Call addressed to National Centres of UNIMA that do not have a magazine dedicated to puppetry arts in their country.

UNIMA is currently working on the creation of an international magazine that aims to bring together articles from all over the world. We expect it to be available for the UNIMA Congress in May 2025.

This magazine will be made up of articles from magazines dedicated to puppetry among others. This collection of articles was made within the framework of a first call broadcast in April 2024.

Now the 2nd call and is addressed to the National Centres. It aims to gather contributions from countries without dedicated magazines. In order to respond to the articulation envisaged in the magazine by the international editorial committee, we propose that you develop – in the form of an interview, reflective article or experience feedback – a contribution around one of the following questions:

1. What dialogue, confrontations, exchanges, clashes, hybridizations, collaborations, crossbreeding, twinning, geographical crossings, influences and/or connections does the puppet enable between cultures?
2. The puppet as a ritual object. How does the ritual object/ritual form become a performance object/form of performance?
3. What unifying elements have opened up common spaces for puppeteers on a regional, national and/or international scale?
4. What is the relationship between puppet and puppeteer? What is the role and viewpoint of the spectator?
5. What new window of expression and relationship opens up with the use of digital tools?
6. The puppet, object of belief, symbolic force. What does the puppet allow us to believe? What beliefs, metaphors and symbols does the puppet intrinsically convey?
7. How does the puppet enable the creative process to draw closer to reality? How do real-life narratives translate onto the stage? (Documentary puppetry, dramaturgies of war…)
8. Moving on from the self, towards the other and then towards society, how can the puppet position itself as a mediating tool between these three levels? (Social applications of puppetry)
9. How does the puppet interrogate existing conventions, norms and crises (through satire or otherwise)?

Articles can be written from a historical or current perspective. Ideally, they should be written by someone in a writing-related profession. They must not exceed 17,000 characters including spaces.

We invite you to share with your article 3 to 5 photos in 250dpi format minimum, which you will check with the authors to ensure that they can be used free of charge by UNIMA as part of this project.

The deadline for submitting your article is November 30.

It must be sent to you’re the referent of your continent (see contact by the end of this page).

This is a project based on voluntary contributions, so articles will be sent free of charge for publication in the magazine in its digital and possibly physical form.

Articles can be those already published in other magazines, or new ones. In the case of an article already published, the National Centre will ensure that the magazine concerned agrees to the new publication.

Articles must be sent in the 3 UNIMA languages (French, English, Spanish), with the help if necessary of GPT or deepl translation software (avoid Google translate). Articles sent in only one or two languages will not be processed. Wherever possible, have translations proofread by a native speaker.

UNIMA is also looking for a paid graphic designer for this project.

Please check the opportunity here.

If you have good-quality photos and the permission of the artists and photographer, please send us photos that will join the UNIMA image database and can be used freely by UNIMA for its website, projects, WEPA and this edition.

If you would like to join our international editorial committee, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Referents per continent:

• Africa: Gilbert Agbevide, Alessandra Amicarelli, Emmanuelle Castang – unimagazine.africa@unima.org
• America: Ana Diaz Barriga – unimagazine.america@unima.org
• Asia: Yejin Choi, Franziska Vöemel – unimagazine.asia@unima.org
• Europe: Mihail Baykov, Evelyne Lecucq – unimagazine.europe@unima.org

We remain at your disposal for any further information you may require.