Iimen Masako is one of the most important sand artist of the world.
The sand animation is a particular animation technique that allows the realization of actual stories with hands and through the shaping of the sand on a glass in real time, used then with a technique similar to the stop motion.The Japanese artist, after the graduation at Musashino Art Night, started to create many sand animations, working for television, collaborating with many anime and musicians such as SMAP. One of her most famous works in Italy is the closing theme of Orange Road.
Moreover, the artist has also worked with Osamu Tezuka, known as “the god of manga”, who has defined her works “full of love”. During the last years Iimen, besides various appearances on television, has been dedicating to sand animation live performances, bringing together a lot of people even outside Japan, as the more than 2000 people in Belgium demonstrates.
During the program for her, IImen Masako will recall her career, starting with the first experimentations with the sand animations to her most famous international performances.
She will also be a great protagonist of the final night, during which she will enchant the audience of the Auditorium with an amazing performance of live sand animation and, through her hands, she will draw a picture on a glass covered by sand. From this picture then, she will bring other figures to life, creating a real story with a great scenographic impact.
SCREENING PROGRAM:
Floating Egg (Fuyuran, 1980, 3’00”)
Bubble of a Mountis (Awatoro, 1983, 3’00”)
Kimagure Orange Road (1987, 1’40”, sand animation)
Sand Box (Suna asobi, 1997, 5’00”, sand animation)
Sand cat in August (Hachigatsu no sunaneko, 2012, 3’00”) – Sand animation live performance
Musical Box in Time (Koku no orugoru, 2014, 15’00”) – Sand animation live performance
Flat Feet (2015, 5’30”, sand animation)
Hi no tori -Drift Sand- (2016, 10’00”) – Sand animation live performance.
Special thanks: Istituto giapponese di cultura in Rome.
