Μήνυμα για την Παγκόσμια Ημέρα Κουκλοθεάτρου από την Διεθνή UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette) από την Nina Malíková:
The pandemic, war conflicts and escalating economic problems of recent years have made life difficult for all of us, as all this turmoil creates tension, fear and worry about the future. Worry has settled into our minds and faces. Of course, I can't imagine how things were in previous centuries. But if we look a little more closely at history, we see that similar situation - albeit in a different form in the world order - have existed in the past. Despite all this, people believed in love, had children and still tried not only to survive, but also to prosper. Even in the darkest of times, there was always something to help them, and we know from historical sources that the puppet shows and its ancient magical power was a part of that. This power is at the very foundation of puppetry. As a stylized theatrical form with its own metaphors, puppet theater represents human activity but also searches – sometimes with humor, sometimes with absolute seriousness – for solutions.
In its attempt to represent our lives, the puppet theater is often there protesting, against the immutable force of fate. As art, it reflects life's most difficult situations, whether personal or social, through caricature or embellishment. The possibilities of puppetry have recently expanded, and its art is now universally recognized as an integral part of the 20th and 21st century.
Puppetry is about both: traditional expression and the use of new technologies, exploiting their multimedia potential or their ability to entertain and move us.
However, he bravely defends his proudly acquired position. The world will be better than it seems to us right now. We all believe this, and we all want to believe it. So let us not deprive ourselves of the joy of life because of our fears. Let us believe that Pulcinella, Punch, Guignol, Kašpárek, Karagöz, Vidushaka, Mobarak and our other heroes in this endless series of puppet characters depicting human comedy are the ones we can still trust and, like so many generations before us, to believe in their victorious struggle against death.
Let's not get consumed by our worries, but let's use puppetry in its various forms to rediscover the joy and pleasure of creating a show.
November 2022
In case you wish to raed adout Ms. Malíková, Ms. Malíková's biography, here is the download link:
https://www.unima.org/en/personnes/nina-malikova/
