Proto Anime Cut — Spaces and Visions in Japanese Animation

Proto Anime Cut, 8 June – 13 October 2013
Cartoonmuseum Basel, Switzerland

Exhibition

The exhibition Proto Anime Cut presented original drawings of some of the most important directors and illustrators of anime. The exhibition was the first of its kind in Europe and the starting point of our continuing engagement with anime artists and creators.

The action-packed hero stories and the visionary science fiction of Japanese Anime are set in impressive worlds that are constructed in painstaking detail. Looking at the creative processes, the filmmakers appear as architectural dreamers who operate with virtuosity at the borders of credibility, fiction and utopia.

The exhibition focused on the development of these arenas of action and narrative scenarios. Numerous background paintings, storyboards, drafts, sources of inspiration and film excerpts provided insight into the working methods of the most successful animation artists of the last two decades. Proto Anime Cut presents them for the first time in Europe.

The exhibition included original work by Hideaki Anno (director), Haruhiko Higami (photographer), Koji Morimoto (director and animator), Hiromasa Ogura (art director), Mamoru Oshii (director) and Takashi Watabe (layout and mechanical designer). The presented artists have played key roles in the development of anime. By cooperating closely in different production studios in Tokyo they gave their distinctive signatures to many films and developed a prototypical anime style.

Venues

The exhibition had been presented at

21 January – 06 March 2011
Künstlerhaus Bethanien,
Berlin, Germany

09 July – 09 October 2011
HMKV im Dortmunder U,
Dortmund, Germany

8 February – 8 April 2012
Espai Cultural de Caja Madrid,
Barcelona, Spain

5 July – 23 September 2012
La Casa Encendida,
Madrid, Spain

7 February – 19 May 2013
KUMU Art Museum of Estonia,
Tallinn, Estonia

8 June – 13 October 2013
Cartoonmuseum Basel,
Switzerland

Catalogue

Proto Anime Cut Archive is now out of print but a few copies are still available for enthusiasts. The book is bilingual, English & German.

Please send us an e-mail to order your copy. We ship world-wide.

Proto Anime Cut, 21 January – 06 March 2011
Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany

Imprint

A project by Les Jardins des Pilotes (Berlin) in cooperation with 2dk (Tokyo)

Curated by Stefan Riekeles and David d'Heilly
Co-produced by Obra Social CajaMadrid (Madrid)

Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds.