Pixar: 25 Years of Animation

The art challenges the technology. Technology inspires the art. That is how John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer at Pixar Animation Studios, sums up the spirit of the US company that marked a turning-point in the film world with its innovations in computer animation.

This is a medium that is at once extraordinarily liberating and extraordinarily challenging, since everything, down to the smallest detail, must be created from nothing. ‘Pixar: 25 Years of Animation’ casts its spotlight on the challenges posed by computer animation, based on some of the most memorable films created by the studio. Taking three key elements in the creation of animated films -the characters, the stories and the worlds that are created- the exhibition reveals the entire production process, from initial idea to the creation of worlds full of sounds, textures, music and light.

Pixar: 25 Years of Animation traces the company’s most outstanding technical and artistic achievements since its first shorts in the 1980s, whilst also enabling visitors to discover more about the production process behind the first 12 Pixar feature films through 402 pieces, including drawings, “colorscripts”, models, videos and installations.

Elisa Durán, assistant general manager of ”la Caixa” Banking Foundation, and Maren A. Jones, Exhibitions Program Manager at Pixar Animation Studios, has opened the exhibition Pixar: 25 Years of Animation at CaixaForum Barcelona. Within its cultural programme, ”la Caixa” Foundation focuses particularly on basic artistic manifestations that have played key roles in shaping the contemporary sensibility. This line of action features exhibitions devoted to the world of film, which, with photography, is amongst the most characteristic artistic genres of the 20th century. Accordingly, the Foundation has organised retrospectives devoted to such great names in cinema history as Charles Chaplin, Federico Fellini and Georges Méliès, and has engaged in such projects as The Cinema Effect. Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image.

To these must now be added Pixar: 25 Years of Animation, an in-depth review of the work of this pioneering computer animation company. The show first opened at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York in 2005 since then it has toured exhibition centres around the world, including, amongst others, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Mexico, China, Italy, Germany, Holland and France. Pixar: 25 Years of Animation. Place: CaixaForum Barcelona (Paseo del Prado, 36). Dates: From 5 February to 3 May 2015.