Puppet Technologies of the Four

This year’s Biennial of Puppetry Artists of Slovenia opens up a view of puppets not as artistic objects, but as structurally thought-out bodies in the space between performance and material presence. The exhibition explores puppet technology as a living and ongoing process that is constantly changing and materialising through the hands of puppet makers, technicians, animators and stage conditions.

The exhibition presents four puppet technologists who work at the intersection of precision craftsmanship, artistic sensibility and innovative research practices. Their work ranges from institutional theatres and the independent puppet scene to experiments and research projects. All four are not only constructors of mechanisms, but also co-creators of narratives.

At the heart of the curatorial approach is the idea of care – a holistic attention to the puppet as a technological and artistic entity. The designers’ attentiveness and technical imagination enable the puppet to move, express itself, feel and live. The exhibition shows the processual dialogue between concept and stage, between sketch and realisation, between designer, animator and material.

The exhibition not only shows the end products, but also the process that is normally hidden behind the scenes. On display are archive puppets from the active repertoire, mechanisms, technical drawings, materials, prototypes and videos in which the technologists look back and share their memories of the challenges they faced during production and how they solved them. This interweaving of archive and live production reveals the unique role of puppet technology today.

A detailed analysis of the puppet technology (of the four puppet makers) can be found in the accompanying theoretical text printed on A4 sheets and presented in a slip-in folder in the exhibition and also published on UNIMA Slovenia’s puppet art platform.