On view in the Paul J. Sachs Galleries on the second floor and in the Debra and Leon Black Family Film Center until April 15, 2023, the exhibition will offer visitors a behind-the-scenes look at the handcrafted creative process to make the latest del Toro film, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022).
Pinocchio in a theatrical piece for the Christmas holidays
In addition to the gallery presentations, the MoMA will screen Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio a theatrical piece 26 4 from December to January and a complete retrospective of del Toro films, January 4-29
Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio is organized by Rum Magliozzi, Curator, and Brittany Shaw, Curatorial Assistant, with Kyla Gordon, Research Assistant, Film Department. “With Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, we had the unique opportunity to organize an exhibition during the active production of a feature film by one of the most important filmmakers of this generation“, says the curator Ron Magliozzi.
Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio will invite visitors to explore the collaborative craft of the stop-motion animation cinema, from the development of the look to the years-long production process, through a presentation of five complete sets and four large sets, together with puppets and puppets, sketches, sculptural molds, drawings, development materials, time-lapse videos and motion tests, rehearsals digital color, archival photographs and movie props. Photographs of the 375 crew of Shadow Machine in Portland, Oregon; Taller del Chucho in Guadalajara, Mexico; and McKinnon & Saunders in Altrincham, England, who all worked together under del Toro's direction to bring the reinvented classic to life.
The exhibition will open in the galleries of the second floor with thescenic display of three classic and contemporary editions of Carlo Collodi's book The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) from Italy and the United States, including the 2002 edition illustrated by Gris Grimly, which inspired the filmmakers. It features an installation of oversized pizza boxes, which were used during the production of the film to store hundreds of faces from 3D printed Pinocchio, around 300 of which will be on display. The opening gallery also features a time-lapse video of an animator at work using stop-motion photography to film a Pinocchio puppet being tossed into a wave, contextualized with real-life examples of the multiple Pinocchio puppets used during filming and a fully disassembled version to view all puppet components. The first section of the exhibition, entitled “Look Development”, will focus on the research and experimentation carried out by the production team to create the natural elements that make up the world of the film and which inspired the look of each character. This gallery will include historical and topographical models of Pinocchio's village, realistic studies of wood and stone elements, and a series of archival photographs used as reference to ground the animation in historical reality.
This adaptation of Pinocchio is reimagined to be set in 30s Italy
The combination of the work “Loading Dock 'M' Gate” on display in this gallery, with an untitled archival photograph from 1934, depicting the gigantic “M” installed to meet the fascist politician Benito Mussolini in a small Italian village, highlights the historical source material that informed the production team. This gallery will also introduce examples of all the finished puppets from the film, paired with maquettes for developing the look at various stages in the process, such as the silicone and resin vegetable fusions that provided the inspiration for the monstrous skin, texture, texture and scars.
The second section of the exhibition, "On the set", will open with a "Production Scheduling Board" and will present eight sets taken from the production of Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
This installation will continue the exploration of the studio process, highlighting the attention to detail given to each of the sets, a testament to the handcrafted process of stop-motion filmmaking. Of particular note are the stained glass windows and frescoes on the walls of the “Church Corner” set that reference both Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio and other films by him. Screens of animation work and time-lapse video recordings interspersed in these galleries will offer visitors behind-the-scenes insight into how animators use live action videos and stop-motion animation to bring scenes to life. Visitors will make the transition from the second floor galleries to the ground floor of the Museum, where Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio continues with the larger Pinocchio puppet. “Oversize Pinocchio”, consisting of an approximately 5′ 8″ (172,2 cm) head and torso, which was used to film close-ups of the characters Pinocchio and Cricket, will be suspended from the ceiling. This large-scale hanging puppet will be accompanied by a look development study of the “Branch Nose Bridge” maquette, made from cardboard and duct tape, which visitors will be able to experience before descending the escalators to the final exhibition gallery spaces.
