We are pleased to introduce this year’s guest Kōji Yamamura – japanese independent animator, Oscar-nominated for the short film „Mount Head”. We invite you for a retrospective of his cinematic works and an incredible live performance „Muybridge's Strings and the Rhythm of Motion” directed on the initiative of the Matsushita sisters, leaders of japanese band TORANOKO Performing Arts Company.

Kōji Yamamura, one of the most outstanding contemporary animation artists in the world, is a guest of our festival for the third time. He visited us for the first time in 2006 as an acclaimed author of the famous and successful film “Mt. Head” (“Atama Yama”, 2002) to take part in the 1st edition of “Self-portraits” of Animation Authors. He again participated in the festival two years later as a chairman of the ANIMA competition jury in 2008. Our festival also prides itself on the awards granted to the artist’s films. In 2005 his “Mt. Head” won the Silver Jabberwocky, in 2007 “Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor” (2007) won the Golden Jabberwocky – Grand Prix in the ANIMA competition at the 14th IFF E&A, and “Muybridge’s strings” (2011) received The Great Underestimated – the award granted by the Artistic Director of the 18th festival E&A 2011.

Picture from the film "Muybridge’s strings"

The circumstances of the Japanese artist’s third visit in Krakow are extraordinary. Sisters Matsushita, who lead the Japanese group TORANOKO Performing Arts Company, are artists of Polish and Japanese roots, educated in art schools in Great Britain, Thailand and Poland and fascinated with one of the latest Yamamura’s films. They asked for consent to use the artist’s film to create a performance by the group they lead, which performs an original kind of performative art, on the border of theatre, film and artistic exhibitions.

In their next project the artists wanted to highlight and develop in their performance, presented with “Muybridge’s strings” screened in the background of it, some certain motives from that film, namely: “captured moments”, “transience of the moment”, “stopping the motion”, “time running backwards”, and, finally, “eternity”, as well as the title “strings”, both real and symbolic. The result of these efforts – the performance presented in Krakow in the presence of Kōji Yamamura, in which a group of teenage female performers will take part with live music played by Japanese artists, will with no doubt be one of the most attractive events of this year’s Etiuda&Anima festival.

Performance “Muybridge’s strings and the rhythm of movement”

24th November (Friday), 07.30 pm.
Małopolski Ogród Sztuki – Large Screening Room

Kōji Yamamura – a retrospective

24th November (Friday), 08.30 pm.
Małopolski Ogród Sztuki – Large Screening Room