You know we heart art and design. You also know we heart most things that stimulate our creative instincts. So it didn’t take any wild horses to convince us to check out the Pictopia opening party at Haus der Kulturen der Welt last week and boy are we glad we did. It was fun, fun, fun!! Check out what the evening had in store after the jump.
The 3rd Pictopia festival runs until May 3rd and consists of the Pictoplasma Conference, a Character Walk and the Pictopia Exhibition. The Pictopia exhibition boasts a roll-call of more than 30 international artists such as Boris Hoppek, Takashi Murakami, Nagi Noda, FriendsWithYou and Mark Ryden, who have collectively transformed the HKW into a living world of “Characters” where colorful meets larger-than-life interactive elements translated both in digital and analogue media alongside drawings and illustrations that sweep you away swirls of colour and imagination.
In other words, expect lots of colour, interesting videos, furry creatures, interactive installations, out-of-the-box “WTF” moments and your smile creeping up your face and deciding to stay there for a while. It really is an enjoyable, giggly, tantalising and fun (have I said that already?) experience.
The first things I noticed were Rinzen’s bumper cars that looked very much like smiley, furry welcoming monsters screaming “RIDE ME!” I have to admit that at this point, my inner-child leaped out and wanted to hug and enjoy all the cars for itself, but instead, I calmly walked over to the red one and gave it a try while a friend pushed me around. And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better (never mind that I couldn’t actually drive the cars at this point, I was just happy to sit in them!) the lights came down, the cars came on and they glowed like gliding monsters basked in neon light. If someone had handed me a stick of cotton candy right about then, I would have been the happiest, oldest kid in that room. Oh yeah, this was definitely my personal highlight of the night.
Bumper cars aside, the rest of the exhibition contained other forms of design, photography and illustrations. While most of them sparked creative thoughts and amused smiles, none had the “WOW!” effect the bumper cars had left on me (ok, so I might be a little biased here, but its my post, I’m entitled to be). Having said that, I found the late Nagi Noda’s poodle video pretty cool and perhaps if some chairs had put out for people to follow along it might have produced a funny experience too.
After about an hour or so, I decided to end the night on a high. So out I went into the foyer where FriendsWithYou had their installation. Part of it was an inflated jumping castle of sorts. So, wine downed, shoes off, bag entrusted to friends and off I went. In a space as big as my bedroom painted in happy rainbow-bright colours I found myself for the second time that night surrendering once again to my inner-child. All that jumping around was actually a lot more tiring than it looked and it made taking pictures no mean feat, but the exhilaration was worth it. Who knew falling down head first could be so much fun!! After a few good falls and some very blur shots I climbed back out.
Pictopia surely served up some great happy fixes that night and you know, once my coffee-high runs low I might just go back for more.
Pictopia Exhibition
19.03.-03.05.2009
open Wed – Mon 11:00 – 19:00 h
April 23 to 25 open until 23:00 h
Admission: Regular 5 €, Concessions 3 €,
Combo-ticket incl. 1 screening: 7 € / 5 €
Haus der Kulturen der Welt
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
