Image: mudac - Cantonal Museum of Design and Contemporary Applied Arts, Lausanne
An exhibition devoted to Isao Takahata, the pioneering Japanese animator and co-founder of Studio Ghibli, is on view at mudac in Lausanne through 27 September 2026. Described by the museum as unique in Switzerland, ‘Isao Takahata. Pioneer of Contemporary Animation’ follows the artist’s career from the postwar period through his work with Studio Ghibli, bringing together production materials, original drawings and audiovisual documents.
Held at mudac, the Cantonal Museum of Design and Contemporary Applied Arts at Lausanne’s Plateforme 10 arts district, the exhibition examines Takahata’s practice through notebooks, storyboards, original drawings, cel paintings, film excerpts and other documents. The presentation spans major works including ‘Heidi’ (1974), ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ (1988) and ‘The Tale of the Princess Kaguya’ (2013), allowing visitors to consider the development of his visual and narrative approaches across television and feature animation.
A complementary section created for mudac focuses on Takahata’s sustained engagement with Western culture, particularly the French-speaking world. It addresses his intellectual formation, his interest in the poetic realism of Jacques Prévert and his study of Paul Grimault’s ‘The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep’ (1953). The display also considers his adaptations of Western children’s stories, including ‘Heidi’, ‘Marco’ and ‘Anne of Green Gables’, and the research undertaken to construct their European settings.
The museum presents Takahata as an important intermediary between Japanese and Western animation cultures. Documents in the exhibition cover his exchanges with Western artists including Paul Grimault, Michel Ocelot, Frédéric Back and Yuri Norstein, as well as his influence on international animation. The exhibition is produced with the collaboration of NHK Promotion Inc. and with the special support of Studio Ghibli, with further support from The Tokuma Memorial Cultural Foundation for Animation and Shinchosha Publishing. It is curated by Kazuyoshi Tanaka of Studio Ghibli, with scientific advice from Ilan Nguyên of the European Museum of Manga and Anime. Xavier Kawa-Topor and Nguyên curated the complementary section on Takahata’s relationship with the West.
Born in 1935 in Mie Prefecture, Takahata graduated from the University of Tokyo’s French literature department in 1959 and joined Toei Animation that year. He directed his first theatrical feature, ‘Horus, Prince of the Sun’, in 1968, and moved to A Production in 1971. His television work included all 52 episodes of ‘Heidi’, followed by ‘Marco’ in 1976 and ‘Anne of Green Gables’ in 1979. He later directed films such as ‘Jarinko Chie’ (1981) and ‘Gauche the Cellist’ (1982).
Takahata produced Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind’, released in 1984, and founded Studio Ghibli with Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki in 1985. His subsequent Ghibli films included ‘Grave of the Fireflies’, ‘Only Yesterday’ (1991), ‘Pom Poko’ (1994) and ‘My Neighbors the Yamadas’ (1999). His final feature, ‘The Tale of the Princess Kaguya’, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. Takahata died in 2018.
The mudac is accompanying the exhibition with public programming, including a Relaxed Visit on 31 August and a philosophy workshop for children aged nine to 14 on 5 September. A lecture on the cultural, tourist and economic connections represented by ‘Heidi’ between Switzerland and Japan is scheduled for 10 September. In a linked programme, the Fantoche international animation film festival in Baden is screening Takahata’s ‘Pom Poko’ (1994) on 4 and 5 September, and the Cinémathèque suisse is running a Takahata retrospective. mudac also takes part in the Lausanne and Pully Nuit des musées on 26 September. The exhibition opened on 24 April and remains open at Plateforme 10 until 27 September 2026; the museum is closed on Tuesdays.
