Alèxia Ponce's Analogue Animations: Material Experiments and Childlike Wonder

Barcelona-based audiovisual designer Alèxia Ponce creates tactile, frame-by-frame animations using unconventional materials and techniques such as soaking and scrunching paper, animating on puzzle surfaces, and printing with sunlight. Her work, which emphasizes texture and imperfection, is inspired by childhood nostalgia and a naive worldview. Her latest film, 'Qui trepitgi la ratlla' (Who steps on the line), explores a child's imagination through drawings made by children themselves. Ponce cites filmmakers Hirokazu Koreeda and Akira Kurosawa, as well as animators Venera Kazarova, Jan Švankmajer, Michel Gondry, and artist Francis Alÿs as influences. The article highlights her painstakingly laborious processes, which can involve hundreds of frames per sequence, yet result in a loose, experimental aesthetic. Ponce's works include 'Salamander from a cell' (2023), 'Lina i Cadira' (2024), 'Josep sobre paper mullat' (2024), 'Paloma Backflip' (2024), and 'Tobogan' (2024). The piece is authored by Ellis Tree, a staff writer at It's Nice That, and was published on August 12, 2026.