Architectural Award, other plaudits for NZ Frankfurt Book Pavilion
Nearly two years after New Zealand’s Guest of Honour year at the Frankfurt Book
Fair 2012, our presence at the world’s most important book forum is still
garnering awards and raising the profile of our publishing and culture
internationally.The New Zealand Guest of Honour Pavilion at the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair received the award for International Architecture at last week’s NZ Architectural Awards. “The Pavilion was a technically sophisticated and culturally powerful response to the challenge of representing New Zealand’s literary identity at the international publishing industry’s premier event,” said the award citation.
The striking pavilion design and its staging with the theme While you were Sleeping was the joint effort of Patterson Associates and the Inside Out Productions team led by Mike Mizrahi and Marie Adams.
“The design team overcame considerable logistical challenges in realising a dramatic creative vision informed by the concept of manaakitanga. Water, light and projected images were deployed to telling theatrical effect; the pavilion combined physical expression, narrative exposition and intellectual ambition,” the judges noted, saying the refreshing take on exposition architecture was free of the genre’s traditional infomercial inclinations.
The pavilion’s impact was such that it broke all previous attendance records.
“Anyone who entered New Zealand’s Pavilion at Frankfurt Book Fair, whether as a publisher or a visitor, found themselves in a fantastical world that was very New Zealand, very book-orientated and very exciting,” said Sam Elworthy, Publishers Association of New Zealand President. “We are thrilled that Pattersons and Inside Out have received this major award.”
A feature of the New Zealand Pavilion was an animated film combined with live performance of our literature by actor Matu Ngaropo. The 20 minute film for While you were Sleeping played across 12 x 5 metre high screens as part of the show, and last month won the Spatial Award at the prestigious Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film. The Inside Out production involved writers Paula Green, Emily Perkins, Witi Ihimaera. Sound design was by Michael Hodgson and the film maker was Jon Baxter from Perception Engineering. See here for more info and videos.
New Zealand’s Guest of Honour project ran for a year leading up to the fair, presenting 82 New Zealand writers and many cultural performers in more than 260 events in Frankfurt and 50 other cities throughout Germany and Europe. It has resulted in at least 200 rights sales since early 2012. This is more than double the PANZ target of 100 rights sales by the end of 2013.
This country not only gained a major increase in overseas rights sales for books by New Zealand authors, but our FBF Guest of Honour presence also promoted Kiwi cuisine, culture - and our country as a premier tourist destination.
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