Cartoons
Saturday, 8 December , 2007 – 10:11Contact: Silvio Giordano
Cartoons originated in Potenza in 1995 thanks to the joining-up of eight young artists. This association aims at communicating by means of images. In the beginning they worked with art and commercial comics by telling stories and realizing national and international publishing projects. From then on they have moved on to videos making works of fiction, documentaries, animation and multimedia performances. The members of Cartoons boast several national and international awards for editorial works (graphic novels) and also for Audio/Video products.
Besides the website www.cartoonsmedia.net which contains pages given to all the association’s members, they run a blog www.cartoonsmedia.net/dblog/ where they promote art events of other associations and inform people about opportunities and competitions for creative people – whether they are Lucanians or not.
Activities and projects
Of all the Cartoons’ projects approved of and financed by the European Community three projects are worth mentioning among the best projects realized in Europe respectively: 1998, “La Storia della Nascita dell’Europa a Fumetti”, 1999, “Coloured Boys” – a documentary film and cartoon dealing with racism – 2002, “Project Comic Strip”, an illustrated guide to the Youth Programme translated into nine languages.
For several years this association has been organizing “Short-Cut”, which is a short-film, video-clip and video-art festival which promotes the Lucanian film-makers’ works. During the last few years it has been working and taking an active part in the birth of “The School of Comics and Illustration in Basilicata”, in cooperation with “Comix School” in Naples and the Association “Amici di Ypsilon” in Avigliano.
Basilicata Art Factory Project
http://artfactorybasilicata.blogspot.com/
artfactorybasilicata@gmail.com
This is a plan originated in 2006 and is being carried on by five Associations which are not only creative but also excellent organizers, such as Opera Prima (the Committee which promotes the Contemporary Art Museum in Basilicata), Orfeo Hotel contemporary art project (Contemporary art projects, photography, performances, public art and specific-site works of art), Cartoons (Audio-video expressions, comics and digital art), La Luna al Guinzaglio (Workshops, children’s theatre and exhibitions), Feedback-tragitti sonori (Contemporary and electronic music).
By means of a valid synergy between these five associations Art Factory is planning to create an identity which will be productive on the Lucanian territory and at the very same time active on an international level. This will be realized in a place where art can be offered, planned and produced for the public through creative workshops and the theatre, literature, design, music, cinema and contemporary art events.
The market and sources of income
The Cartoons Association is self-sustaining by means of publications, audio-video commissioned projects on a national-local level. It mostly cooperates with schools – from Primary school to University – and also training centres by arranging seminars, information and education courses for expression of images, creative workshops on comics, cinema, video and computer-graphics. Among the Institutions: the European Community/Integration and Culture Department.
Problems and drawbacks to development
The Cartoons Association relying both on each artist member’s expertise and the ten-year-old ability to work in groups feels the need for well-equipped premises (with computers, sets and multimedia positions) to satisfy the various artistic urges in which Basilicata is lacking such as realizing experimental multimedia art workshops. But, above all, digital animation, musical video-clips, illustrations, comics both for adults and children, video-sets, workshops for digital and craft colouring, the planning and designing of models for large installations, cinema and theatrical sets, cartoons and animation, cultural events, etc…
