In this 8th celebration, PESTA BONEKA will be held on site in Yogyakarta for the audience and also puppet theater artists to enjoy. PESTA BONEKA is an international biennial puppet festival that has been independently held by Papermoon Puppet Theater since 2008. The festival, which is held every two years, is a gathering place for artists and puppet theater lovers from all over the world.
Considering that Indonesia, especially Yogyakarta, has a great history in the world of wayang, which has made Indonesia an international mecca for the world of foreign puppet theater in the shadow theater, Papermoon Puppet Theater has strengthened the position of Indonesian puppet theater in the eyes of the world, one of which is by organizing this PESTA BONEKA.
In 2022, PESTA BONEKA #7 “A Sip of Joy ” was held fully online due to the pandemic and social distancing. From this festival, Papermoon saw the opportunity to open wider access to the public and also puppet theater artists around the world. PESTA BONEKA #8 will be held online and offline in Yogyakarta.
During the last 14 years of organizing the festival, PESTA BONEKA has always chosen various locations and also different mediums in order to present this festival to many people. This year PESTA BONEKA #8 will be held centrally at Kampoeng Media Resort Yogyakarta. All festival activities and events will occur in one area where the audience and artists can share this extraordinary moment together. Besides being able to be attended in person in Yogyakarta, PESTA BONEKA also continues to be present online as previously done in 2020.
“In PESTA BONEKA, I witnessed the world and the local meet organically in an artist-initiated festival. I’d witnessed emotion and mind in inanimate material, the puppet. Papermoon, on the other hand, is a great host, offering both experience and passion in equal measures. The realization of the festival seemed like a magical or miraculous event which I hadn’t seen before”
(Kanade Yagi, Japan)
The theme of this year’s PESTA BONEKA is “REMEMBRANCE”. This theme was chosen to frame the works that will be presented related to the stories of each artist about space, time, encounters, knowledge, and reflections that they can share with the public.
Creating an international-scale puppet theater festival after the pandemic is certainly not an easy matter for the Papermoon Puppet Theater team. Although the prospective artists have been selected and have gone through an open registration process, this time the composition of the performers has undergone many adjustments. Several artists who previously were going to join the offline event in Yogyakarta changed the presentation of their work to the online program due to limited resources and current conditions.
Despite all the challenges, festival-goers will still be able to enjoy a variety of performances from individual artists and groups from 20 countries. Each performance performed by the artist will be followed by an artist’s talk with the audience. Some artists also facilitate workshops that the audience can participate in.
This year PESTA BONEKA was chosen to be one of the hosts for ASSITEJ Regional Workshop “Babel Project”. There will be a series of forum, discussions and workshops by Theater For Young Audience practitioners from the region and also from the artists of PESTA BONEKA #8.
Besides that, there will also be interactive art installations by GULALI Forum artists named “Kampung Babel”.
“ASSITEJ Regional Workshop” is organized in cooperation and with the support of the European Project “Babel or the Art of Listening” .
Like the previous event, the art & craft bazaar will also be enlivened by local crafters and businesses.
PESTA BONEKA #8 will be a reunion for artists and puppetry lovers after being blocked for almost 3 years due to the COVID19 pandemic. This encounter will be a joyous moment to celebrate the rise of performing arts after the pandemic.
For more information about this festival, please visit social media on the Pesta Boneka Instagram or directly visit www.pestaboneka.com
PESTA BONEKA #8 ; “Remembrance” is fully supported by the Department of Culture (Kundha Kabudayan) Yogyakarta Special Region, Erasmus Huis, Embassy and Consulate General of United States of America in Indonesia, Institut Francais d’Indonesie (IFI), Citranet, Kotasis and European Project “Babel or the Art of Listening” .
3-9 October 2022
www.pestaboneka.com