On Friday in front of auudience will appear Claudius gentinetta from Switzerland, who made his first steps in animations here in Cracow.
 

Still from animation "Islander’s Rest", dir.: Claudius Gentinetta

Claudius Gentinetta, a Swiss animation author, participated in the 1st edition of Krakow Animated Film Workshops organized in 1996 by Pro Helvetia Foundation, Animated Film Studio of  the Academy of Fine Arts of Krakow and the International Film Festival Etiuda.

Gentinetta, born in 1968 in Lucerne, got interested in animated film already in his childhood. He studied design and animation in Lucerne, Liverpool and Kassel. In 1995, he spent a year-long Artest Foundation fellowship in Krakow, with the additional support by Pro Helvetia Foundation. His early films seem to be rooted in Gentinetta’s fascination with various film genres, as the time passed, however, his interests centered on social issues.

While staying in Krakow, as Christina Schlatter writes, Gentinetta ”for the first time used a knife to scrape light into a black surface which had previously been applied in black ink on a film in order to create his animation “Hysteria” (2000)”. When he came back from Poland, the artist made an eerie and dark film “Poldek” (2004) inspired by his recording of piteous howling of a little dog and the look of Krakow’s backyards.

An exhausting experience of a hotel neighbour’s snoring inspired another Gentinetta’s film “Sleep” (2010). An authentic recording of snoring sounds stimulated artist’s imagination which created  some dream figures floating on waves of snores. Sleep brought the artist the Grand Prix of the ANIMA competition – The Golden Jabberwocky at the Etiuda&Anima 2010.

Personal and family experiences of the artist, who each year spends a few weeks on the Irish island of Sherkin near Baltimore, contributed to the making of Gentinetta’s latest, already known in Krakow and regarded as the most poetic of all his films – “The Islander’s Rest” (2015). It tells of a generational change, becoming an adult, saying goodbye and death. The film owes its melancholic atmosphere to, among others, the music composed by the Irish native Seamus Fogarty.

Self-Portraits of Animation Authors II – Claudius Gentinetta
24th November (Friday), 05.30 pm.
Kijów Centrum – Large Screening Room