L'exposition

How does animation contribute to contemporary drawing and vice versa?

Animation incorporates two artistic languages, drawing and cinema. Moving graphic image or step-by-step animation, animation is a sequence of drawn images, often with characters, scrolling on one or more screens. So much so that even in its most abstract moments, storytelling – drawing in motion – is the basis of this cinematic art, which often reflects the subjects of its time.

While the tools of contemporary drawing have links with the history of art since prehistoric times, animation emanates from the invention of the zoetrope optical toy, among other technologies developed in thenineteenth century. On the eve of the discovery of cinema, these new sequential technologies are undeniably linked to France, a pioneer country in these arts using the grid tape to tell stories. More concretely, Émile Reynaud invented the praxinoscope in 1877, a box with a crack allowing twelve drawings to be seen in motion, forming an uninterrupted sequence on a rotating cylinder. This led him to develop his Théâtre Optique where, for the first time, animations were shown in Paris at the Musée Grévin, from 1892 to 1900.

The root of the word animation contains the Latin word anima – spirit or breath of life – which in this art is associated with the machine (of projection, broadcasting and production, with its editing, sound and drawing software). The exhibition Animation: Mechanics of the Mind explores this association at the boundaries between human and machine by showing animation works by visual artists and animators, as well as their drawings.

Exhibition produced in partnership with the Frac Picardie and visible on level -1 of the show.
Mediation available on site.