Puppets / Behind the scenes

Marionetten / Hinter der Bühne

Since the beginning of time, mankind has been practicing the ever-changing performance arts. They get synthesized in new forms, but in their essence always remain relevant. Theatrical art acquired the most complex forms of such synthesis of performing practices in order to artistically reflect current life. It is believed that the puppet theater with figures controlled by wires was created in Ancient Egypt around 2000 B.C. to portray rituals and ceremonies. 

But what does a puppet mean to us today?

Is it still that same piece of wood, rag and paper, which depends on wires, will and the skill of a person who always hides from the viewer?

Or is it, on the contrary, a person, stepping out of the darkness of traditional perception of forms, screens and curtains into the circle of light on the stage or, even going beyond the format of the ordinary stage, during interaction with a puppet, synergizes with this material object, confers on it and acquires from it certain features that “invest soul”, creates that unique stage image which couldn’t be reproduced under other conditions?

Again, is a ballet dancer or a theater actor perhaps also a puppet, who embodies ​​a choreographer’s or director’s idea through the plasticity of movements of his own body and through a combination of the director’s idea with his own will, talent and mastery of performance? But are these combinations precisely those virtual threads that connect everything, in the end, into a real work of art?

This photo exhibition invites us to look at the place of these forms of theatrical art in the modern world, with the help of visual images created by different photographers from Ukraine and Germany.

Irina Derkach, a photographer from Kharkiv, has been documenting the development of theatrical life in the city for many years and offers to enter the world of a rather archaic (but only at first glance) form of theatrical art – the puppet theater.

Florian Tenk, a photographer from Munich, winner of the prestigious award of the Munich Theater

Academy “Du bist Faust” (2018), who explores the emotional component of modern dance in his projects, reveals the secret of the birth of stage images outside the stage and out of schedule.

Exhibition curator: Ilya Zhekalov

With the support of the Goethe Institute in Ukraine and the Kharkiv Municipal Gallery.

Organizer: Cultural and educational center “House of Nuremberg” (Kharkiv)

General media partner: “Nakipelo” media group