Bienale Ilustracii Bratislava
 Much of the purely visual creativity that has fled the contemporary art world has found refuge in two fields that are
regarded as primarily for children – animation and picture books.
Animation has had plenty of attention from art curators in Hiroshima these last few years but now picture books have their chance.
The Bienale Ilustracii Bratislava (BIB) was first held in 1967. Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum (HPAM) credits this competition, inaugurated, as they say, at the height of the Cold War,
with contributing to world peace by promoting mutual understanding of the culture and traditions of many countries through the medium of picture books. The latest prizewinners,
coming from such disparate countries as Iran, Denmark and South Korea lend some credibility to this claim. A biennial event held in what is now the capital of Slovakia, a Grand Prix and
various other prizes are awarded for picture books and the touring exhibition displaying the original artwork of the 2005 prize-winners has now reached Hiroshima. The Bratislava
competition has grown to be the world’s largest and carries concomitant prestige.
Room 1 displays 46 artworks from the prizewinners. Room 2 displays 56 artworks from Japanese entrants. Room 3 contains work by a number of Czechoslovakian illustrators from what
is known as the Golden Age of picture books, the 1920s and 30s, featuring such artists as Josef Lada, Ondrej Sekora, Josef Capek, Karel Svolinsky, Jiri Trnka and Cyril Bouda. There’s also
a reading room stacked with excellent picture books and a scattering of wooden toys available for children to use. The exhibition is rounded off with a display of Czech toys and pop-up
books. Finally, the shop has a superb array of pop-up and picture books so if you take kids allow time for them to peruse the ?? mihon.
The exhibition runs until January 14th 2007 at Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum. Click here for more details.
Don Fowler
January 2007 |
Similar Articles
