Zuzanna Odolczyk

Zuzanna Odolczyk is a Polish artist working with digital hand-drawn 2D animation. After a period of architectural studies, she started her adventure with animation at Central Saint Martins UAL where she did her master’s degree in character animation and made […]

Biography / Zuzanna Odolczyk

Zuzanna Odolczyk is a Polish artist working with digital hand-drawn 2D animation.

After a period of architectural studies, she started her adventure with animation at Central Saint Martins UAL where she did her master’s degree in character animation and made short animated films for the Old Operating Theatre and the English National Opera.  Her diploma film, a short animation titled “Into the Night”, is a story of a woman who wakes up in the middle of a night disturbed by a voice calling her in a dream. We follow her on the journey through the sleepy streets, deep into the underbelly of the city, where she meets her destiny.

Over the years, Zuzanna worked in various studios across UK as character animator and clean-up artist. She spent a year in Cambodia as a lead animator for Phare Creative Studio.

About the project

The project “Soundscape from walks around Berlin” is an animated depiction of words and sounds found during walks around the city of Berlin.

Starting from a research on a soundscape of the city, the aim is to find sounds that represent the beauty and characteristics of Berlin. Walking around with a notebook, the artist is on a lookout for anything that catches the ear: footsteps, cries, machines moving around, music, birds singing, conversations etc. Can we get a poetic image out of the cacophony of sounds?

Based on the research, Odolczyk is creating a written transcript of the overheard sounds in the form of onomatopoeias as well as a map. Much like the maps created by Italian Futurists, it is an informative starting point for the later work, a script of a different kind.

In a next step, the sounds are recorded in a vocal form, as onomatopoeias read aloud, and turned into a soundtrack. Illustrated with short animations, they will be put together into a short film that reflects the mimetic nature of onomatopoeias and its musical quality in the movement of animated images. The film lets us experience a part of Berlin through artistic, cinematic and linguistic means.

Photos: Christian Rückert

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Anyone passing by Sandstraße 64 is greeted by a cheerful and colorful forest. On September 27 and 28, 2023, around 20 children between the ages of 4 and 6, under the guidance of artists Oana Maria Pop and Zuzanna Odolczyk, created a tunnel wall that brightens the day of every passerby. Both artists, who hail from Romania and Poland, are currently living and working in Berlin for a year as fellows of the Fresh A.I.R. residency program #8.
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