Lately, the art of puppetry has adapted to new forms and technologies. The MarionnETtes festival in Neuchâtel flirts with other arts from the audiovisual and theatrical world and reflects on today’s puppetry. Kaffe und Zucker (Coffee and Sugar) is a performance by Laia RiCa
Erich Malter
The art of puppetry is deeply rooted in Swiss culture. Can new technologies endanger this traditional sector?
This content was published on
May 9, 2024 – 4:00 p.m.
If you are Swiss or if you spent your youth within the Confederation, it is very likely that you have already held wooden toys in your hands. The Swiss quality brand of wooden figurines will bring back childhood memories to many of you. One of the most traditional toys that has captivated young and old alike is the puppet. The art of hand-made puppets has always been deeply rooted in Swiss culture.
Once upon a time… a piece of wood!
Behind each puppet lies an enormous amount of creative and precise work. Christophe Kiss is one of the leading puppet sculptors. “The puppet still has a bright future ahead of it, because it corresponds to a primary need to express oneself through the object. It will continue to open the door to the imagination,” he says. The famous sculptor was trained at the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Visuels in Geneva. In 1993, he began his professional career at the Théâtre des Marionnettes in Geneva, before establishing his own workshop a few years later.
“There is no doubt that technology will open up new horizons for it,” underlines Christophe Kiss, who does not see it as a negative aspect, but rather as an enrichment. In addition to making the puppet, from the sketch to the creation of the puppet through technical drawing, Christophe Kiss has created several characters for film scenes or video clips. “Each mandate is unique, each director arrives with a unique wish, an enigma to solve,” he maintains. The latest, he explains to swissinfo.ch, is the string puppet and other characters designed for Stephan Eicher’s official music video “The Lightest in the World”External link.
One of the main characteristics of the characters he creates is the artisanal aspect which aspires to the greatest simplicity, according to the artist. And it is perhaps this simplicity which ensures the future of the puppet. “Once upon a time… there was a piece of wood!”, thus begins the great story of Pinocchio!
The process of creating a puppet is long and complex. “It begins with the choice of a puppet technique, so as to best respond to the dramaturgy of the show. You then have to draw the characters to create their characters, transforming the artistic sketches into life-size technical drawings. Then sculpt the characters in wood or foam.
Christopher Kiss
Why not become a child again?
The Swiss tradition and sympathy for puppets is widespread throughout the country. The performances take place in theaters in the German-speaking, French-speaking and Italian-speaking cantons. Although the plays are primarily aimed at a young audience, more and more adults are coming to attend the performances. This may be explained by the fact that the message they convey is aimed at a wide audience.
“Our (Frank Demenga) plays are, without exception, critical of our times: migration, climate change, protection of the rainforest, digitalization of children’s imagination – but humor and poetry always play a role an important role,” explains Karin Wirthner, director of the Puppentheater Bern.
“There is no age limit for the puppet theater audience, it is aimed at everyone,” says Christophe Kiss with conviction.
Every week, especially on Saturdays and Sundays, puppet theaters in different cities repeat the same ritual. The audience enters happily, settles into these warm theaters, the lights go out, the stage curtain rises and the performance begins. It is a living and moving picture at the crossroads of several arts: singing, dance, dramaturgy, visual art and musical art.
“The know-how of the costume designer, wigmaker, lighting designer, sound manager and set builders complete the palette” adds Christophe Kiss.
On the other hand, puppet theaters can only accommodate a limited number of spectators, as they must remain intimate and close. It is almost unimaginable to put on a puppet show in a large theater.
And if we follow the trail of puppet popularity, it is almost obligatory to mention the painter Paul Klee, who lived most of his life in Bern. “Puppets are hybrid creatures, objects located somewhere between craft and toy,” emphasized the artist, who includes several puppets in his work.
Between 1916 and 1925, Paul Klee created hand puppets for his son Felix from various materials. Klee usually sewed the clothes himself, only the first costumes were made by Sasha von Sinner (the creator of the now famous Sasha dolls). Paul Klee, 1916-1925, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern.
Courtesy of Livia Klee
“The magic of puppet theater opens the doors to a poetic, magical and surprising world that neither human theater nor cinema can offer you,” continues Karin Wirthner. “Why not become a child again?”
The convergence between tradition and new technologies
There are many festivals dedicated to puppetry in Switzerland. The MarionNEttes Festival in Neuchâtel has become a benchmark event that shines in Switzerland and abroad. “This event has been dedicated, from its beginning, to revealing the art of puppetry in its contemporary forms intended mainly for adults – with of course, a window open to children!” says Corinne Grandjean, director of the festival.
New technologies (video, micro-cameras, music, images, robotics) are not only part of the festival’s programming, but they have become one of its main characteristics. “The performing arts (theater, dance, concerts, etc.) are increasingly integrating puppets,” adds Corinne Grandjean, who predicts a promising future and ensures that she meets many young people who are very invested in this particular art.
Shrimps Tales from Hotel Modern.
Leo van Velzen 2008
Corinne Grandjean explains to swissinfo.ch that “the art of puppetry has evolved a lot in Europe since the 1980s, particularly with the arrival of object theater or figure theater. The artists referring to it have really proposed a break with the anthropocentrism of the puppet. Musical instruments, kitchen utensils, hands or feet, fruits and vegetables…etc. can become characters.
Puppets as a therapeutic method
If the playful and cultural facet of puppetry is well known, there is another, however, little known. At the beginning of the 20th century, puppetry entered the psychoanalysis of children. The Swiss Madeleine Rambert introduced puppetry as an instrument in her therapeutic methods to treat very young patients suffering from various disorders such as infantile neurosis. The idea occurred to Rambert that it might be beneficial to apply it to children with communication difficulties, and this is what happened.
The psychoanalyst wrote an article on her experience of this type of methodology with puppets, in which she emphasizes that “the puppet is a half-living, half-unreal being, but alive enough to give the illusion of a being with which we talk about, and on which the child can project his feelings. A sort of material body into which the child projects his soul.
Rambert was inspired by Anna Freud and George Sand’s novel The Snow Man to perfect his puppet method.
Besides Switzerland, other countries have decided to adopt therapeutic puppet theater to treat conflicts and emotional difficulties, broadening the horizons and applying it to other areas of psychoanalysis. This powerful resource of psychology called reflective puppet theater is booming.
Regardless, puppetry offers a multitude of possibilities in many aspects of life, both culturally and therapeutically – or perhaps the two are linked – and encompasses the worlds of the child and of the adult. “It’s an art that should be recognized in the same way as dance, theater or cinema,” noted Yves Baudin, creator and director of the La Poudrière puppet theater in Neuchâtel until 2013.External linkin a previous interview with swissinfo.ch.
Text revised by Samuel Jaberg
