LINOLEUM Festival Presents 2020 Theme ‘Being Human’ and Poster by Nikita Liskov
Skwigly
In 2020, LINOLEUM Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival will run online between 2nd and 6th September . This year’s LINOLEUM will go under the main theme of ‘Becoming Human’. What makes us human? Thanks to its surreal nature, animation can explore areas of our experience that are elusive for the other forms of arts and science.
We will start looking for answers to this question with the festival poster. It was designed by animator, filmmaker and painter Nikita Liskov (Mykyta Lyskov). In 2019, he presented his short animation film Deep Love at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. He became the first Ukrainian nominee of this prestigious French festival. Deep Love also received awards at the competitions of TAFF (Finland), Feinaki Beijing Animation Week (China), Dok Leipzig (Germany), Molodist (Ukraine) and others.
The poster by Liskov shows to which extend the issue of ‘Becoming Human’ is burning and should be present in our everyday lives. Oftentimes, domestic problems (such as renovation works, job search or plans for evening) overshadow the ‘eternal’ questions. But the understanding of our human nature can become a solid basis in the ever-changing world where information noise and stress whirlwinds can bend the strongest personality.
I’ve been paying attention to the ads on walls for a long time. It is the Ukrainian pop art, a true folk art. On these chaotically covered walls, one can see the whole new world with different stylistic and seasonal tendencies. So when I learned that this year’s LINOLEUM theme is ‘Becoming Human’, I immediately thought about the ads on walls. ‘Becoming Human’ is exactly what we need now. At least it is as important as plastic windows or insulation of apartments. And LINOLEUM is the favourite festival and an extremely important event for the Ukrainian animators,
– Nikita Liskov (Mykyta Lyskov), LINOLEUM festival poster author
From September 2 to 6, LINOLEUM will screen about 200 animation films from different countries that will explore the theme of humans and humanity from different perspectives. The participants of Annecy, Berlinale, Ottawa festivals and Oscar nominees are among them.
The platform for the festival screenings this year will be the MEGOGO media service. Animation films from the competition programs, thematic selections and special screenings will be available for free.