The creator of that characteristic gothic universe of beloved creatures that excited the public since the late eighties with titles such as Bitelchús, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Batman or Mars attacks, to name a few, personally supervised the exhibition Tim's Labyrinth Burton, which now opens in Barcelona, when it landed in Madrid in 2022.
“When he was introduced to me I was very impressed. It was very new. It wasn't something he had seen or done before. I had a show at MoMa many years ago and it was very different because I was not involved in its creation. So this project excited me because I felt like it was something that was originally in my head. It was like making a drawing that can then be turned into something animated or a sculpture, whatever. It was like being inside my mind. Like I'm on a film set and I can build sets for movies because there's something immersive about it. Something you can feel and touch or enjoy in three dimensions. I find it terrifying but exciting at the same time,” he explained in an interview with La Vanguardia.
The filmmaker assured that he found the concept of a labyrinth very interesting because “in some way it was as if my mind were a kind of fun house. And I have always liked strange things, haunted houses and going from one place to another as if it were a labyrinth. The feeling is like being in a movie.”
Therefore, for Burton, the project “is not so much about seeing an art exhibition as it is about attending a film production.” He confesses that he never watches his movies once they have been released. “I feel very vulnerable if I look at things I've done in the past. It's like an emotional flashback that hits me hard."
The director of the successful series Miércoles, who will release the long-awaited sequel to Bitelchús in the fall, was a lonely child who grew up in Burbank (California) and always felt like he didn't fit in. He was scared of normal things and identified with monsters. His imagination was surrounded by marginal characters that he transferred to the big screen. “Everything I have done is part of me. I identify with Edward Scissorhands, with Jack Skellington, Ed Wood and Sweeny Todd. I feel connected to all of them in a strange way.”
