TIP-Fest: LIGHT Edition

Turku International Puppetry Festival 4 to 8 November 2020 TIP-Fest 11th edition brings the most interesting modern puppet art performances to Turku. This year’s theme is Light in the sense of luminosity as well as a clean and less heavy-structured event. Light creates shades and depths but also reveals dark and hidden places.

Light edition can be experienced in the subjects and approaches of the performances, in their lite structures, materials or puppets.  Performances with video or light projections creating spaces, pieces using reflective materials or puppets as sources of light have been chosen to the festival program. Many of the Festival’s performances can be seen as light in their themes or structure, in their materials or even puppets.

Finnish premieres on the festival

A part of the festival’s program can be experienced online as well as on a theater’s silver screen. Due to the pandemic the program is mainly Finnish offering two premieres: Väistämätön /Unavoidable by the internationally renowned Grus Grus Theater and Holló Erzébet (by her own hand) by Maiju Tainio & Co. 

All the performances represent the vast spectre of puppet theatre including shadow theatre, table puppets, object theatre as well as video projections.

International guests

The international guests include Chaliwaté & Focus Company from Belgium and Drew Colby from the UK whose performance Mr. Shadow can be experienced through video connection bringing together two physical places and puppet artists.

Chaliwaté & Focus Company’s strikingly current performance Dimanche will be screened as a recording to an audience gathered together in the same space. Dimanche paints a witty and tender portrait of humanity surprised by the uncontrollable forces of nature. The performance observes the ingenuity and stubbornness of humans as they try to preserve their day-to-day habits, going to absurd extremes to keep up a sense of normalcy despite the chaos of an ecological collapse. An artist talk via video connection with the working group will follow the performance.

Light can bring forth forms and outlines but it can also conceal them. Experiencing art can spark inspiration creating a light feeling. Welcome to spark with us!

See the full program below