PiFan draws eyes to Swiss art and design

Swiss art and design have been garnering much attention from the Korean audience for the past few days through a special event introduced in Korea for the first time ever at the 14th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival.

PiFan has picked up a program on Swiss fantasy art under the title of "Swiss Design in Hollywood," as this year's topic of its Fantastic Film School, part of the fest's industry program Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF).

Co-hosted by Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council, and Switzerland's Yverdon-les-Bains-based Maison d'Ailleurs which is a museum of science fiction, utopia and extraordinary journeys, the program has been providing a rare opportunity for the Korean public to appreciate world-class concept art, fantasy creatures, character creation and scenery creation.

The exhibition is being held on the second floor of Korea Manhwa Contents Agency (KOMACON), which showcases more than 30 pieces of artwork and sketches by famous Swiss artists in the film and gaming industry in Hollywood.

The list of participant artists prove that contemporary Hollywood movies have been heavily dependent on Swiss talent to create the visuals to their productions -- some of the names include H.R. Giger, the concept designer of the "Aliens" series; John Howe, who was one of two illustrators that visualized Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy; and Derek Ferrand, one of the currently most well-known matt painters in Hollywood

Christian L. Scheurer, a reknowned concept designer who worked for blockbuster titles "The 5th Element," "Titanic," "The Matrix," "Dark City," "Final Flight of the Osiris," as well as video games "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" and "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the Kings" was in Bucheon with Patrick J. Gyger, the curator of the exhibition and the director of Maison d'Ailleurs, to give talks to the general audience and professionals.

At the Fantastic Class on Tuesday, Gyger explained his ideas behind the exhibition, while Scheurer introduced his background and experiences as a concept artist by showing his portfolios chronologically under the title of "Anthropology of the Imaginary: Conceptual Art in Film, Animation and Video Games."

Scheurer also gave a lecture at the Master Class on Wednesday, showing the actual Hero Painting Process mainly used in movies and game production.

Meanwhile, a new sci-fi horror film from Switzerland "Cargo" also gained favorable response from PiFan's audience on Wednesday night.

Invited to compete in the Puchon Choice category for features, "Cargo" tells the story of a woman who confronts monsters in a spaceship.

Produced with just two million dollars, the low-budget movie received acclaim from the audience for its high quality and suspense-filled drama.

Ivan Engler, the Swiss director of the film, held a Q&A session after the screening.
"I had visited other festivals around the world with this film, but the audience in Puchon asked me wonderful questions that I hadn't heard elsewhere. They were very serious, and that made me feel happy as a filmmaker," he remarked.

The Swiss design exhibition runs until Sunday, the last day of the Puchon film fest.

Contributing Reporter : Gloria Kim
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@