Illustrative, the unique art festival for contemporary illustration and graphics, will return to Berlin in 2009. After successful shows in Paris and Zurich, Illustrative 2009 will celebrate the cutting edge developments in today’s illustrative and graphic art.

ILLUSTRATIVE Berlin 2009 is a project of Illustrative e.V., a non-profit organization based in Berlin. The project is lead by Katja Kleiss and curated by Pascal Johanssen. Following the success of the first exhibition (2006), the second ILLUSTRATIVE also took place in Berlin and the third was in Paris in 2007. Illustrative 2008 was held in Zurich.

After the first exhibition in 2006, Illustrative has quickly become the most important platform for current graphic arts worldwide. With more than 60 international artists, Illustrative presents an inspiring cornucopia of visual contemporary culture. Fine artwork from renowned illustrators and graphic designers form the heart of the exhibition. Drawing, graphic prints, painting and monumental murals, graphically inspired 3D-installations, book art and animation are all celebrated at Illustrative.

 Lok Jansen: "Cityscapes 01", 2008

New Vitality
Illustrative 2009 will impressively unveil the latest illustrative artwork. A new generation of successful artists will be put on show, whose work, in contrast to the intellectual movements in contemporary art, unfold the hidden vitality of aesthetics. “Illustration has played a vital part in avant-garde design for a while,” says Illustrative-curator Pascal Johanssen, “it is progressive, trend-setting and, as an artistic genre, a field of experimentation for designers, a playground.” Illustrative demonstrates how unrivalled craft and visual trends merge into autonomous aesthetics.

Artists exhibiting at Illustrative are, among others, art directors David Polonsky and Tomer Hanuka, who recently came to fame with their animation “Waltz with Bashir”. They are joined by famous artists like the 73-year-old Japanese Pop-Art-illustrator Keiichi Tanaami, German illustrator Olaf Hajek, Hamburg-based comic artist Line Hoven, US-American artists John Casey, Erik Mark Sandberg, Erik Nyquist, Japanese illustrator Aya Kato, Skandinavion designers Yokoland, Siggi Eggertsson and Jesse Auersalo, the award-winning German duo Pixelgarten and many more.

Festival Program
An extensive festival program accompanies the exhibition. The “Illustrative Lectures“, a one-day conference on Friday, October 16, invites experts to discuss the future of the genre. The following Saturday, October 17, the “Illustrative Portfolio Reviews” will take place at Illustrative: agencies, online communities, illustration clubs and creative magazines from all around the world will present themselves at the Illustrative exhibition site.

On Sunday, October 18, the winners of the „Swatch Young Illustrators Award“ will be announced. The prize annually awards outstanding new talent and encourages illustrators and graphic designers in their art practice. The shortlisted art works, handpicked by an international jury, will be exhibited in a section of Illustrative. Workshops and live paintings complete the program.

In the night of October 23, the “Illustrative Degree Shows” open, an exhibition where leading European art schools present the degree shows of their illustration and graphics courses in the IMA Design Village in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Among them are: the Royal College of Art (London), Central St. Martins (London), University College Falmouth (Cornwall), ZuΜˆrcher Hochschule der KuΜˆnste (Zurich) and Kunsthochschule Weißensee (Berlin).

INTERNATIONAL ILLUSTRATION FORUM
Berlin 16.October. - 01.November.2009
Opening (invitation only) 15.10.2009, 7pm
Schinkelbau-Ensemble,
Invalidenstr. 3, 10115 Berlin
Opening hours: daily 11am-8pm