Purpose
The Shimokitazawa International Puppet Festival will be held every other year starting February 2024, organized by the Non-profit Organization Deku Art Forum and co-oganized by The Suzunari and Shimokitazawa Alley Hall. Ahead of the festival, there will be a pre-event which is free and does not require booking, and which is aimed specifically at a younger audience. There has been renewed interest in puppet theater/object theater in Europe and North America in particular, producing numerous creative and edgy small and low-budget works with social or political messages. With this project Deku Art Forum hopes to rework the image of “puppetry” in Japan, and position itself at the global forefront of contemporary puppetry.
Program
-Lecture “What has object theater brought to puppetry?”:
Jakub Vasicek (Artistic Director, Drac Theater/Director) with Jakub Hora (SIPF) and Yoko Yamaguchi (SIPF)
-Puppet Slam in Japan ed.O: Puppeteers from Tokyo/Kanagawa/Nagoya/Kyoto/Chicago
-Live performance of music to accompany puppet theater: Daniel Čámský (Minor Theater, Czech Republic), others
Non-profit Organization Deku Art Forum
DEKU ART FORUM is a non-profit organization established in Tokyo, Japan in 2021. Our main mission is to promote and develop the art of puppetry in Japan and its connection to puppetry arts throughout the world. We provide creative support for puppetry in areas related to both research and practice. We provide information on overseas puppet theaters; offer linguistic and production support for Japanese puppet companies to participate in overseas performances and festivals; plan and produce festivals of international work in Japan; and organize conferences and lectures on puppetry arts.
Hoshi
Non-profit Organization Deku Art Forum
ticket@sipf.jp
Shimokitazawa Alley Hall, Setagaya City, Tokyo
