All exhibitions are open to the general public, entrance free of charge.
Download full Character Walk map: here
01
Gartenstr. 1, 10115
Mar 17-22, 12-18h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 19h
www.commandogroup.com
www.2agenten.com
In the Forest deep
Cecilie Ellefsen is a Norwegian illustrator and artist currently working at Commando Group in Oslo. Growing up in rural Norway, she has always been inspired by nature and animals. ‘In the Forest deep’ communicates the feeling of finding that secret childhood forest alive with enchanted critters, hollow trees, traps, treasures and hideaways.
02
Linienstr. 109, 10115
Mar 17-22, 13-18h
www.colorblok.com
www.studiochu.tv
www.parquerama.com
www.gastoncaba.com.ar
ww.artspace-berlin.de
Argentinean silk-screen prints
Juliana Pedemonte, Chu aka Julian Pablo Manzelli, Gaston Caba and Paquerama aka Matias Vigliano are not only some of the world’s most talented character designers, all of whom just happen to be Argentinean, they also pursue a meticulous craftsmanship in the ambitious medium of silk-screen printing. Mastering the art of subtle colour variations and playfully detailed outlines, these works combine arabesque patterns with bold, contemporary character design.
03
Schwedter Str. 262, 10119
Mar 17- Apr 30, 0-24h
www.flying-fortress.de
www.thelondonpolice.com
www.f-i-t.org
Luftbrücke
Never be scared. Don’t be a hero. London, Barcelona, Milano, New York, Buenos Aires, Tokyo – no major capital city has been left untouched by the iconic characters of Flying Fortress or The London Police. These figurative street art pioneers are old hands at collaboration. So come and watch the infamous Teddy Troops join the Lads in an abandoned gas station in Prenzlauer Berg for a spot-the-reference shoot out.
04
Kastanienallee 44, 10119
Mar 17-22, 11-19h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 19h
www.p3dro.com
www.visual-research.com
Somnia quae mei oculi viderunt
Nubi, amor, laetitia, dolor, curae, natura, vita, oculos, pyramides, pietas, mors, gloria, curiositas, resurrectio, suavitates, distractiones, animo deficere, cogitationes, vir, fames, clamores, investigatio, ego, cruces, adamantes, pili, vis, animi voluptas, simulatio, veritas, memoria, suavitas, sapientia, virtus, exercitatio, spiritus, animus aequus, mollis, attentus, turbidus, somnians, numeri, concursiones, animi impetus, lucidus ordo!
05
Kastanienallee 44, 10119
Mar 17-22, 11-19h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 19h
www.rarosobjetos.com.ar
www.kwikshop.de
Essay on power
Argentine artist Juan Pablo Cambariere is concerned about power, corruption, social responsibility and manipulation, but instead of going into law or politics, he studied art and started making puppets. His ‘raros objetos’ are an inquiry into the logic of the marionette, the fundamentals of animation and the possibility of creating iconic designs through sculptural processes.
06
Rosenthaler Str. 39, 10178
Mar 17-Apr 11, Mon-Sat 12-20h, Sun 14-19h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 12h
www.iam8bit.com
www.neurotitan.de
ich bin 8-bit
i am 8-bit, the annual Los Angeles computer game aesthetics art extravaganza, comes to Berlin with a twist. ich bin 8-bit uses standard Post-it Notes to create the ultimate pixelated canvas. It is a show within a show, featuring an all-enveloping installation by Jude Buffum, and original doodles by some of the most prolific character designers in animation and comics including Emmy-winners Jorge R. Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua, Gabe Swarr, Jim Mahfood and MyTarPit.
07
Rosenthaler Str. 39, 10178
Mar 17-Apr 11, Mon-Sat 12-20h, Sun 14-19h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 12h
www.wktokyolab.com
www.neurotitan.de
TOKYO.TEN
W+K Tokyo Lab is a laboratory for hybrid culture. It develops new experiences that are specific to contemporary Tokyo, fusing a global mix of music, art, visuals and other forms of expression with a uniquely collaborative approach. The exhibition features a visual remix of recent work with a focus on character design, along with new artwork from collaborators both inside and outside of Japan, offering their perspectives on Tokyo and Japanese culture.
08
Greifswalder Str. 223, 10405
Mar 17-18, 13-18h | Mar 19-22, 15-18h
Vernissage: Friday, Mar 13, 20h
www.slimlimb.com
www.patheticsympathyseekers.com
www.giselind.com
www.mrglaubitz.com
kunstklubberlin.blogspot.com
Up So Many
Chris Kerr, North America’s tallest living artist, paints, draws and makes tiny wooden sculptures. Giselind von Wurmb paints and draws abstract characters, part deformed, part geometric. Mexican artist Charles Glaubitz creates paintings and drawings in which pop icons are engulfed in archetypical settings. And The Pathetic Sympathy Seekers create performances and situations aimed at gaining acceptance or even love – but watch out, they can be extremely manipulative!
09
Brunnenstr. 56, 13355
Mar 17-22, 12-18h | Mar 23-Apr 05, by appointment
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 19h
www.fonsschiedon.com
www.lodownmagazine.com
Before in place – earlier in time
Fons Schiedon presents his second series of paintings in a Berlin premiere. His visual treatment continues to be inspired by the techniques of animated film, but these new works move further away from strict figuration. Materialising fragments of warped memories and detached associations, the works act as a time capsule recording the process of painting. In an intuitive mud fight, these are assembled by over-painting the canvas numerous times, embracing unforeseen changes and accidents.
10
Brunnenstr. 54, 13355
Mar 17-22, 15-20h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 19-22h
www.proteytemen.com
www.open–studio.com
www.hazel-nuts.com
www.schmidtbarbara.de
Breakfast Heroes
Breakfast consists of three elements: logo, character and food. A huge army of tigers and alligators, birds and bears awaits us every morning. But as Moscow-based artist Protey Temen is all too aware, very soon they will all be copyrighted for cereal boxes. Taking the bull by the horns, Protey has developed a new league of characters, combining abstract elements with a unique twist. Ladies and gentlemen, please raise your coffee cups to the Breakfast Heroes portraits installation: the future face of packaging.
11
Linienstr. 154 A, 10115
Mar 17-22, 11-19h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 19h
www.tado.co.uk
www.blog.lessrain.com/basement
The Private Panda Club
The Private Panda Club is an exclusive venue where you can get in touch with the animal inside you. Join the cutest pandas on earth, morphed by the warped minds of TADO, the ingenious duo from England, famous for the teeth-rotting sweetness of their designs. This is saccharine and sex everyone!
12
Brunnenstr. 53, 13355
Mar 17-22, 12-20h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 19-22h
www.ninabraun.net
www.presquefini.com
Needle Workout and Pumping Iron
Nina Braun has made a name for herself knitting and sewing in the analogue world. She produces elaborate soft and silky sculptures in wool and fabric that have taken the plush-doll phenomenon to new heights. Her drawings form the basis for this work: characters with simple forms, clear outlines and tiny eyes that stare out at you. Nina has recently moved to Berlin and we are greatly honoured to be able to present her first solo show here.
13
Torstr. 100, 10119
Berlin Mar 17-Apr 07, weekdays 12–18h and by appointment
Mar 21-22, 14–18h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 19h
http://glaznost.com/nofun
http://gallery.panatom.com
Like a Rat on Strychnine
Albert Bertolín is an illustrator, visual artist and musician from Barcelona who is currently living a hermit-like existence in Menorca. His illustrations and paintings combine zombies and art to create subversive and childish hooligan-stories steeped in sarcasm. Having provoked a furore at Clubtransmediale 2007 in Berlin, Albert is back with a selection of painfully dramatic new paintings, toxic as a rat on strychnine!
14
Torstr. 100, 10119
Mar 17-Apr 07, weekdays 12–18h and by appointment Mar 21-22, 14–18h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 19h
www.gangpol-mit.com
http://gallery.panatom.com
Gangpol & Mit’s videos and posters
Gangpol & Mit combine their graphical/musical talents to create a deviant cartoon world where garish, geometrical creatures evolve in lysergic environments. To the sound of coconut swing, boogaloo noise and tango massacre, the Technicolor frenzy of DIY entertainment gives way to an uncanny dimension. A dog is run over, there is a technological apocalypse and terrorist confetti fills the screen.
15
Torstr. 175, 10115
Mar 17-May 16, Tue-Sat 13-19h
Special Sunday: Mar 22, 12-18h
Vernissage: Saturday, Mar 21, 19-22h
www.mkgallery.com
Hard Left 2
Founded in Los Angeles in 1997, the Merry Karnowsky Gallery champions artists who push the boundaries of formal definition. In 2008, Karnowsky opened a second gallery in Berlin, featuring artists such as Camille Rose Garcia, James Marshall aka Dalek, Junko Mizuno, Mark Ryden, Miss Van, Kill Pixie, Victor Castillo and many more. This is a very special show to celebrate one year of Merry Karnowsky Berlin and the Character Walk.
16
Dorotheenstr. 12 EG, 10117
Mar 17-22, 19h-end
Characters in Motion
The series Characters in Motion puts the style back into animation. Focusing on cutting-edge character design, Pictoplasma showcases an annual overview of the most outstanding music visuals and the freshest short films and motion graphics from across the globe. For the duration of the Character Walk, visitors can savour the gastronomical delights on offer at the Collegium Hungaricum restaurant while watching a retrospective of the all-time favourite animations.
17
Dorotheenstr. 12, 10117
Mar 17-22, 10-19h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 19h
www.francoischalet.ch
www.hungaricum.de
The Window
Acclaimed for his high-charm reductive geometrics, François Chalet returns to Berlin with a new friend. Nosy will be living in the Collegium Hungaricum for the duration of the Character Walk. Come and visit him as soon as it gets dark – look through the big window for Nosy antics! François will also be showing a selection of animations made by his students at Berliner Technische Kunsthochschule.
18
Lansstr. 8, 14195
Tue-Fri 10-18h, Sat-Sun 11-18h
www.smb.museum/em
Permanent Collection
The Ethnological Museum in Berlin Dahlem Dorf is one of the leading museums of its kind worldwide. It houses a collection of over 500,000 cultural objects from pre-industrial societies across Africa, Asia, the Americas, Australia and the South Pacific, as well as an extensive archive of photographic documentary material. The museum’s collection of ritualistic masks should be of particular interest to the Pictoplasma visitor, not to mention highly inspiring. Entrance is free with a Pictoplasma conference ticket!
19
Dorotheenstr. 12, 10117
Mar 17-22, 10-19h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 19h
www.zsoltgyarmati.com
www.hungaricum.de
DioxinDauer
‘Art should make people conscious of unconscious things that may remain unconscious even consciously’ Hungarian artist Zsolt Gyarmati makes paintings that collage fragments of reality, seemingly devoid of any organising principle, pieced together like a comic strip. These are streams of consciousness where digital overload converges with thoughts sprayed from a can, bound together with rope.
20
Dorotheenstr. 12, 10117
Mar 17-22, 10-19h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 19h
www.parsons.edu/illustration
www.hungaricum.de
Ugly is Beautiful
The illustrious Illustration Program at Parsons New School for Design, New York, focuses on visual storytelling, character and toy design. Three of the artists featured in the main Pictopia exhibition graduated there: AJ Fosik, Aaron Stewart and Motomichi Nakamura, as did David Horvath (Ugly Dolls) and Peter de Sève, the character designer of the Ice Age movies. Parsons presents a selection of fresh work by current students, along with work by noted alumni.
21
Auguststr. 10, 10117
Mar 17-22, 10-17h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 19h
www.joumi.de
www.grotest-maru.de
characterrorschachkaleidoscope
Joumi invite you to participate in a visual research project into the emergence of figuration from fluidity. Rorschachcharactoscope – use your senses and your feet to create a character with its own sound. Shape and sound converge. Manipulate sight with your ears and alter sound with your eyes. And browse the extensive archive of earlier experiments.
22
Schönhauser Allee 167c, 10435
Mar 17-22, 14-20h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 20h
www.shadowtricks.com
www.generalpublic.de
Pagan Lullaby
Gediminas Šiaulys works as an illustrator and designer in Lithuania and is inspired by nature, fairy tales, folk art and the pale colours of his Soviet childhood. In this exhibition, he takes us on a journey back in time, to the pre-Christian era, which thrived much longer in Lithuania than anywhere else in Europe. ‘Pagan Lullaby’ is a tribute to the pagan gods in those magical days when forests, animals and bees were holy.
23
Schönhauser Allee 167c, 10435
Mar 17-22, 14-20h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 20h
www.heroesofmightandmaybe.com
www.generalpublic.de
Heroes Of Might And Maybe
Michal Dabrowski pities Superman, because he always has to play the tough guy, but at the same time he envies him a little, because he probably never had bad skin. He thinks Dr Doom might like Joy Division. He thinks superheroes used to be gods, but grew up into humans. His installation, developed especially for the Character Walk, takes a humorous looks at our weaker selves.
24
Brückenstr. 15a, 10179
Mar 14–28, Wed-Thu 15-18h, Fri-Sat 17-20h
Special Sunday: Mar 22, 17–20h
Vernissage: Saturday, Mar 14, 19–21h
www.eunjunghwang.com
www.allgirls-berlin.org
The third part of Ghosts
Korean artist Eunjung Hwang creates animations that explore the sub-conscious in thousands of tiny snippets connected by dream logic. Relentlessly kaleidoscopic, they look like a hand-drawn version of what might go through the mind of a computer before its hard-drive implodes. For this show, she will present her animation together with a collection of her characters in the form of giant silky balloons.
25
Gormannstr. 23, 10119
Mar 17-Apr 02, Tue-Sat, 11-19h
Special Sunday: Mar 22, 12-18h
Vernissage: Tue, Mar 17, 19h
christianmontenegro.com.ar
johanssen-gallery.com
7 deadly sins
Christian Montenegro’s images may look like expressionist woodblock prints, but they are actually sumptuous pieces of digital sophistication. The first solo show of the Argentine artist in Germany features 7 evil characters, 7 faces destroyed by vice and depravity, 7 paths best avoided, 7 tips for becoming a better human being, 7 moments for wondering what you are doing with your life, 7 lessons for saving your soul and, of course, 7 deadly sins.
26
Torstr. 110, 10119
Mar 13-Apr 18, Tue - Sat 12-19h
Special Sunday: Mar 22, 14-18h
Vernissage: Thursday, Mar 12, 19h
www.bongout.org
Schöne neue Welt
The Bongout Gallery set minds boggling in Berlin early last year, with its programme of punch-packing underground art. Their current show presents the wild’n’wacky handmade books by Kottie Paloma, oil paintings by Laurent Impeduglia and animation films by Stéphane Blanquet, Yann Jouette, Wojtek Skowron and Sabrina Tibourtine – all haunted by lonesome figures, unusual meetings and bizarre occurrences.
27
Brunnenstr. 24, 10119
Mar 17-Apr 17, Tue-Sat 12-19h
Special Sunday: Mar 22, 12-17h
Vernissage: Friday, Mar 20, 19h
www.mymonsters.org
www.atmberlin.de
I just did this yesterday
Mymonsters love rainbows with white icing. Instead of hiding her characters under the bed like bad dreams, MYMO draws them out of the parallel universe of her head and has them communicate with the world. Mymonsters is a multimedia platform for a constantly developing art project, inspired by nothing less than life itself. MYMO’s Mymonsters are graffiti, collages and installations and they feel at home in all sorts of places between Berlin and Barcelona.
28
Raumerstr. 40, 10437
Mar 17-26, Mon-Sat 12-19h
Special Sunday: Mar 22, 13-18h
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 19h
www.blacksub.de/atelier-unsichtbar
www.supalife.de
Tell me what you saw
Danny Gretscher is a man of many faces. His inspiration comes from the street, where he also finds all the materials for his work. For the Character Walk he will be creating a complex room-filling installation, complete with a vast wall drawing, clay heads and hundreds of smaller sketches and collages. It is an exploration of urban structures, brought to life by his ever-questioning attitude and sharp eye for life’s absurdities.
29
Raumerstr. 40, 10437
Mar 17-26, Mon-Sat 12-19h
Special Sunday: Mar 22, 13-18h |
Vernissage: Tuesday, Mar 17, 19h
http://jancko.blogspot.com
www.supalife.de
Arturo’s Transmutation
Who says eating chips makes you into a couch potato? Juan Salas munched his way through 100 bags of his local brand of potato chips Arturo with their distinctive chicken-head logo of three red hearts and a dot. He then began a series of beautiful and increasingly intricate character drawings directly onto the paper bags, each incorporating the logo differently. He will show the drawings in a grid formation, revealing the process of transmutation within strictly imposed limits.
30Alexanderstr. 7, 10178
Mar 18, 22h - open end
www.week-end-berlin.de
After two days of non-stop gallery hopping, it’s time for a first Character Walk welcome party and a last deep breath before we all dive into the foreign waters of Pictopia.
You are still on safe terrain, so take the elevator to the 12th floor and join us for a supreme panoramic view of Berlin at the Weekend Club. Here, the stars come out as the night kicks off with live sets by Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts and Crackhaus from Canada.