As 25 animators awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, they found themselves animating in their beds a gigantic insect. In 2015, to celebrate the first century of Kafka´s Metamorphosis (1915), a group of Latin-American animators started creating an Exquisite Corpse, situating Samsa’s dilemma in the heart of a contemporary city: Bogotá.

Figure 1. Official poster of the short film Me Kafka Bogotá 2015

There are many reasons why Kafka’s metamorphosis is so appealing to animation practitioners. From Caroline Leaf’s The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa (1977), to the works of Charlie Ramos (The Metamorphosis, Part 1 and 2, 1999) and Anna Rudichenko (Metamorphosis, 2020), the story has inspired many[1]. Not only Gregor Samsa embodies the idea of transformation and mutation—integral concepts to animation— but also evokes surrealistic environment and imagery and brings out grotesque and absurdity. Furthermore, the sense of detachment and estrangement from the world portrayed by Kafka resonates deeply with animators at various stages of their creative processes.

Morphing as Metamorphosis: intrinsic and particular process on collective exquisite corpse animations

It has been widely studied how transformation and morphing are embedded in the very nature of the animated image, to the point where they establish one of the main elements that set a clearer threshold between animation and live-action processes (Furniss, 1998; Wells, 1998; Pikkov, 2010; Torre, 2017). However, beyond the technical and procedural aspects of morphing as an imagery strategy, it is its implicit ontological complexity and certain sense of uncanniness which becomes so appealing for the practice of experimental animation. Such use of constant motion-and-shapeshifting-driven images is present across collaborative animated works. Examples can be found in short films such as Anijam (Marv Newland, 1984) and Animated Self Portraits (David Ehrlich, ASIFA, 1989); in academic-based projects like Mar de fondo (Carlos Santa, Cecilia Traslaviña, Isabel Herguera, Juan Camilo González, Vuk Jevremovic, 2011) and El Gato baila con su sombra (Maria Lorenzo 2012); in web-based videoclips as The Johnny Cash Project (RadicalMedia, 2010); and even in bigger-scope projects like the feature film Los extraños presagios de León Prozac (Carlos Santa, 2010).

The case of Me Kafka Bogota[2] (2015): Metamorphosis as a bridge between animators

As an initiative developed in association with the 13th Bogotá Short Film Festival – Bogoshorts celebrating the first century of Franz Kafka´s Metamorphosis release, the Colombian Chapter of ASIFA -Association Internationale de Films d´animation-, gathered a group of animators from Colombia, Chile and Mexico to create an exquisite corpse about Gregor Samsa’s journey. We took the buzzing city of Bogota as the source of inspiration, building the narrative flux on a strategy more akin to an animated patchwork than to traditional story development. As experimental practice in animation is keen to defy straightforward descriptions by evoking rather than telling (Taberham, 2019), the nature of the exquisite corpse technique resulted in a multi-layered animation that reflects not only the metamorphosis of characters or animated forms but also the transformation of each collaborator´s style and vision.

Figure 2. Frames from the short film Me Kafka Bogotá. Top to bottom Carlos Santa, Santiago Caicedo, Ana Caro

Within the established constraints, such as frame format, the use of grayscale and the premise “What if Gregor Samsa awakes in Bogotá?”, each animator created a static image that served as the first frame of their sequence. Once initial submissions were collected, something unexpected happened; the images themselves suggested a vicinity to one another, provoking a sequential order, evident in the short film’s final form. Consequently, each initial frame also became the last frame of the previous scene. The last sequence can be connected to the very first frame of the film, rendering Gregor Samsa’s tragedy in an endless ever-shaping loop, and inescapable cycle that, in its looped version, was turned into a video installation during the premiere event[3].

Figure 3. Photograph of the Installed version of Me Kafka Bogotá.

Morphing here is not merely seen as a technical effect but as a process intrinsic to the narrative and the exploration of constantly shifting identities, much like the city and the everyday experiences of its inhabitants. In this context, each collaborator contributes their personal vision of metamorphosis as well as their interpretation of Bogota, resulting in a kaleidoscopic animation that continually shifts and evolves, reflecting the flow between the collective and the individual, between the stable and the ephemeral.

If Franz Kafka would awake today, would he find himself transformed into an experimental animator? The authors would like to imagine it as much as we can imagine Gregor’s struggles still germane in the creative practitioners’ world nowadays.

Bibliography

Furniss, M. (2007). Art in motion : animation aesthetics. John Libbey.

Kafka, F. (2007). La metamorfosis. Alianza Editorial.

Lorenzo Hernández, M. (2016). Animated ‘jams’: The secret joy of collective films. Animation Practice, Process & Production, 5(1), 101–115. https://doi.org/10.1386/ap3.5.1.101_1

Pikkov, U. (2010). Animasophy : Theoretical Writings on the Animated Film. Estonian Academy of Arts.

Taberham, P. (2019). It is alive if you are : Defining experimental animation. Experimental Animation. 1st ed. Routledge.

Torre, D. (2017). Animation : Process, Cognition and Actuality. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.

Wells, P. (1998). Understanding animation. Routledge.

[1] Other references in live action short films include La metamorfosis de Kafka (Atanes, 1993), Metamorfosis (Estévez, 2004), La metamorfosis del señor K (Lara, 2012), The Metamorphosis (Dimitrov 2014), and others.

[2] Screened at animation festivals around the world, including Etiuda and Anima, Chilemonos, Hiroshima International Animation Festival, and Anima Córdoba, it laid groundwork for a subsequent collaborative project, Vorágine 31 (ASIFA Colombia, 2020), developed using a similar methodology but with a larger number of artists involved in the creative process.

[3] The animation was displayed across three stitched cinema screens as a continuous looped installation at the Planetarium of Bogotá during the opening event of Bogoshorts, in 2015.

Camilo Cogua is an animator and researcher focused on the interaction between traditional and contemporary audiovisual technologies. His work includes virtual reality short films, animations for live performances, and multimedia installations, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary methodologies, particularly in exploring animation beyond conventional screens and projections. Currently an assistant professor at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia, he holds a Doctorate in Arts from the Universitat Politècnica de València and serves as a board member of ASIFA Colombia.

Ricardo Arce is an animator and researcher. Digital Media Program Manager and Associate Lecturer on Animation at RMIT Vietnam. Founding member and former President of the Colombian chapter of the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA Colombia. Studied Graphic Design at the National University of Colombia, the Television Specialization Degree at the Javeriana University, and the Master Studies in Aesthetics and Art History at the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University. Has performed as a Curator, Juror and Lecturer in several festivals and professional events on Animation and Design around the globe.