Jan Luis Gottwald was born in Poland, and now lives and works between Berlin and Spain. He studied FILM & animation for two years at BTK in Berlin and five years of Fine Arts with a focus on sculpture at UdK Berlin.
Jan’s main form of expression is hybrid stop-motion animation, in which he combines various techniques, ranging from Sculpture, painting animation, puppet animation, real live video, greenscreen footage and 3D animation.
Jan works as a freelancer in all aspects of: videography, editing, music video production, animation, compositing and projection mapping (VJing).
Contact:
E-mail: art@janluisgottwald.com
PHone : +491633487581 (Telegramm , Whatsapp )
Spoken languages: German (Native), Polish (Native), English (Fluent), Spanish (Fluent).
exhibitions:
– Artistania Atelier, Berlin. The Doer’s Generation (Animation Projection), 2017.
– Railroad Studio, Boursay, France. Railroad Festival (Projection mapping), 2017
– Geyger Art Gallery, Berlin. (Interactive installation and sculptures), 2018
– Schmiede Art Festival, Austria. (Interactive installation and videos), 2019.
– AIV Berlin , Collective Exhibition, Berlin. (Sculpture installation), 2020.
– MONOM, Funkhaus Berlin. (Immersive Animation Projection.), 2020.
– COSMO, La Giudecca, Venezia. ( Audio Visual Space Installtion & Sculptures), 2021.
– Galerie Mutare, Berlin. ( Sculpture Installtion & Animation.), 2021.
– Wald, Wolf, Wildnis. Kunststation Kleinsassen, 2022.
– Becoming Jungle, Solo Exhibition, Galerie Mutare, Berlin, 2022.
– FTMA Festival, Audio-Visual Projection, Paris, 2022.
Artistic Vision:
In art I search for the feeling of life alike to the one experienced in nature: a state of pure perception.
As most of us lose the connection to nature in cities, art comes as a saviour to connect us to that feeling with means of contemporary language.
My medium of expression is hybrid animation. It is a combination of sculpture, painting, puppet animation, video, multi-layer compositing and 3-D animation.
At first, I build miniature landscapes, organic architecture and imaginative inhabitants of those places. I use ceramics, wax, metal and different materials which I find in nature. In the following, I integrate those into animated compositions in post-production softwares.
Such a fusion of the analog with the digital is a way for me to open a dialog between nature and our human-in-nature future.
In my works, I focus on details: textures, movement of light, gentle shifting colors and forms. The environments created consist of many different elements that interact and coexist with each other. To grasp all this, our perception can become very attentive and open. We zoom into natures textures, observe and listen.
Our rational mind lets go and allows us to experience life with our bare senses.
This is when poetry appears, meaning becomes irrelevant and magic arrives unnoticed.
Collaboration:
Most of the artistic work of Jan is a result of a fruitfull friendship and collaboration with french musician, sound designer and poet >>Paul Behnam<<.
Paul and Jan met in 2015 when Paul made the sound and music to Jans first animation. They worked together ever since on different projects and have been a source of inspiration for each other. Their affinity for detail and creating own material, as well as the poetry and synesthetic perception has led them to find their own unique audio-visual language.