Since 2010, a special “small tour group” has appeared in Taipei every October. The tourists are guided by a person in orange T-shirt, who would lead the group and visit the ordinary everyday spaces, and step into a house on the corner casually for a twenty-minute surprise. And that is the “Close to YOU International Puppet Festival,” which is known as “Close to YOU Festival.”
The “Close to YOU Festival” is one of the few festivals in Taiwan that has a distinctive character. It focuses on puppetry, emphasizing the conversation between daily life and performing arts. It insists on the way it should be watched, which is like a secret society, and magnifies the idea of “Intimacy,” the intimacy with the people, the objects, the city, the space, the artists and the works….And the“Space” is a medium for“Intimacy.” The audience therefore gets closer to the works of art and the latter gets closer to our lives, and vise versa. The“Close to YOU Festival”invites works both from home and abroad that are based on “object/puppet.” Meanwhile, it is also a conceptual art festival that provokes dialogues among artists from worldwide that cross the artistic boundaries, and talk about topics like: What is “puppetry” or“modern puppetry”? How do we perceive? Where is the world? Where are we and where shall we go...? All in all, the definition is still obscure and everything keeps developing in an“organic”way.
For the first time, our festival this year will hold a theme forum and also the premier of documentary film “Near At Hand” (2012, directed by WU Xuan-xuan). At the same time, there will be a series of shows called “Also for Children” as well. In addition, we’ve invited not only artists from the Netherlands, but also teams from Asian countries such as Hong Kong and Malaysia in order to establish a cross-country collaboration in the future. Of particular note, we will have a master workshop held by Damiet van Dalsum, a well-known puppeteer and also the director of the Internationaal Poppentheater Festival Dordrecht, the Netherlands.
Since 2010, the festival has witnessed the conflict between the residents and local business in Shi-Da Night Market and the great boom of Yong-Kang District as well. Besides, we have collaborated with twenty-four Taiwanese artists from various fields for nearly thirty new works. Moreover, we have shared the idea of “Close to YOU Festival” to many festivals abroad including Macau, Korea, Israel, Denmark and Germany.
As the fifth edition of the festival, it gives us a great opportunity to comb through ideas and re-examine our aspiration for holding the festival. It was initiated from a simple idea to“toy with puppetry,” and evolved into a festival that has presented a modern concept of puppetry. As you can see in the key visual created by illustrator Inca Pan, there is such a unique group of people who perform on the stage with their individual heads. We hope that in the future, the festival would become a platform for modern puppetry in Asia and provoke more possibilities.
Finally, I would like to give special thanks to Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture, who has been supporting the festival with such a good care and helping it to grow strong.
SHIH Pei-yu
Festival Director
October, 2014
17-26. Oct. 2014 Taipei City: Xinyi-Guangfu, Dadaocheng, Zhongxiao-Xinsheng
20mins / performance
*The total duration of each area tour (including walking) is about 100 minutes
★10.17-19 Xinyi-Guangfu
Frou Frou
[Netherlands] Damiët van Dalsum (NED)、Françoise Vanhecke (BEL) /Poppentheater Damiët van Dalsum
@CLove Boutique Coffee
THE SENSE OF AN ENDING
[Taiwan] CHANG Shauba, YAO Chi-hui
@hn.youandme
A SENSITIVE SOUL
[Taiwan] TSAI Yi-ling, TU You-jen ,LIN Wei-jie
@Torarakuya-Taipei
★10.21-25 Dadaocheng
THE WOOD ROOM
[Malaysia]Kim Giak Low Choon Teochew Puppet Show
@Boan 84
ORDINARY LIVING
[Hong Kong] LAU Ming-hang, LEE Chi-man
@ CAMPOBAG｜URS155
PENCIL ME IN
[Taiwan] CHIANG Jui-ming / Neuron Group
@ Le Zinc Café & Bar
★10.24-26 Zhongxiao-Xinsheng
THE LITTLE KING
[Netherlands] Darja de Caluwe
@ BUMP Inn
THE ISLAND
[Taiwan] HUANG Kai-lin, YU Rho-mei , PENG Hao-chin / Théâtre des Enfants Terribles
@BUMP Inn
THE DREAM OF MAGARITA
[Taiwan] HSU Chia-fen (TWN) , Darka Erdelji(SI) , Ivan F. Moran(MEX) / Soup Theater
@BUMP Inn
Artistic Director/Producer：SHIH Pei-yu
Artistic Consultant：Spica Wobbe
Artistic Adviser：Damiet van Dalsum
Forum Moderator：LIN River
Executive Producer：SUN Jui-chun
PR & Promotions：LU Chung-wei
Promotions Executor：CHEN Ching-yun
Ticketing Manager：TSAI Ya-ting.
Ticketing Executive：Hsu Ya-ting
Ticketing Associate：TAN Kai-cong, WU Fei-jyun
Internet Supervisor：CHUANG Wan-ping
Network Engineer：CHANG Stanoo
Technical Supervisor：WANG Yi-chi
Stage Manager：YANG Wen-han
Administrative Assistant：CHENG Wei-hsin
Copywriter：WANG Hsih-chi
Poet：TAO Wei-Jyun
Illustrator：Inca Pan
Graphic designer：CHEN ya-lynn
English Editor：KO Ka-leng. Kuo Vanessa
Cooperation by Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture：Maki Lin
Trailer Production：Endospace Sound Visual Art Studio
Live Recording：Very Mainstream Studio
Photographer：CHEN You-wei
