April 2020: The playground is empty and quiet, with a sadly fluttering barrier tape that nobody cares about because everyone is at home in lockdown. Except for a pear-shaped 3D figure which pads searchingly through the gravelly sand on thin legs, in chunky sneakers. It is towing an exhausted balloon with a frozen smile and – chunky sneakers. The dangling balloon hands pat the lonely rule-breaker from above. Franz Impler’s poetic and playfully condensed snapshot lets us empathise with an indescribable, exceptional situation in all its melancholy and absurdity.

André Eckardt

A tennis player is driven to despair by his opponent, a devious blue Cheshire cat. After her serve, she uses wicked magic to manipulate the spatial coordinates and establishes the one, ruthless rule: Now the court keeps rotating and with every return the player, long-since destined to lose, crowns himself the invincible opponent. A creative tennis nightmare.

André Eckardt

Somewhere between fascination and shock we slowly begin to make out what is moving here as a grey, overgrown mass. A bodyless head sings in a salmon-red universe. The voice is borrowed from Shaun Ryder, the lead singer of the Happy Mondays, whose already drawling rap is slowed down to an unreal slow motion here. The song quoted, “Tart, Tart”, is about a tragic, lonely death. A small, effective experiment using the Face Cap software.

André Eckardt

A fluffy pink animal creature pokes its head out of a precisely trimmed green hedge column, singing a euphoric motif, its voice radiating the charm of a vintage synthesizer. Twin creatures with twin voices join from neighbouring hedges, an exhilarating beat resonates. An unhinged anthem with few beats, a brief anarchic moment on this lovely, bright day.

André Eckardt

Joeri is in love without being loved, a schoolyard-like choir teases him again and again, hysterically working themselves up into a frenzy of malice. Driven by fear, the curly-haired redhead in the colourful striped shirt leaps into the void. The empty space around him condenses to a claustrophobic confinement consisting of his own reflections. Suddenly a dark landscape opens, peppered with strange dream images. Anton Cla transforms the confused feelings of a romantically inclined adolescent into a surreal theatre space whose dynamics will leave you spellbound. Belgian composer Michiel De Naegel finds a perfect home for his fictional character Joeri Chipsvingers and his world of sound in Cla’s animation.

André Eckardt

Left to one’s own devices, the appeal of internet posts has faded, boredom and nonsensical ideas take hold: Can the neglected plant be revived with a flat coke? Talking to oneself because there is nobody else. The outside world only shows up in the shape of a dishevelled pizza boy at the door. The hope for the new in-line skates with the cryptic name YMI-2142 you ordered and indeed any hope at all is safest from disappointment when you no longer expect anything. The world of the main character in Franz Impler’s 3D animation is colourful, free of edges and brimming with kindness, which makes the realisation that life can simply move forward without one even sadder.

André Eckardt