Photo by Matthias H.Risse 2010
Experimental animator and media artist Max Hattler studied at Goldsmiths (London), Escuela de Cine de Madrid (Spain), and the Royal College of Art (London), graduating with an MA (RCA) in Animation in 2005.
He has had solo exhibitions at Lumen Eclipse (USA), Media Art Friesland (Holland), Broadway (Nottingham, UK) and Someonesgarden (Tokyo), and retrospectives at Image Forum Festival (Japan), Fredrikstad Animation Festival (Norway), MUMIA Festival (Brazil) and Branchage Jersey Film Festival (Channel Islands).
His works have been shown at hundreds of film festivals, as well as in museums and galleries such as MOCA Taipei (Taiwan), the Marl Video Art Award (Germany), Yota Space (St. Petersburg) and Gasworks Gallery (London).
Awards include Visual Music Award (Germany), London International Animation Festival, Videofestival Bochum, Videologia (Russia), Eksjo Animation Festival (Sweden) and 700IS Art Film Festival (Iceland). Max Hattler’s films have been included in the touring programmes of the European Media Art Festival, Videoformes, onedotzero, Resfest, The Animation Show, L’Alternativa, Animac, AURORA, and the British Animation Awards.
Max has collaborated with several bands including Basement Jaxx, The Egg and Ladyscraper, and he has shown his audio-visual live performances across Europe, the Americas and Asia, including the Museum of Image and Sound (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Electrovisiones (Mexico City), Cimatics Festival (Brussels), Filmfest Dresden, SuperDeluxe (Tokyo), The Big Chill Festival (UK), Curtas Vila do Conde (Portugal), and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London). Max lives and works in London and Germany.
He teaches at Goldsmiths College and at the University of East London.
“I am interested in the space between abstraction and figuration, where storytelling is freed from the constraints of traditional narrative. My work contemplates microcosms, moments, atmospheres: Close-ups as reflections on the big picture. While my films tend to be without dialogue, they explore the relationship between sound, music and the moving image.”
Max Hattler
“Max Hattler works on the thin line between a abstraction and figuration, being able sometimes to create powerful political statements while eschewing the traditional constraints of narrative, choosing a poetics of implication over the mere construction of a discourse. In that matter, it is interesting to see how he is also able to mix the strategies of artistic practice with the techniques one would associate with the entertainment industry, creating pieces that can work on a variety of (sometimes) conflicting frameworks, from the gallery white cube to the dark walls of a nightclub, performing live in a film festival or spreading his interventions through the web.”
Hilda Magazine
Featured story on Cobra TV
Interview with Max Hattler from SHIFT2010
Going with a bang from Design week 2011
Entresijos de la creación from Canal+