The farmhouse of Can Falguera de Palau-solità i Plegamans (Vallès Occidental) will open its doors from this Saturday to host the International Puppet Museum of Catalonia (MIT), a unique space of its kind in the country and which wants to spread the art of puppetry, in the time to exhibit pieces and documents from the 19th century to the present day. The space has two floors where you can see some mythical puppets, such as Tomatic from the first stage of the Club Súper 3 to Don Quixote figures used in the opening show of the 1992 Universal Exhibition in Seville. The equipment will welcome the public from December, although in the last year there were already activities aimed at school groups, with guided activities.

The museum is located in a 13th century farmhouse managed by the cultural cooperative led by Teia Moner, with the aim of safeguarding the puppet heritage and disseminating it at an artistic, educational or therapeutic level. "We have pieces from the year 1800 until now, from companies that even today are no longer active," explains Moner.

The equipment houses the Teia Moner collection, with 800 puppets, of which a small part, 150, is on display, while the rest is preserved in the farmhouse's warehouse. There are unique pieces, such as a guinyol by Laurent Mourguet, creator of the French guinyol, which dates from 1810, or Chinese shades from the late 1800s.

For the young people who are not so young, or 'boomers', as it is popularly called, the reception of the farmhouse already has one of the puppets that concentrates a large part of the eyes just entering it. This is one of the dolls used to make the character of Tomatic, the well-known tomato-shaped answering machine from the first years of Club Súper 3.

The interior rooms are full of surprises, such as material from the Don Quixote show made at the opening ceremony of the 1992 Universal Exposition in Seville, or an elderly Don Juan. Pieces that add to exhibition spaces, such as a corner with puppets and stories in different languages, or a barge that, when tapped, a doll comes out playing the drum.

"The mission of the museum is to manage the cultural heritage of puppets in different aspects, cover the needs of creation so that the collections can lend pieces for their preservation, and advocate for the Catalan puppet technique, which is being lost" , adds Moner. All in all, the collection includes books and pieces, manuscripts and posters, some of which are yet to be catalogued, so there is a lot of work to be done.

The equipment has different rooms, where videos from different companies will be projected and even a metaverse space, in collaboration with Catvers.

Opening to the public

The MIT was already open last year but only for school groups, and around 2,700 students passed through, always with only one school per day so that they could visit the space exclusively. More than 2,000 students are already enrolled this year, who will participate in activities such as the one that combines marionettes and therapy.

On Saturday 19 November, however, the official opening will take place, with a temporary exhibition by the photographer Jesús Atienza and the presentation of a workshop by Karim Dakroub. During the day, which will start at 5.00 p.m., there will be magic and theater shows, and the Disciples of the Demon of the Long Rock from Palau-solità and Plegamans will perform.

The opening to the general public, however, will not be until next December.