A dazzling journey into immersive abstraction, Japanese artist-filmmaker Makino Takashi’s Memento Stella is made up of hundreds of layers of footage, blending into dense fields of imagery complemented by a highly effective soundtrack by Reinier Van Houdt.

“Memento Stella is an original phrase I coined to remind me to ‘never forget that we too reside among the stars,’ as well as the title of a project I started in the winter of 2016. For several years I’ve travelled the world, screening my work. And throughout this dark, sad world, amid war and terrorism, countless lives lost to natural cataclysms caused by humans, there hasn’t been a single day that death hasn’t been in my thoughts. At the same time, I do realise that it is not only death that binds us. We are also born and raised and living on this little planet, among the stars. I pursue my work with the idea that if each day, we might be conscious of this truth for even a moment, then maybe perhaps somewhere deep in our hearts, we might find shared artistic expressions, keys to a place beyond the religions, politics, borders, languages, and personal desires which tear us apart.”  – Makino Takashi.

Makino Takashi (1978, Japan) is an artist and makes experimental films. He was educated in Cinematography at the Nihon University College of Art in Japan. In 2001, he served an apprenticeship with the Quay Brothers in London, during which he mainly studied film music and lighting. His films have been invited for screenings at numerous film and video art festivals worldwide.

Presented in partnership with Edge of Frame.

Memento Stella is one of four programmes curated by Edge of Frame for London International Animation Festival 2019, taking place at venues across London from 29th November to 8th December.

“Join us and Edge of Frame at the London International Animation Festival for the London premiere of the new longform film by revered experimental filmmaker and artist Makino Takashi, a visionary journey into space and sensorial abstraction.”