About the Festival
“Small scale, small audience and intimate space-- the three major elements of the Close To You International Puppet Festival bring their audience a special experience of connecting life and theater.
It seems like a pout to react against the framework for hardware of regular performance art, yet it actually declares that beside the habitual way to observe the “big, more, and distant,” we’d like to pick up those fabulous ideas of the “small and exquisite”, which, in the past, was due to the lack of resource but seemed to be even more kaleidoscopic. The little, exquisite and agile of an object (puppet) is just right to present the characteristic for the “small.” Flying-group Theater has been using the “puppet” as it’s main element to create works, and therefore everything seems to click with each other through this concept when it collects, induces, and explains the “puppet” to the audience.
If we have the “small” as the theme, then the unique feature of Close To You International Puppet Festival is to look for and create the “small things” that we might miss by carelessness. Therefore, we’d like to walk with the audience from this “small” theater to the next “small” theater. Since there are many tiny details around following the process of walking, it becomes an important spirit of Close To You Festival to “walk to see the show, and keep walking after the show.”
In terms of going to the theater, “ watching by walking” could be also considered as an extended show of Close To You International Puppet Festival. You can move among streets and alleys and take intermission as a free and easy stroll. The guide would introduce the history of the areas along the way, and share the private-home-cuisine sights and the observation of the inhabitants’ lives. What’s even more is that you might see an out-of-the-theme “show beyond show” on the way. Through the intermission carefully designed, the audience has the opportunity to ruminate about the “small” and “life.” Our program for this year is base on the connection between “Puppet and object.” We’ve invited several masters from the abroad, and we also have some experienced theater directors in Taiwan who leap over the framework of their previous works and make utmost experimental brand new works.
Considering the over-all condition, there seems to be an imbalanced cost-benefit in Close To You International Puppet Festival. It is well worth observing that, in the future, how to have a dialogue with the trend of industrialization of art, how to transform organically, and even more, how far that Close To You Festival could move forward under our cultural values.
Pei-yu Shih, Curator
Flying Group Theatre
A Gateway to Imagination and Happiness, in the Twilight
Uncover the fascinating corners of the city! In the chilly autumn air of 2010, Close To You International Puppet Festival made its first appearance in Taipei. Without grand-scale publicity or indeed, a grand-scale stage, this strange, intimate festival nevertheless attracted the attention of the artistic world through word-of-mouth support, mostly on the internet. The presentation of the festival was unique in that it utilized a guide who took the audience through the streets of Taipei’s urban landscape during the autumn evening, in order to reach each unconventional performance space; under the glow of moonlight and street light, every one of those little journeys was full of excitement. The objects and puppets inside each intimate space were lit as if by the light of a sprinkler, playing out their own entrancing stories.
The Taishin Bank Foundation of Arts and Culture has always supported new ideas from the contemporary Taiwanese art world; in this case we were intrigued by the twilit sense of intimacy created by Flying Group Theatre in Close To You 2010, and began working with the group in 2011. It is our hope that Close To You can remain a yearly event which opens up the gateway to imagination and happiness for detached modern city dwellers. We hope that more people will garner wonderful memories about the city through the special experience of both the walking tour and the intimate performances.
To do a small thing well is a big deal.” Let’s walk down a tiny alleyway just to see a little show! If you see another group of audience members coming towards you on the way to the next location, it wouldn’t hurt to greet them with a knowing smile.
Yali Cheng, Executive Director,
Taishin Bank Foundation of Arts and Culture
History of Festival
October 1st and October 10 th , 2010
Flying Group Theatre organized the debut incarnation of Close to You International Puppet Festival. The festival consisted of nine pocket-sized theatre pieces, spread out in nine locations in the Gongguan, Shi-Da and Yong Kang neighborhoods. The journey/performance approach was well-received, while the coolness of the Taiwanese autumn made the perfect backdrop for this urban treasure hunt.
Gongguan Area － 《The fish out of water》 《The Box》 《Hand in Hand》
Shih - Da Area － 《Story of Hug》 《Here she is 》 《Flesh》
Yong Kang Area － 《B》 《Suddenly,Someone Starts to Dance. Gradually,People Start Dancing...》 《Bathroom》
October 21st and October 30th , 2011
We at Close To You International Puppet Festival 2nd invited artist Afra to design the main visual concepts, featuring the core idea of “handmade”. Afra’s collages bring together realistic and abstract images in order to illustrate the relationship between handiwork and the made objects, echoing perfectly the “fantasy of puppetry performance” aspect of the festival.
Eastern Area － 《When you point at the moon》 《The memory dust》 《Lu Lu》
Shih-Da Area － 《The Zebra》 《Towards the End》 《Vega Speed》
Yong Kang Area － 《Piggery Jokery》 《The Extremity》 《The Finger Movement》
October 12th and October 21th , 2012
Special section on documentary film and archives which, base on the timeline, record and review the process of how Close To You International Puppet Festival was formed. It took one year to track and film the documentary, which had combed out the main concept for Close To You International Puppet Festival through visual language. Meanwhile, the archives show the details behind the scene of the festival.
Yong-Kang Area─《The Yellow”O”》《Mrs. Marven:Memories Kodate》《White》
Min Sheng Community─《A Chance Shadow. Part II: Federico Garcia Lorca》《24hr Operation》《Dionysus Hangover》
Ren-Ai Roundabout《Alice’s Tea Party》《I Have a Name》《The Greatest Thing Since The Bread》
Flying Group Theatre
Flying Group Theatre was established in May of 2004. In Chinese, its name is a phonetic wordplay on “non-human,” suggesting puppetry, while at the same time evoking the image of a place of gathering for artists and creative talents who fly around freely within the theatre. In the earlier years following the group’s inception, puppetry was the main focus of creative expression; the group’s work was nominated for the Taishin Art Award numerous times, and was invited to take part in art festivals in Taiwan, Beijing and the Netherlands.
Flying Group Theatre strives to produce performance pieces which follow the spirit of multimedia integration, are intimate in scale, and challenge the traditionally accepted distance between performer and spectator.
Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture
The Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture was founded in 2001. In 2002, the foundation launched the Taishin Arts Award with the intention of generating creative energy for Taiwanese contemporary arts. The award has been held in high regard ever since, and continues to encourage Taiwanese artistic endeavors which are innovative, professional and representative of the spirit of the age through active and concrete support.
Staff
- Artistic Director/Producer：SHIH,Pei-Yu
- Artistic Consultant：Spica Wobbe
- Artistic Adviser:Damiet van Dalsum
- Production Manager：LIU, (Sammie) Pao-Shan
- PR & Promotions：LU, Chung-Wei
- Copywriter： TAO, Wei-Jyun
- Graphic Designer: Naomi SHEI LU,(Paul)Yao-Wei Zoe YANG
- Ticketing Manager：TSAI, Ya-Ting
- Ticketing Associate ：HSU ,Ya-Ting
- Production Assistant:：CHU, Chien-Yi Brian WONG
- Promotions Associate：CHEN, Ya-Rou
- Technical Supervisor: WANG, Yi-Chi
- Internet Supervisor：CHUANG, Wan-Ping
- Workshop Executive：TSAI, Yi-Ping
- English Editor：KOKaleng