The first part of Edufest, a seminar for students, offers a lecture with an expert on Anime background art Stefan Riekeles, who will talk about the unique art behind the classic Anime film Akira. Riekeles has published a number of books about the architecture in Anime films and is considered one of the biggest experts in the field. The seminar will also contain presentations of key courses in animation, film, and VFX.
Stefan Riekeles, born in Leonberg, Germany in 1976, is an animation historian and exhibition curator. He is the founder of Riekeles Gallery. He completed his M.A. in culture studies and audio communication science from Humboldt University and the Technical University Berlin. He has curated several internationally touring exhibitions featuring original anime background art, including “Proto Anime Cut” (Berlin, Dortmund, Barcelona, Madrid, Tallinn, Basel, 2011~2013), “Anime Architecture” (Berlin, London, Sydney, Delray Beach, 2016~2019), “AKIRA – The Architecture of Neo Tokyo” (Berlin, 2022), and currently “Cityscapes in Anime Background Art” (Kanazawa, 2023). He established Riekeles Gallery in 2021. His most recent publication is “Anime Architecture – Imagined Worlds and Endless Megacities” (Thames & Hudson, 2020).