Animated Sessions

21 september, 2005 - 7 october, 2005
Place
Sabatini Building, Auditorium
Curatorship
Juan Antonio Álvarez Reyes
Joshua Mosley. Beyrouth, 2001
Joshua Mosley. Beyrouth, 2001

In a world dominated by visual culture, the development of computer animation programmes has facilitated the expansion and use of this medium by numerous creators who, born into the entertainment industry (first cartoons and later video games), use these tools to narrate contemporary stories. Animation scales back the level of reality, although it does not eliminate it, which opens the door to fiction in all of its variations and a wide range of possibilities. Animation never stops expanding into new territories, beyond video games and cartoon strips; it has entered the world of fiction films, video clips and advertisements as well as art.

For several reasons, the presence of animation in contemporary visual culture should be seen as more than a temporary reality. In the first place, there is a historical tradition that brought the visual arts into proximity with animation which, for more than one hundred years, has experienced shared different moments with avant-garde and experimental art, areas where artists like Mary Ellen Butte, Osamu Tezuka and Oskar Fischinger demonstrate their worth. Additionally, animation tends to act as a bridge between the traditional visual arts (drawing and painting) and film. Finally, the growing establishment of digital technologies is fostering its expansion into the art world, from the point of view of both creation and exhibition. The possibilities for animation are being rediscovered and this hundred-year-old language is experiencing some of the highest points in its history today. The time has come to settle down in front of these images and look at the light that animates them.