MIT International Puppet Museum in Catalonia
March 21 and 22, 2025
World Puppetry Day
Also called World Puppet Day
The World Puppet Day or also called in our house World Puppetry Day it is celebrated on March 21 of each year.
This day seeks to promote the art of puppetry by defending, among other objectives:
- The maintenance and safeguarding of traditions and, at the same time, the renewal of the art of puppets.
- The use of the puppet as a means of ethical and aesthetic education.
The International Union of Marionettes (UNIMA) first discussed the possibility of creating a World Puppet Day during the 18th Congress, in Magdeburg, in 2000.
The official date of March 21, proposed by Indian puppeteer Dadi Pudumjee, was approved in 2002 at the UNIMA Councilors' Meeting in Atlanta. The first International Message was issued in New Delhi in 2003 and has gained in popularity. It is now celebrated worldwide through its National Centers and its members.
First congress of UNIMA International in Prague 1920
First congress of UNIMA International in Prague 1920
A MESSAGE THAT CONNECTS US (written to confirm)
The theme that Unima proposes for World Puppet Day 2025 IS:
Robots, Artificial Intelligence and the puppet's dream?
What do puppets dream of? Do they dream of sheep like a cyborg might? Are puppets just a step towards the autonomous creation of robots? The term “robot”, coined by Karel Čapek in 1920, means “slave”. Is the Golem of Prague or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein a representation of this concept? Mechanics merge with flesh, blurring the line between artifice and nature. Artificial intelligence raises questions about consciousness, free will and subjectivity of beings created in the image of man. Is a robot a mechanical puppet with a mind?
Artificial intelligence and algorithms open up new possibilities for perception and creativity. Pinocchio's dream of being a real child reflects humanity's eternal search to understand its own existence. Aren't we all puppets and puppeteers at the same time? Every object is a puppet that requires a spirit to come to life. Can machines dream? The myth of the demiurge meets that of the puppeteer, creating a connection between nature and theater.
In a puppet museum, objects seem to come to life and communicate with us. Mozart's Bastien and Bastienne dream of love. World Puppet Day explores themes of robots and the duality between object and subject. This proposal is disturbing and challenging and reflects the essence of creativity. The artifice transcends its own nature and, in constant change, invites us to dream and rethink the past and future of puppets.
WORLD PUPPET DAY PROGRAM 2025
World Puppetry Day is included in the schedule of the official activities that take place to commemorate the Theater Week which culminates on 27-3-25.
These are good days to remember the wise words of Federico García Lorca:
"The theater is the poetry that rises from the book and becomes human. And when she becomes human, she speaks and screams, cries and despairs"
EXHIBITIONS AND WORKSHOPS
From March 11 to 24
Puppet exhibition in the shop windows of shops and municipal services in Palau-solità and Plegamans
From March 3 to 21 at the Alzina Library
Exhibition of photographs of women puppeteers from the 20th and 21st centuries. Photographer Jesús Atienza.
Exhibition of two giant puppets from the show "Midnight Theatre" (1990) by the Aquilinos company, based on the book Midnight Theatre by Květa Pacovská. Nobel Prize in Children's Literature
February 26th at Casal Els Meus Avis
Puppet Workshop. 11:00
March 20 for the grandparents of the AAVV Can Falguera
Puppet Workshop. 4:00 PM.
ACTIONS AND ACTIVITIES
If it rains in the morning, the puppet theater companies, which perform in the park, will go to schools to perform.
In the afternoon, the program takes place at the same place.
MARCH 21, 2025
MORNING
09:15 SIMULTANEOUS PERFORMANCES in Nursery Schools:
EBM El Sol, EBM Patufet, EB Moixaina
10:00 OPENING
By the Mayor of Palau-solità i Plegamans, the management of MIT and the President of UNIMA Catalunya.
Location: Can Falguera Park around MIT
10:15 SIMULTANEOUS PUPPET SHOWS
Participating centers:
Marinada School, Folch i Torres School, Can Cladellas School, Palau School, Palau Residential Center and Can Serra School in Barcelona
OPEN TO EVERYONE WHO WANT TO ENJOY A PUPPET MORNING
13:00 Puppet Brotherhood Lunch at MIT
There is time to register until March 14. Price €14
Send an email to:
AFTERNOON
16:15 Talk about the professional career and presentation of the work loaned to MIT:
Puppets and Theatre "A stone in the shoe" by Joan Baixas, Perejaume, Antoni Miró and Joan Brossa.
Puppet el Merma, protagonist of Mori el Merma. Puppets la Claca and Joan Miró (1978) Premiere at the Liceu in Barcelona
17:30 Reading of the Manifesto of World Puppetry Day
at MIT.
By AI
17:45 Video screening of different companies from around the world to celebrate World Puppetry Day.
at MIT
18:00 Screening of the video "Llaunes" by the Comunitat els Avets de Moià made by people with intellectual disabilities
at MIT
18:30 "Puces Cirkus Moner" show. A very special flea circus
at MIT
MARCH 22, 2025
MATI
10:30 UNIMA Catalonia General Assembly
Members of UNIMA Catalunya. Face-to-face and virtual.
At MIT
AFTERNOON
from 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM Traveling Show
At 4:00 p.m. it leaves the Town Hall Square and heads to the Patufet Square (in front of the IES Ramon Casas i Carbó) where it will have puppet shows and an end of party.
17:00 and 18:00 Cantata Municipal School of Music of Palau-solità i Plegamans in commemoration of its 35th anniversary and with the collaboration of puppeteers
Ramon Casas i Carbó Secondary School
*All activities are free
Organized by UNIMA Catalunya, with the support of CIATRE, MIT International Puppet Museum of Catalonia, Barcelona Provincial Council and Palau-solità i Plegamans City Council
Do you want to see the puppets on display?
MAP WITH THE LOCATION OF PUPPETS IN THE VILLAGE
SHOPS - WINDOWS WITH PUPPETS
MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS WITH PUPPETS ON SHOW
