For the centenary celebration of Émile Cohl's first film, Fantasmagorie, the exhibition is recreating the spirit initiated by Cohl and shared by numerous international artists to show that it is still alive today. An artist with an "Émile Cohl spirit" is decidedly unorthodox and someone who adopts both a satirical (even sarcastic) and playful freedom, is not afraid of letting his/her imagination run free to overflowing, and rejects all traditionalism, proclaiming its inconsistency. It is a pioneering spirit, aiming at effect by using all the techniques at hand and not hesitating to create new ones if they do not already exist. Many filmmakers are able to recognise themselves in this unbridled spirit today which is in contradiction to the Disney planned and lyrical spirit. A collection of about 10 Émile Cohl films will show off the diversity of his work and create links and connections with current and previous animated works or even contemporary art. The exhibition will also be made up of work by filmmakers and artists who claim an artistic affiliation with Cohl's work or in whose work this can be seen: Tex Avery, Walerian Borowczyk, The Fleischer brothers, Peter Foldes, Renzo Kinoshita, Raimund Krumme, Norman McLaren, Raoul Servais, Jan Svankmajer. There will also be a dimension of "tribute" to this exhibition through drawings or short animated sequences made in homage to Émile Cohl and created by artists working today in the spirit of the great master: Gil Alkabetz, Paul Driessen, George Griffin, Pierre Hébert, Christopher Hinton, Pavel Koutsky, Yoji Kuri, Regina Pessoa, Bill Plympton, Priit Pärn, Koji Yamamura.

Featured Works:

Un Drame chez les Fantoches (1908); Fantasmagorie (1908); Affaires de cœur (1909); Les Joyeux microbes (1909); Les Locataires d'à côté (1909); Les Beaux-Arts mystérieux (1910); Le Binettoscope (1910); Le Peintre néo-impressionniste (1910); Le Retapeur de cervelles (1910); Rien n'est impossible à l'homme (1910); Le Tout petit Faust (1910); The Bewitched Matches (Les Allumettes ensorcelées, 1913) 

Love on the Wing (Norman McLaren, 1938); The Three Blind Mice (George Dunning, 1945); Neighbours (Norman McLaren, 1952); Blinkity Blank (Norman McLaren, 1955); Le Merle (Norman McLaren, 1958); La Balade d'Émile (Manuel Otéro, 1967); Maboule (Co Hoedeman, 1970); Metadata (Peter Foldès, 1971); Hunger (Peter Foldès, 1973); Cat's Cradle (Paul Driessen, 1974); The Owl Who Married a Goose: An Eskimo Legend (Caroline Leaf, 1974); Head (George Griffin, 1975); Japonese (Renzo Kinoshita, 1977); LMNO (Robert Breer, 1978); Animando (Marcos Magalhães, 1987); Něco z Alenky (Jan Švankmajer, 1988); Oui Oui - Un Joyeux Noël (Michel Gondry, 1988);  Hommage à Émile Cohl (Fabien Ruiz, 1989); Comment on sauve un film (Philippe Truffault, 1996); Les Shadoks (Jacques Rouxel, 2000); Flux (Chris Hinton, 2002); Panique au village (Vincent Patar et Stéphane Aubier, 2002); Ryan (Chris Landreth, 2004); Carlitopolis Redux (Luis Nieto, 2006); Here and There (Diane Obomsawin, 2006); Le Parc (Hervé Marchal, 2006); Sleeping Betty (Claude Cloutier, 2007); 7 minutes avec Robert Breer (Pascal Vimenet, 2008); Julien Pappé, le magicien de l'insolite (Tamara Pappé & Philippe Malouet, 2008)