The cutest festival of Berlin is back this May and it’s a very special edition – so I expect it to be extra cute this year. Pictoplasma is celebrating its 20th anniversary – that is such an incredible accomplishment to keep a project running for so long. This festival is dedicated to character design and it’s a haven for artists focused on creating the most interesting characters, may it be as drawings, animations, sculpture, or any other craft that you can turn into a little creature. Or a big one if you will.
This year’s festival is full of amazing program points including several exhibitions, parties, screenings and of course the conference for character designs for the pros with lectures and workshops. Have a look below at the program or check it in full here on their website.
The Pictoplasma Festival 2024 celebrates 20 years of character design and examines the futures imagined and existing
This May, the Pictoplasma Berlin Festival celebrates 20 years of love for characters and their creators and once again becomes the international epicentre for artists, illustrators, filmmakers, and designers creating the characters of tomorrow. The anniversary edition shines a spotlight on its Character Archives, looking back to when the project started as an online archive in the year 2000 – which led to best-selling book compilations and the ongoing festival – and reflecting on the practices of collecting, curating, and promoting contemporary character design and art. The central conference features 20 artists creating the characters of the hour and whose art is also presented in the established Character Walk exhibition tour. With various performances and parties, the celebration concludes in a public Open House on the final Sunday, hosting a central Character Art Market, a marathon of 65 animated shorts in four programmes, and creative art activities.
Exhibitions
Four group exhibitions across Berlin present and premier works by our featured artists. At Verwalterhaus, the former caretaker building located at the St. Marien St. Nikolai cemetery in Mitte, the spiritual qualities of the exhibited works find a suitably otherworldly setting: The hypnotising sculptures of Clémentine Bal (FR) materialise memories and emotions in the form of multi-coloured mountains and volcanoes, semi-human creatures and little hybrid ghosts; the artistic duo Los Calladitos (MX) create paintings that add a magical touch to people and characters who represent communities; and the hand-chiselled wooden sculptures of Thai artist Parn Aniwat are at once cute and intriguing. At neurotitan, the legendary project space that continues to exude the untamed creativity it fostered in the early 1990s, the spotlight is on illustration, storytelling and graphic arts. Here, Joseph Melhuish (UK) presents a large billboard with fake posters advertising underground parties, which through its partial creation in VR, brims with the digital look of the hour. This rubs shoulders with the oversized cut outs and large inflatable, sassy female characters of Genie Espinosa (ES), and an array of graphical silk screen prints by Eric Schwarz (DE/FR) that are made with pressure plates constructed from LEGO bricks. The exhibition tour makes another stop in Mitte for an installation at the bright and airy showroom Rainbow Unicorn, moving on to the central festival venue silent green and the adjunct transmediale studio in Wedding. Here, digital media installations feature a wishing well installed by the queer multi-disciplinary artist BORA (FR); the sensual yet grotesque aesthetics of filmmaker Sophie Koko Gate (UK) are brought to the fore in her Milk Bath world, sculptures and digital media; and Christopher Rutledge (US) showcases his bendable 3D mesh characters – a challenge to our spatial perception. Finally, visitors are invited to an immersive dive through Pictoplasma’s Character Archives with 30,000 files collected over two decades, presented in a media installation.
Verwalterhaus
Prenzlauer Allee 1, 10405 Berlin
neurotitan
Rosenthaler Straße 39, 10178 Berlin
Rainbow Unicorn
Anklamer Str. 50, 10115 Berlin
silent green & transmediale studio
Gerichtstr. 35, 13347 Berlin
Opening hours: May 01–03, 15:00–20:00 // free entrance May 04–05, 12:00–20:00 // free entrance
Celebration and Parties
For its 20th anniversary, Pictoplasma invites everyone to join the nightly programme at different locations.
May 1 – Opening Party
The opening festivities kick off at ACUD MACHT NEU, with events sprawling through the different levels and spaces of the backyard building – including a food court, participatory activities, and lots of opportunities to meet old friends and make new ones along the way.
ACUD MACHT NEU
Veteranenstr. 21, 10119 Berlin
May 1, 20:00 // free entrance
May 3 – Psychedelic Midnight Mix
Pictoplasma’s much-loved, fabulously trippy Psychedelic Midnight Mix screening returns on Friday and is set to bend brains and upend the norms of storytelling with exquisitely animated question marks. It features the latest works by Shoboshobo, Nate Soto, Sebastian Freudenschuss and Liza Desya. Stick around for drinks and honour the filmmakers at one of Berlin’s most classy cinemas.
Colosseum
Schönhauser Allee 123, 10437 Berlin
May 3, 22:00 // 10€, remaining seats at the doors
May 4 – Closing Party
Shake off your visual overload at the glorious Pictoplasma Closing Party on Saturday at Zenner. The night features a live blast by Brass Riot, an energetic sax and drums trio that emerged from the Fridays for Future movement and blends Ska, Fake-Jazz and beats that play with house and electronic; VR artist Joseph Melhuish, aka DJ Return To The Dance, arrives straight out of London’s underground rave scene; and British-Nigerian artist Juba takes us through the night with their special blend of dance music from Africa and the African diaspora, techno and UK funky.
Zenner
Alt-Treptow 15, 12435 Berlin
May 4, 22:00 // 10€
Sunday Open House & Character Market
For the third year running, Pictoplasma welcomes everyone to conclude the festival at its Sunday Open House. A bustling Character Market invites the public to stock up on rare prints, affordable art editions, zines, sculptures and other lovingly produced items from all around the world – and meet their international makers. The festival’s four-part animation programme is offered in full for a repeat (and final) viewing, recommended for viewers X+ (families and younger viewers allowed but advised), featuring 65 short films, music videos and experimental clips by Elenor Kopka, Felipe Di Poi, Greg McLeod, Laser Days, Franz Impler, Zoe Medcraft and many others. Illustrator Nathan Jurevicius presents his recently released kids feature film Scarygirl / Arkie und die Stadt des Lichts (2023, PG/FSK 6), and a creative programme encourages visitors of all ages to mess with colours in spin art and to meet and make together.
silent green Gerichtstr. 35, 13347 Berlin May 5, 12:00 – 18:00 // free entrance
