Japan’s new Hiroshima Animation Season festival and convocation (August 17-21) has announced the three animation artists from around the world selected for the Hiroshima Artist in Residence (H-AIR). The residency program will welcome participants to the city from May 1 to October 31, where they will work on new projects, build their skills and connections and become immersed in the arts and culture of Hiroshima.
The invited artists for 2022 are Mahboobeh Kalaee (Iran), Nata Metlukh (U.S.) and Sakura Koretsune (Japan). Read on to learn more about the invitees and their projects.
Mahboobeh Kalaee (b. 1992, Iran) graduated from the Tehran College of Fine Arts with a BA in Industrial Design (2015), followed by an MA in Animation Directing at Tehran University of Art (Faculty of Cinema & Theater) (2020). She is a 2D animator, author, illustrator, graphic designer and director of experimental and short animations. Kalaee has won numerous awards, including the Best Film Award at the Fantoche International Animation Film Festival for her stop-motion film The Fourth Wall last year. The film was also awarded the Grand Prix of the Animation category at the 25th Japan Media Arts Festival recently.
Artist Statement: “O people of the land of the sun, in Hiroshima! Your words are the most hospitable language in the world! My fascination with your mysterious culture and unique aesthetics leads me to you. Being in your space and discovering new points of view in observing the world was one of my dreams. Having direct contact with your culture and civilization will be very exciting for me, and I will describe my experience in my film. I’m sure the lovely Hiroshima is full of new ideas for any filmmaker.”
Ship for Our Relation: A group of Iranian miniature characters traveling to Japan to discover a new edge of calligraphy. Although they date back hundreds of years, they are in the form of a collection of illustrations from a book that are traveling in the present age. The film is an animated documentary about the journey of an Iranian miniature book and the connections that their characters make with the real world through mixed media technique. The connection between Persian and Japanese words is a vehicle to explore the form and meaning of the words and how animation can improve their storytelling potential.
Nata Metlukh was born in 1982 in Ukraine. She studied classical animation at Vancouver Film School, and received the Master of Arts degree at Estonian Academy of Arts, where she studied film direction under the supervision of Priit Parn. She is currently based in San Francisco, working on commercial and personal projects, focusing on gifs and animated shorts. She creates visually bold, character-driven works in a digitally hand-drawn technique. Her stories are based on absurdity and defamiliarization of common things. Metlukh’s films have been recognized by major animation festivals and received a number of awards.
Artist Statement: “Hiroshima is a City of Peace, and in these tough times it’s a beacon of hope that peace will eventually come to all the ravaged lands. I hope to have a fruitful time during my residency, and will try my best to contribute my skills and knowledge to everyone who is interested in animation and fine arts. I’m excited and grateful for the opportunity to live and work in Hiroshima City, and to be able to immerse myself into the local culture. This invaluable experience will spark new ideas for the future works and will be a great promotion for independent animation filmmaking.”
Off-Time: An animated short film featuring time in different aspects. The goal is to explore time-related themes such as: urban rush in the big city, the urge to be productive all the time, different time perceptions, speeding up time when we get older, etc. Urban life will be shown in various time states: when all the actions are going in slow-motion, when the time reverses and everything is running backwards, when the time is frozen, or flying by too fast.
Sakura Koretsune was born in 1986 in Ondo-cho, Kure City, Hiroshima. She obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Art: Painting from University of Alaska Fairbanks (2010) and an MFA from Tohoku University of Art & Design (2017). She has been researching whaling, fishing and the folk culture of the sea in Japan and abroad, and has published her findings in the form of doujinshi, embroidery and sculptural works, including the illustrated booklet series Ordinary Whales. Recent exhibitions include “20th Anniversary Exhibition: Restoration of Narratives” (Sendai Mediatheque, 2021) and “VOCA Exhibition 2022” (The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo).
Artist Statement: “For many years now, I have been living away from my hometown in the Seto Inland Sea. The more I visit different places and the more time passes, the more I think about the beauty and specialness of the sea of Hiroshima. I am very much looking forward to being able to work with everyone and create art while reconnecting with Hiroshima, which is my original landscape.”
Eyes of Hippocampus: Inspired by Koretsune’s hometown and art of “landscapes moved by water,” this animation/video work will mix animation and real landscapes. The artist will observe and record the “moving scenery” seen from a boat on voyages to and from Hiroshima City, and also observe and record the “moving objects” in the sea by diving into the sea at bathing beaches in the suburbs of Hiroshima City. She will also interview people who use boats as a means of livelihood, and conduct research on the past of ports, rivers, gantries, etc. in Hiroshima City and on the islands. This fieldwork will be applied to animation techniques such as zoetrope, flipbook and stop-motion of fabric to create a three-dimensional work with animation elements, like a portable device, which well be set up in the city.
