FUTURE PASS

The successful 3D animation film Avatar utilizes a form of Animamix and provides an intrinsic message which has already gained world-wide recognition. Reality and virtual reality are no longer inseparable. Cartoon characters that never age with their often cute appearance become the warriors in the battle for a safe planet. This essentially means that the art observer has become a global observer. Surrealistic animation film captures images of the paintings and fibre glass sculptures that suggest a state of being fearful and frozen. Hermaphrodites “predict” that traditional ideas of opposites will diminish to make way for new realities. These are narratives laden with metaphorical symbolism.

Future Pass artists include both the established and the recently discovered. They originate from countries like China, Japan, India, Peru, Germany, the Netherlands and America. The globalization of art through computer technologies has stimulated the growth of artists collaborating on the same project. Artists now exchange ideas through digital social media like blogs, YouTube and Facebook. The new Internet Age has provided a platform upon which to share art's playfulness, the intelligence of technology and an ever-increasing desire for spiritual beauty. In this way, Cosplay is turning into an ever increasingly popular form of expressive art; expectations of one's own idealized self-image are exceeded with the help of animation media. The narrative quality of Animamix is particularly brought to life through Cosplay performance art. Dressed up in self-made costumes, youth culture morphs into Manga heroes and other characters from computer games, animation films or comic strips.

Future Pass embodies a statement about the changing trends of the contemporary artist and the shift towards the global art of the future. The exhibition is organized into five groups, each with the name of a different dyadic pair taken from Yin and Yang, the ancient Chinese philosophy on the order of the universe. Each dyad is made up of complementary opposites mutually dependent on each another for continuation and thus provides the balance of the universe, more important than the interests of the individual: East / West, Past / Future, Yin / Yang, Universe / Self, Virtual / Real. The dyads demonstrate their power in each art work. Future Pass is the riotous fusion of different cultures, ages and personalities in a Cyber Age.