ALL THE CITY'S ART CENTRES COLLABORATE WITH ANIMAC
january 30th 2025
The Centre d’Art la Panera, the MORERA. Museu d’Art Modern i Contemporani de Lleida, the Fundació Sorigué and the Seu Vella join the wide-ranging offer of the Festival with installations and exhibitions that explore the limits of animation.
Proposals by artists such as William Kentridge, Carina Pierro, Isaac King and Estampa complete the cultural offer of Animac.
Animac, the International Animation Film Festival of Catalonia, organised by Lleida City Council from 20 to 23 February 2025, has established partnerships with the city’s main art centres. These spaces will host exhibitions and installations that explore the limits of animation and contemporary visual narratives, offering the public a unique and immersive experience. Animac accredited persons will have free access to all the exhibitions.
- Centre d’Art La Panera
From 22 February to 25 May, the miniPanera space, designed especially for children, will host the interactive installation Humans Build The Biggest Nests, by the artist Isaac King. This unique proposal combines animation and narration to reflect on the human impact on ecosystems.
Children will be able to explore a giant ecological flipbook featuring 532 drawn frames, 232 cards and 78 possible routes, discovering fascinating characters and situations such as a hungry deer, strangled native plants, a confused turtle, impatient cars, a destructive child and even a restored wetland. In this context, the public is also invited to create their own flipbook and narrate stories that connect humans and nature.
The proposal is complemented by the collaboration of the Lleida Public Library, which offers the loan of some publications so that children can discover new stories where nature and the human species coexist in the same space, our mother earth.
Isaac King will also give a lecture on ‘Animating ecology’ as part of the Animac programme on Thursday, 20 February, in room 2 of La Llotja.
- MORERA. Museu d’Art Modern i Contemporani de Lleida – Atri digital
From 18 February to 2 March, the MORERA. Museu d’Art Modern i Contemporani de Lleida will be hosting Atri digital Martian Species by the art collective Estampa, which will be taking part in Animac. An AI model trained with 24,000 scientific illustrations of organisms related to the planet Mars, both from space exploration (such as fungi and algae) and popular culture. The result is a kind of speculative imagination about the confusion of species and the fascination for other non-human universes.
- Espai Cavallers Gallery
From 31 January to 23 February, the exhibition Terrario de malas malas: el proceso creativo de ‘Maleza’ offers an in-depth look at the creation process of Maleza – Wildflower (Spain, Portugal and Brazil, 2024), by Carina Pierro. This experimental film, included in the official Animac section, is a poetic essay on control, the unwanted, life and its contradictions.
Through sketches, production materials and visual elements, the exhibition reveals how this work was shaped. Visitors will be able to delve into the artist’s personal reflections on the relationship between man and nature.
- Casa de la Volta in La Seu Vella
From 18 February to 2 March, the Casa de la Volta, located within the monumental complex of La Seu Vella, will host the work Sibyl by the acclaimed South African artist William Kentridge. This nine minute and fifty-nine second film reflects on destiny and mortality through a unique visual experience. Inspired by the myth of Sibyl of Cumae, Sibyl combines cartoons, poetic texts and moving symbols to convey powerful messages such as: ‘Will the day dawn more than once’ and ‘Where shall we place our hope? This work, based on the opera Waiting for the Sibyl, explores the connection between art and contemporary knowledge, placing the algorithm as the new Sibyl of the digital world.
- Fundació Sorigué
The Fundació Sorigué presents for the first time the works by William Kentridge that form part of its contemporary art collection. The exhibition traces a journey through different works by Kentridge exploring his creative process. Among other works, the exhibition presents the complete set of 7 Fragments for Georges Méliès, Journey to the Moon and Day for Night. Starting from a particular homage to Méliès, Kentridge develops a reflection on the creative process in the studio and his own artistic identity.
Likewise, at Lleida Jove (c. La Palma, 6-10), the exhibition El temps animat will present a compilation of animation pieces in techniques such as cutout, rotoscoping, stop motion and animated drawing, created during the first years of the Animation Training Cycle at the Escola Municipal de Belles Arts Leandre Cristòfol de Lleida. Visitors will be able to see preparatory drawings, sketches, storyboards and character and set designs, offering a glimpse into the creative process of these works.
Special Animac bus service
To facilitate access to the parallel activities, a special bus will be provided in collaboration with Autobusos de Lleida-Moventis on the mornings of Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd February. The Animac bus will leave from the bus stop next to the La Llotja theatre (Avda. Tortosa, 6) at 11.30 am and 12.30 pm on Saturday, and at 10.30 am, 11.30 am and 12.30 pm on Sunday. The stops will be as close as possible to the art centres. All Animac accredited visitors will be able to use this service free of charge.
‘We, Animals’, 2025 edition
This edition of Animac will explore the theme ‘We, Animals’ with a selection of films and activities that reflect on the relationship between humans and animals. Among the highlights, there will be screenings of short and feature-length films of recent creation, conferences and workshops. In addition, the Pro area of the Festival will offer activities such as the Incubator, Animacrea and Animac Campus, aimed at fostering emerging talent and promoting collaboration between professionals in the sector. The full programme will be announced at a press conference in Lleida on 10 February and can be consulted on the official Animac website.
Animac, the International Animation Film Festival of Catalonia, is a platform dedicated to auteur animation that celebrates the creativity, innovation and talent of artists from all over the world. With a 29-year history, Animac offers a curated selection of films, workshops, conferences and activities for professionals and enthusiasts of film and digital creation.
