19th Pictoplasma Festival 2023

This May, the Pictoplasma Festival returns to Berlin to present an all-new selection of trailblazing, trendsetting character design, and art. Now in its 19th edition, the festival expands on giving its community opportunities to actively participate and introduces a brand new section, the Games and Media Lab in collaboration with A MAZE., Berlin’s International Games and Playful Media Festival.

Slanted raffles a ticket for the Pictoplasma Festival! To participate, simply write an email to [email protected] with the subject “19th Pictoplasma Festival 2023” until 02/27/2023, 11 a.m. (UTC +1). The winner will be drawn after the deadline and contacted by email. Who participates in the raffle, agrees to receive news from Slanted and accepts the privacy policy. Legal recourse is excluded. We wish you good luck!

Central to the Pictoplasma Festival, the conference provides a platform for 20+ international artists from illustration and animation, design and interactive, urban and graphic arts. In focused artist lectures, they will present personal strategies for the future of figurative aesthetics, sharing ideation processes and working methodologies. With its Character Lab, the conference is building on last year’s success and provides manifold opportunities for attendees to shape and participate in the programme. Daily creative workshops allow them to channel inspiration and get hands-on with a multitude of materials and analogue media; panel discussions and portfolio reviews will enhance networking with peers and the industry; collective art activities and a bustling marketplace atmosphere will encourage the sharing of projects; and PechaKucha sessions will give many of the attendees the chance to present their projects themselves. The conference will also host four programmes of Character in Motion, screening seventy selected short films. This will include the latest works by Felix Colgrave, Eoin Duffy, and Britt Raes, with many of the film makers in attendance to discuss their work in Q&A sessions.

The 19th Pictoplasma Festival reaches out to the broader audience with two exhibitions in the central Mitte district, presenting works by some of the conference speakers. Further art installations at the main venue, Silent Green, will make this an attraction for everyone to attend. Here, the adjacent transmediale studio will present the special Games and Media Lab, a collaboration between A MAZE., Berlin’s International Games and Playful Media Festival, and Pictoplasma. An arcade will showcase recent playable projects and display information and material on how they stand out in terms of concept and character design.

For the glorious finale, everyone’s welcome at the special Character Market on Sunday—when the conference’s artists and attendees trade all things character, from editions, prints and originals, sculptures, multiples and garments, zines, publications, and games! The Character Market will open up the contemporary landscape of illustration and graphic arts to our Berlin audience. This public visitors’ day will also feature panel discussions and conversations, performances, and a replay of all the animated shorts featured in Character in Motion.

The festival’s main location is Silent Green, a former crematorium now turned vibrant cultural centre. Its fascinating architecture includes the historic cupola building, which will host the participatory formats of the character lab and visitors’ day. The conference presentations and screenings will happen in the vast underground hall, which will also open its doors for the character market. Also underground, the transmediale studio with the Games and Media Lab connects both areas, and further art installations will be placed throughout the venue, including the outside green.

In Mitte, the former caretaker building in the central cemetery provides a special atmosphere for a dense group show, further enhancing the immersive and world building qualities of the characters on display. A second show takes place at the bright showroom of design agency Rainbow Unicorn.

19th Pictoplasma Festival 2023

When?
May 3rd–7th, 2023, daily from 12–8 p.m.

Where?
Silent Green
Gerichtstraße 35
13347 Berlin
Germany

Registration:
Participation in the three-day Pictoplasma Conference requires prior online registration, available for € 320.– here!

More information on the speakers, artists, and the schedule can be found here!