The Contemporary Animation Horizons(C:A:H) is a multiple round international workshop & animation camp launched in 2023, run by Countryside Animafest Cyprus and Primanima World Festival of First Animations. The entire programme is a talent development initiative followed by a series of creative events (screenings, masterclasses, concerts and exhibitions) in Cyprus and Hungary, which aim to highlight the expressive power of artistic and experimental animation cinema.
The Contemporary Animation Horizons(C:A:H) is a multiple round international workshop & animation camp launched in 2023, run by Countryside Animafest Cyprus and Primanima World Festival of First Animations. The entire programme is a talent development initiative followed by a series of creative events (screenings, masterclasses, concerts and exhibitions) in Cyprus and Hungary, which aim to highlight the expressive power of artistic and experimental animation cinema.
Together, we aim to encourage young talents to experiment and push the boundaries of their own creative practice. From the very beginning of our collaboration and friendship, this common goal was evident. We have decided to dedicate the entire C:A:H programme to this, and also to emphasise to participants the joy and value of co-creation in the visual arts, and to give them the opportunity to do so through collaborative workshops and a varied list of accompanying programmes at our festivals for the first time in 2023.
This year under the artistic guidance of Tamás Patrovits and Yiorgos Tsangaris we focused on the creative methods of collage making, so our intention in organizing the series of workshops was to provide as many different common platforms as possible for participants and people interested in collage and collage animation to think, experiment and exchange artistic exchange in Cyprus and Hungary. It was also very crucial that the programme should not only include animation creators, but also young talents from any field of visual culture, as well as artist-educators.
As the very first event of the programme, we announced the detailed schedule of C:A:H together in Nicosia at Animafest Cyprus' permanent twin venue, the Hambis Municipal Printmaking Museum. Primanima also hosted there a retrospective film programme of Hungarian collage animations. The selection was curated by Ida Anna Orosz, film historian, member of the staff of the Hungarian National Film Archive and programme director of Primanima. The screening was followed by a masterclass by Tamás Patrovits.
The experimental workshops were led by Tamás Patrovits in Cyprus and then in Hungary, who encouraged the young talents to think about collage as a creative force of structure, both in the visual and in the creation of the musical and sound background. In the workshops, participants were able to turn towards the direction of experimental filmmaking, and thus, by rethinking the technique of collage, they were encouraged to take new approaches to the commercialisation of the film industry and visual culture. In Cyprus, alongside the workshop, Chris Robinson, Canadian animation film historian and director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival, gave a screening and a personal lecture to the participants on the history of collage animation, based on his recently published book "Earmarked for Collision - A Highly Biased Tour of Collage Animation". After Sallamiou in Budaörs, the young talents have already been reflecting together in small groups on their projects. They also built an impromptu sound design room at BABtér to work on the sound design of their projects. At the end of the two-week workshop series and festival experience in both countries, the creators presented an audiovisual installation together to the audience of the Primanima Festival in Hungary. The installation was a collective cinema that focused on the dynamism of visual and sound effects made with recycled and repurposed objects.
