Since 2010, going to see the Close to YOU International Performing Object Festival with everyone has become a romantic “orange date” for us. Touring with the guide through allies, witnessing the experimental practice of objects and puppet theatres, as if it was a journey to the land of puppetry. Close to YOU International Performing Object Festival used to hold its programs at the venues in our daily lives, turning a living space into a character, a text or a stage. We wonder, would the relationship between human beings and objects be more open and flexible if we jump out of those living spaces? In addition to animating and operating, is there more to be found in terms of the use of puppets? In the 9th edition this year, the Festival continues to explore the relationship between human beings and objects while putting an emphasis on space. The venue planning of 3 areas are extended into 3 different types of spaces - daily-life space, online space and neutral space. With this innovative concept, we hope to push objects/puppets forward in the post pandemic era, and to realize the idea of making the Festival an experimental platform.
Pei-Yu Shih
Many years ago, we visited the annual International (Internationaal Poppentheaterfestival Holland) held by a well-known puppet master, Damiët van Dalsum, in a historical city, Dordrecht, in southern Netherland. We experienced various forms of puppet performance and admired lots of incredibly creative and innovative venues, such as a corner in a library, local people’s living room and their backyards.
It’s our first time to get so close to the puppet and the puppeteer. We can observe every detail in a very short distance and feel every movement and breathing of the puppeteer as well as the puppet. We were in the atmosphere that created by the performance and felt the intimate feeling of it. Meanwhile, as the venues were distributed throughout the city, the audience can see around the place from different perspectives by knowing local people’s lifestyle and having closer interactions with them.
It was a very wonderful “theatre experience”.
How could they embrace so many touchable artworks? How did it happen? How great would it be if we can bring those intimate feelings back to the art-lovers in Taiwan?
As a result, the concept of the art festival is…
We’d like to see every intricate execution and get closer to the puppet.
We’d like to discover every unexpected nook in Taipei city and deliver live performances there.
We’d like to see 20-minute small works related with puppets/materials created by artists who come from different fields.
We’d like to do little things better by our own hands, in a very fine way.
Consequently, a small-scaled arts festival was gradually shaped in 2010. That is “Close to You” International Performing Object Festival.
Curator/Shih Pei-Yu
Producer/Cordelia Yang
Executive Producer/Spring Chen
Marketing Consultant/Lu Chung-Wei
Marketing Coordinator/ Syu Zi-Jia
Maketing Assistant/Lily Chen
Front-End Developer /Weslee Chuang
Back-End Engineer/ Stanoo Chang
Ticketing Coordinator/Stella Shen
Visual Art Designer/Raintree Cha
Designer/Robert Lin
Translator/Lyu Chia-Yu
Flying Group Theatre was founded by Pei-Yu Shih in May of 2004 .In Chinese ,the name “flying group ”is the homonym for “non-human,”which represents puppetry,while also implies the place in which the artists who “fly” around freely in the theatre gather together. Flying Group Theatre aims to create artworks with the spirit of diversity and integration , and challenge the traditionally accepted distance between performer and audience.