XILAM 2 en
For the inauguration, the Arts Ludiques Museum is dedicating its first large-scale temporary exhibition
to French animation studio XILAM.
France’s biggest cinematic export worldwide is animation. France is even the world’s third-biggest producer of animated films. The country’s creativity, diversity, and editorial and graphic originality are universally celebrated.
Xilam Studio, a veritable laboratory of ideas and creation whose productions have been seen by over 900 million people in 190 countries (not to mention the 50 billion views on YouTube) is a prime example of this rich artistic and cultural talent.
Among the creations from this visionary studio founded by Marc du Pontavice in 1999, you may know the series Space Goofs, Oggy and the Cockroaches, Lucky Luke and Zig & Sharko, or the feature films Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure, Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life and I Lost My Body.
Xilam is creative, sometimes irreverent and always innovative, having proved its superior skills from its very first (now cult) series Space Goofs, with a theme song sung by Iggy Pop and featuring the irresistible alien Candy H. Caramella, one of the first gender-neutral characters in the history of animation.
The studio’s talent is recognised around the world, to such an extent that even big American studios ask Xilam to modernise their most famous characters, like Chip & Dale for Disney and Mister Magoo for Dreamworks. Oggy and the Cockroaches and Zig & Sharko are hugely popular with Indian kids, while Chinese children have made the most recent Xilam production Lupin’s Tales a huge hit there.
Whether telling the story of debonair / crazy cats, enchanting / prehistoric families, or extravagant Martians, Xilam studio productions make such an impact that they become THE reference for animated creation for young audiences, leaving an indelible emotional imprint on anyone who grew up with the characters created by the studio. The story of these creations thus achieves the dream of the studio’s founder – to bring adults and children together for laughter and emotion.
More recently, the incredible success of the feature film I Lost My Body, winner of multiple prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and French César awards (not to mention an Oscar nomination), celebrated the studio’s visionary approach, definitively showing that animation can also be aimed at adults and move people around the globe.
With over 300 traditional and digital artworks on show, together with digital installations and numerous interviews with artists and directors, the Arts Ludiques Museum is particularly happy and proud to pay homage to the creative artists behind the Xilam studio’s productions, and delighted that France finally has a museum worthy of their talent and art.
