Illustrative is the leading international festival for contemporary illustration and graphic arts. Since its start in 2006, it has become a worldwide renowned art festival throughout its five editions. The venue is Berlin, the hometown of Illustrative and one of the most important center of the European art world. In September 2012, the sixth edition of Illustrative will bring about 190 artists from different countries to Berlin.
Illustrative will gathering the vanguard of the genre, that is selected from the many existing European illustrators by the curator Pascal Johanssen and the artistic advisory as well as by the jury of the Young Illustrators Award, wich is being re-composed each year. The goal is to compose a selection of (personal) artworks for the main exhibition, afterwards a selection of the best up-and-coming talents, selecting as well the artists for the specified section exhibitions. The idea of Illustrative is to show the whole spectrum of international illustration and graphic art in one single curated exhibition, highlighting moreover the transitional and intermediate areas between applied and fine arts.
Deliberately, Illustrative is not purely an art fair: it pursues exhibition didactics including technical disciplines (illustrative painting/illustration, drawing, graphic print, digital works, textile design, objects, installation, animation and book art) as well as various topical focuses (political illustration, role of the image, beauty ideals). In regard to its thematic orientation, the festival is unique within Europe. However, it’s not considering itself as a niche-event within the graphic industry, but as a large event accessible to a wide and interested public, helping the illustration and the young generation of the “Cutting Edge Visual Culture” to gain the public’s attention and recognition.
The topical focus of Illustrative 2012 is all about the 4 coordinates: art vs.crafts and technology vs.intention. By the hybrid status of the illustrator as a creative commissional worker who – nevertheless – is trying to realize also free artistic ambitions, he finds himself in an internal and external area of conflict searching for solutions.
Also in his 6th edition, the main goal of Illustrative is to present the partly undiscovered and vivid scene of “young creators” from all over Europe to a wide public and to encourage the creative exchange. Their works are important beares of contemporary aesthetics, illustrating the present “euro-visual” culture with an unvarnished visual power.
