Priit and Olga Pärn
Between mystery and magic

The exhibition Tra enigma e magia (Between enigma and magic) is dedicated to Priit and Olga Pärn, the Estonian directors who are also the protagonists of the 40th edition of Bergamo Film Meeting animation cinema complete retrospective.

Before discovering animation, Priit Pärn worked as a caricaturist and illustrator. Since the end of the Sixties, he has never stopped creating illustrations. With a stroke free from the constraints of formal precision, he dedicated the first part of his artistic production to portraying the political and cultural climate of the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991. A theme that certainly influenced Pärn’s film production, starting with Kas maakera on ümmargune? (Is the Earth Round? [t.l.], 1977). Since 2007, the artistic partnership with Pärn future wife Olga Marchenko allowed the duo to achieve great success and earn a prominent spot in the Olympus of contemporary animation cinema. The black humour and playful surrealism that’s the signature of their cinema style is reflected in the 69 prints that make up the exhibition, complemented by concept art, sketches and frames from 4 films: Hotel E (1992), Elu ilma Gabriella Ferrita (Life without Gabriella Ferri [t.l.], 2008), Tuukrid vihmas (Divers in the Rain [t.l.], 2010), Lendurid koduteel (Pilots on the Way Home [t.l.], 2014). Equally impactful is the selection of 12 illustrations created in 2016 for Gothamites, one of the most famous Estonian children’s books, penned by Eno Raud. Protagonists of these crowded paintings are the citizens of Gotham who, tired of being constantly consulted by other peoples for advice on becoming model inhabitants, decide to behave foolishly, plunging the country into chaos

The exhibition is accompanied by the screening of the documentary Priit Pärn in Tallinn by Guillaume Calop and Tamaki Okamoto (Francia, 2013, 29’).