I’m playing marbles, on the pavement, in front of the door that’s been left ajar. It doesn’t have a handle, a strong draft can lock you out. It’s sunny probably, still slightly warm. I brought my marbles with me, the ones inherited from a cousin, discovered in a shoe-box in the basement. Agates, pépites, galots, galaxies, terre, flamme, araignée, boulet… My favorites are the petrol with the iridescent hues of rain puddles under the cars. You don’t see those everyday, just like rainbows. There aren’t so many people walking down the street, and anyhow, they’ll simply have to step over us.

I have a favorite step to sit down and wait. The electricity meter is spinning, the radiator is gurgling, I’m doing and undoing the snap fastener on my grandpa’s flat cap. Amongst objects, we observe each other. I’m sulking and waiting ; in the way, like dogs do, so I won’t be left behind. Sometimes I pick another step but I never go up. In the semidarkness illuminated by the street, through the blurred pane of the entrance door ; evening light or lamppost depending on the season. I can hear the muted voices in the kitchen. I open the door to whoever comes knocking. “Well what on earth are you doing here?”. Nothing that needs answering. I end up going on my step by myself, just to make time pass.

I open the tap and let water flow on the cups in the sink. The guests are chatting in the living room. The left-over coffee dilutes and hurtles down the plates’ lips. The room, which usually is the beating heart of the house, is unusually deserted. I’m there, killing time, playing with water. From the living room it looks like I’m doing the dishes. “I have a good grand-son” says my grandma to the ones assembled there.

If it’s sunny and not too cold, I borrow the large magnifier that grandpa uses to study the horse races in the newspaper, and I go play arsonist. I dive in the blue bin, the one for recycling, that’s nearly as tall as me. The solicitor’s newsletter goes up in flames the easiest with its property ads and its glazed paper ; that and the supermarket’s advertisings. I can hear the neighbors’ daughters in the garden beside. Eyes fixated on the dot of concentrated light. I can barely see a thing when I get back to the half-light inside the house.

I finished my homework a while ago already. Here they have the cartoon channel we don’t have back home. Grandma make me a slice of bread with butter, sometimes with powdered chocolate on top. While I wait to be picked up, I’m zapping. In addition to being encased in a shockproof foamy case, the remote control is wrapped up in plastic film, like leftovers in the fridge, so it doesn’t get dirty. They’re having a drink in the kitchen and it’s dragging on. There’s nothing good on TV anymore… Nothing for it but to wait for my father to thump on the wall between us, telling it’s time to get going.

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The receipt zines are an ever growing collection of short texts paired with photographs, exploring memory and identity building. Each zine is printed on a modified receipt printer, folded, with inkjet printed photographs then attached. The texts are in french and english.

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I had the chance to work with Tomas Alfredson on an adaptation of Gunilla Bergström’s Alfons Åberg which resulted in the release of 10 episodes in 2022.

My work started in 2017 with the creation of a pilot, our main goal being to stay as true to Gunilla Bergström’s original illustrations as possible, while enhancing the book experience with movement and the narration of Jonas Karlsson.

Our first concept revolving around the idea of the pop-up book and paper mechanism, later evolved into a deeper, miniature theater setting, using forced perspective, 3-dimensional elements and open background.

Each set design was discussed to retain the feel of the original illustration while adding depth, perspective and camera movement. A wide range of material and techniques was used, laser cutting for the characters, paper engineering, 3D modeling and printing, wooden model making, styrene scratch-building, sourcing miniature material, objects and textures, …

I conceived and built the sets for 5 of the 10 episodes (“Aja baja Alfons Åberg”, “Gonatt Alfons Åberg”, “Vad sa pappa Åberg?”, “Vem spökar, Alfons Åberg” and “Kalas, Alfons Åberg!”) which premiered at Folketsbio in the beginning of 2022 and are available on Viaplay and Cmore.

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Through 2022, I worked with Viaplay Studios Animation as a 3D animator on the adpatation of Zelda Falköga’s books “Karma och Jonar”.

We worked on a base of motion capture shot in-house, in Maya, cleaning data, improving or correcting movement, adding props interactions and hand/finger movements. Then facial animation and lipsync from scratch, under the direction of lead animator Stina Wahlberg, later Daniel Sapa and director Alexander Gustafsson.

By working on-site through the production, I had the opportunity to help supervise junior animators, assist with lead animation when needed and participate in production meetings as well as departments coordination.

I acted as animation supervisor on motion-capture shoots, for which I built an array of proportinally accurate props following the environment department’s designs.

This project allowed me to hone my mocap animation skills and to enjoy a great team.

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During the process of developing the interactive project “A city built from memory”, I wrote a collection of short souvenirs which were to be displayed in the virtual space I built, inviting the spectator to explore and discover them.

This book is my own exploration of this space, an attempt at re-appropriation. It contains all the stories, together with images captured from the interactive piece.

It can serve as guide while walking the virtual streets, as a memento, as an entry point for a spectator intimidated by technological aspect of the piece, as deeper insight into the author’s world.

It is a bilingual book, each piece French text facing its translation in English.

“A city built from memory” by Nicolas Maurice, 224 pages, 19.5 x 22.5 cm , published in 100 copies, RISO printed on recycled paper, hand crafted and hand bound. ISBN : 978-91-983342-0-3

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A silent educational short-movie directed by Hanna Heilborn with the artistic direction and designs of Mats Johannsson.

It is part of the exhibition “Medieval massacre – The battle of Gotland 1361” at Historiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, which tells the story of a horrifying medieval battle between the farmers of Gotland and the well trained soldiers of the Danish army.

The movie is 3 minutes long, animated in stop-motion with magnetic elements on a white board, using an overhead projector and transparency sheets.

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Visual concepts and stop-motion animation together with Carolina Zell.

Serie of 5 shortmovies (3×1, 2 and 3 minuts) explaining in an amusing way how climate change can affect history. Those movies were part of an exhibition at Stockholm’s museum of History and were played throughout 2009.

Client: Historiska museet
Agency and production: STORY

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Co-direction and production (mostly rigging, skinning and animation)

ANIMA is the shortmovie I directed and produced with Rémi Devouasssoud,
Elliott Kajdan and Julien Lasbleiz while studying at SUPINFOCOM. We worked 9 months on the scenario, based on Rémi’s original idea, while learning the technical side of 3D. Then produced it during 9 months.

Winner of the “Best 3D short film” and “Best visual effects” awards at View Festival , Torino, Italy, 2008.
Official selection at SIGGRAPH 2009, New Orleans, Clermont-Ferrand
Shortfilm Festival 2008, 25th Interfilm shortfilm Festival, Berlin,
London international Animation Festival, Celluloid Social club, Vancouver…

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