CHRONOTOPIA

CHRONOTOPIA is a hand-drawn cel animation exploring the tension between characters and their environments. It portrays architects who seem to have no control over the architectural drawings and buildings that change around them. The film drifts in a seamless loop, erasing the sense of linear narration. Instead, it foregrounds form by modifying the visually codified language of mid-century modern animation

The film was commissioned by Manifesta 16 (Ruhr) and co-produced by Fluentum. It takes the history of the Kulturkirche Liebfrauen in Duisburg as its point of departure. The church was designed by Toni Hermanns in the mid-1950s. CHRONOTOPIA highlights a contrast between the church and the urban environment surrounding it by visualising a never-ending competition between clashing styles and forms from different time periods. Modernist design is sometimes associated with the assertion of grand artistic visions on society by individual “geniuses.” Here, however, architects appear powerless against the forces of history and the chaos of urban life.