Festival showcases Asian puppets

Elisa Vilaça

Seventy puppets belonging to local collector Elisa Vilaça are now on display at the third Puppet Festival, along with several puppet shows being held over the weekend at Casa Garden.

A total of six puppet shows have been held since Friday, targeting children who are above six months of age.

Vilaça shared with the Times that the Asian puppet collection on display features different puppet controls such as strings and rods, as well as puppets used for shadow- play.

The organizer, Casa de Portugal, has also invited professional puppeteers from the Hong Kong Puppet and Shadow Art Center.

Vilaça, who owns 900 puppets of different kinds, said that the reason for inviting the professionals is to nurture a common interest in the local community.

Asian art puppetry is interwoven with philosophical and religious currents which influence the art of creating puppets.

Vilaça noted that Asian puppets retain their traditional artistic concepts, unlike in Europe where the concept of puppetry has changed since the 16th century.

Although the Asian puppets have their own unique design, Asian and European puppets share a few common factors.

These include being dressed in a traditional ceremonial style related to their origins, and connecting with “supernatural forces in a quest for another reality, marked by the relationship with the divine.”

“[This exhibition] shows the difference between the different countries and different kinds of manipulations. Some of [the puppets’] faces were made from wood and clay. They are all very different,” Vilaça remarked.

Vilaça, who is also an educator, has been using puppets to teach kindergarten students, a form of education which she said is not widely used in Macau.

“As a teacher, I want to use puppets in education, because with one puppet, I can speak about geography, language, arts.”

Vilaça expressed her hopes that the event would boost local and regional awareness of puppetry, and that it be increasingly used in education to spark creativity amongst students.

Vilaça also said she believed in the possibility of a center dedicated to teaching puppet-making.

“I think that in future, it’s possible have a small school to teach puppet-making and after that, why not create a group [that hosts puppet shows]?  I think it’s possible, but a lot of hard work and belief is necessary.”

Vilaça said there are only two professional groups in Macau that host puppetry shows.

Yesterday, she held a puppetry show titled “In Chants”, which featured different types of puppets and a set of live musical compositions. In the interactive play, six mimed mini-stories were presented to a group of children. The stories, Vilaça said, were designed to provide the children with a new sensory experience. 

Vilaça revealed that Casa de Portugal is now trying to find a place in the region for a small puppet museum.

The puppet exhibition will be held until April 15.