Step into the magical world of Tim Burton's mind in new Madrid exhibition

"Tim Burton's Labyrinth" opened on 29 September - Copyright AP Photo

By Theo Farrant & AP

Published on 01/10/2022 - 10:00•Updated 10:01

A new immersive exhibition in Madrid takes visitors on a journey through the mind of Hollywood director Tim Burton. But what's on display there?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to explore the mind of Tim Burton, the man behind some of cinema's most iconic stories including, Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd?

Well a newly opened exhibition in Madrid titled, 'Tim Burton's Labyrinth', aims to bring the 64-year-old filmmaker's creative and artistic process to life.

Full of never seen before artworks, the exhibition is an immersive celebration of the movie titan's career as a film director and cartoonist.

"What excited me was, really, is like the creative process to me, I mean, it goes back to like when I sit in a room drawing and thinking: well, maybe this will become an animation, maybe it will move, maybe it'll become a sculpture, maybe it will become a character in a movie," said the director, at the opening of the exhibition.

A labyrinth of rooms

Inside the experience, visitors can find a series of interconnecting rooms full of original sketches from Burton's archive, accompanied with animated artworks, lights, music, scenery, and costumes inspired by his movies.

Some may choose to go through the magical mushroom forest of Alice in Wonderland, while others can discover the story of Oyster Boy, a character who featured in a book of poetry written and illustrated by Burton and published in 1997, 'The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy'.

Felype de Lima, the creative director of the exhibition, explains that choosing the artworks took a long time.

In the end, they selected 150 original sketches to fit in the different rooms, some of which have never been exhibited before.

"We worked room by room because we had a huge body of original artwork, which is in the exhibition. There was such a large volume that we had to make a very difficult selection with him (Burton) and his studio," explains de Lima.