild world. The man attentively looks into the animal and sees quite obvious similarities even with a monster, which lived four million years ago, as it is shown in the work “Lucy” by the Dutch artist Evert de Beijer. And if the mankind forgets this responsibility, the world will be inherited by new monsters as wild dogs inherited the abandoned suburbs in the work “Peripheria” by David Coquard-Dassault (France).
But the situation is not that sad: the animal rights movement has led to the possibility of recognizing some animals “non-human persons”. The precedent took place in India, where the government defined so dolphins. As the movement for the attitude to animals is developing on the Internet, new trends come out.
The Internet created its own Nature 2.0 and Society 2.0. Rules of the virtual world may differ dramatically from the rules of real one. Cats are not just animals there — they have rich personalities and speak with human voices of their humble assistants known in the profane offline world as their “owners”.
Contemporary art cannot ignore such a popular phenomenon. Artists use social networks and their trends: the category “interesting” prevail over the category “beautiful”, the need for a short and strong statement, the craving for prettiness and voyeurism — all that can be briefly described as “LOLcats and selfies”. The new animalistic art appears in the wake of this movement. It percepts animals as equal creative “non-human persons” and, in the contrast to the routine contemporary art practice, uses them not in the form of stuffed objects or dead bodies, but as furry co-authors, alive, healthy, and active in Instagram, Snapchat and Periscope. This trend is presented in the project “The Garden of Cats”, where five inter-species groups found each other in the Instagram network. And so as “many a mickle makes a muckle”, the new contemporary artists create the look of Nature 2.0, nature, transformed by human intelligence for the benefit of all sentient beings living on our small planet.
Please note that the exhibition will be closed for reassembling from 14 to 18 November.
Branded Dreams / Ton Meijdam, Thom Snels and Béla Zsigmond / Netherlands / 2015
The real question is not: How many ads do we see? The real question is: What do we have to do to see no ads? And the answer is: “go to sleep” (James B. Twitchell).
But what happens when advertisers have the possibility to enter our dreams? Based on recent developments in brain science and technology this might be possible in the near future.
Peripheria / David Coquard-Dassault / France / 2015
A journey into the heart of a large and abandoned council estate. Peripheria portrays an urban environment becoming wild: a modern Pompeii where the wind blows and dogs roam, tailing the remains of human life.
Message of the Animals / Elke H. Markopoulos / Germany / 2016
By strong, epic and unique animated pictures the message of the animals is submitted in poetical and associative impressions and symbols. Mankind who tries to catch and own our world remains with empty hands.
Sparrow Duet / Steve Socki / USA / 2015
The animated film developed from hand-drawn pastel art, based on motion studies of birds, and the moving patterns they suggested. It's a kind of short dance piece that's choreographed with abstract shapes and textures — interacting playfully with each other and woven together with the impressionistic music, creating a more poetic etude.
POPS / Shiro Ichige / Japan / 2016
The pleasantly adventure of a cat which wandered into the world of music. The encounter in a strange land was a series of throbbing strange experience. DANCE! DANCE! DANCE! Now you are standing at the entrance of the New World.
Variable Geometry / Marie-Brune de Chassey / Belgium / 2015
Children and animals are changing states to illustrate the way one can sense its own body, under the eyes of others and through one's own gaze.
Little Girl / Steven Subotnick / USA / 2016
A little girl rides her bike and meets a weird rabbit.
Lucy / Evert de Beijer / Netherlands / 2015
4 Million year old Lucy comes alive in the imagination of a boy, when he visits a paleological exhibition with his parents. She takes him on a short excursion to the prehistory, populated by exotic prototypes in the early evolution.
The Great Escape / Wei Keong Tan / Singapore / 2015
Two men and their olive tree.
ANY ROAD / Boris Labbé, Daniele Ghisi / France / 2016
“So long as I get SOMEWHERE”, Alice added as an explanation.
To Be Continued … / KIM&HIM (Nils Andersen & Sabina Kim) / Germany /2015
A 2 part series, is a 2D hand-drawn animation about how organised chaos is developed through a series of chain reactions and simple loops. These animated loops create a pattern of stories which are portrayed in two coexisting ecosystems: the City and the Nature. Therefore, “To Be Continued...” has no beginning and no end.
Fish Day / Andrey Sikorsky / Russia / 2016
Objects and assemblages depict fishes. Sea debris collected at the surf, pieces of wood and metal polished by sand and waves, turns into very detailed sculptures of fishes. Unusual forms created by random acts of nature stimulate fantasy of the artist. The video shows an idea inception and the process of creation. We watch fish, fish watches us.
Grain by Grain … / Dmitry Shorin, Dmitry Provotorov / Russia /2016
A new piece created for the exhibition by two prominent artists from St. Petersburg.
“The Garden of Cats”
Authors:
@FatCatArt — Svetlana Petrova, cat Zarathustra (Russia)
@Poonchic — Binazir Asadi, cat Poonchic (USA)
@Bergamot.the.cat — Harry Duns, Tanya Kuznetsova, cat Bergamot (UK)
@Pebblesthekitty — Valerie Locante, cat Pebbles (USA)
@Themainecoonlife — Reka Komoli, cats Artemis and Apollo (UK)
The installation “The Garden of Cats” is conceived by FatCatArt duo and created together with their friends-artists, who found together on the Instagram, this realm of great photographers, cats images, and selfies. FatCatArt is an art project where the cat is the true co-author of the human; and they both found in the Instagram 4 other art projects with the same attitude: @Poonchic, @Bergamot.the.cat, @Pebblesthekitty, @Themainecoonlife. The photographers of these projects present their furry models and Mews as cats living in our society and getting a lot of human traces, but still keeping their wild hearts of curious explorers and fierce hunters. FatCatArt connects the photos by 4 authors via the series of lenticular prints, where Zarathustra re-enacts famous paintings of the past, showing the development in the demonstration of nature from classic art to contemporary digital.
