Tim Burton and His World 28. 3. 2014 – 3. 8. 2014
Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland and Batman. All these cult movies share a single great name – Tim Burton. The US film director, graphic artist, designer and perhaps the greatest surrealist visionary of the present time will visit Prague in March to personally open his unique exhibition. It will be open to the public from 28 March to 3 August 2014 in the Stone Bell House and will offer several hundreds of drawings, photographs, sketches and sculpture installations. The exhibition is co-organized by the civic association Art Movement, the Prague City Gallery, Jenny He and Tim Burton Productions.
For the first time ever, the Czech public has the opportunity to be introduced to all of Burtonʼs horror worlds and dimensions which he has created during his thirty-year career. The exhibition “Tim Burton” was first presented by the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 2009 and it became the 3rd most visited exhibition in the museumʼs history − having been viewed by more than 100,000 people during just the first two months.
The Prague exhibition is, to a certain extent, different from the series of those previously held abroad. The House at the Stone Bell is opening its cellars into which the visitors can descend to the largest-ever archive of Burtonʼs animated projects and short experimental films and their extensive documentation, and thus have the opportunity to explore the artistʼs sources of inspiration. The exhibits include drawings, paintings, sketches, watercolours, collages as well as puppets, and the atmosphere is underlined by interesting musical accompaniment.
The exhibition is also accompanied by a rich programme. Kateřina Riley, director of the Art Movement association which is behind the exhibitionʼs realization, says: “All visitors can, for example, use the relaxation zone or view some of Burtonʼs filmmaking exploits which are screened here every day. We believe that both children and adults will find many things here to enjoy.”
Burton is known in the Czech lands mainly as a film director and perhaps only film connoisseurs are aware that he is also the artist and designer of his movies, sketching, modelling and animating their figures and scenes. His share in the making of his films is complex and unique. The exhibition not only offers Burtonʼs famous films and the related designs but also his early works, unrealized projects, films from limited distribution and his famous puppets. Prague City Gallery thus follows up with the exhibition of Jan Švankmajer, whose oeuvre Tim Burton finds inspiring and, in many aspects, close to his own work.
About the organizer
Art Movement is a non-governmental and non-profit organization (civic association), which invites artists, curators, lecturers and culture managers to cooperate on short- and long-term projects in the fields of culture and education and on production activities in the Czech Republic, as well as on an international level. It cooperates with both young and established artists and with experienced lecturers and educators from the Czech Republic and the European Union. Its projects mainly aim at connecting visual arts and film (e.g., exhibitions of Czech Surrealists and Stanley Kubrick), the civic and the interactive (the project Civic Minds) and the civic and the educational (Parallel Worlds).
