Pulling Strings, a puppet's perspective

Isa van Lier, Oscar Peters, Máté Kohout, Werner van der Zwan, Toto Kersten, Jikke Lesterhuis, Iekeliene Stange

With special performances, wondrous workshops and extraordinary additions by: Su Yang, Emma Claire Sardoni, Eleri, Poncili Creación, Splitter Splatter, Enormousface, Digidiheu, Ilona Jacoba Westrik, Remy Neumann, Kieran Hinde, Janneke Raaphorst, Roos Buskes, and many more.

Pulling Strings is an exhibition developed around the idea of the puppet. Throughout the month of July, Arti et Amicitiae will be filled with an installation that seeks to breathe life into invisible forces, exploring what pulls at the strings and what makes us move. With noses as organs, dancing bones, bird feathers and hidden theaters the visitors are welcomed into a landscape where the boundaries between reality, fantasy, human, and animal dissolve, creating a meeting place for beings to communicate not through words or the mind, but through play.

Opening 5 July 7-10 PM

Performances by
Remy Neumann
Ilona Jacoba Westrik
Splitter Splatter
Digidiheu

Finissage 27 July 1-6 PM

Festival with workshops and performances by Splitter Splatter, Roos Buskes, Ilona Jacoba Westrik

1 PM Workshop ‘Make your own Puppet for the Parade’
3 PM Bean Pig Puppets
4 PM Poncili Creación
5 PM Enormous Face
6 PM Parade!

Workshops                                                

Every Saturday and Sunday 2-4 PM, we host workshops by the artists around the idea of the puppet.

For the young and the old & for free (Nederlands & English)

Make your own Puppet! Creating Characters with different materials to get into the skin of another creature which we will add to a collective installation.

6 July Saturday 2-4 PM  Giant Paper Puppet with Remy Neumann
7 July Sunday 2-4 PM Become a Tree  3D printing with Kieran Hinde & 16:00 Chi Kung class by Máté Kohout
13 July Saturday 2-4 PM Your Future Doll Self by Janneke Raaphorst
14 July Sunday 2-4 PM Creating Inner Creatures with Splitter Splatter
20 July Saturday 2-4 PM Stopmotion with Jikke Lesterhuis
21 July Sunday 2-4 PM Moving Monsters with Isa van Lier
27 July Saturday 1-3 PM  Make your own Puppet for the Parade together with the artists

Pulling Strings is supported by Iona Stichting and Gemeente Amsterdam

Pulling Strings
A Puppet’s Perspective

Pulling Strings is an exhibition initially developed around the idea of the marionette. Throughout the month of July, a group of artists will collaboratively construct a world where non-human beings take over the space. With everything in motion and coming to life, the audience is invited to observe, interact, and play along. The artists will create distinct characters inspired by different life forms, which will come alive through the use of various materials and movements in an eclectic installation.

The exhibition seeks to breathe life into invisible forces, exploring what pulls at the strings and what makes us move. With noses as organs, dancing bones, bird feathers and walking houses, visitors are welcomed into a landscape where the boundaries between  reality, fantasy, human, and animal dissolve, creating a meeting place for beings to communicate not through words or the mind, but through play.

In Pulling Strings, the artists also explore the edges of their individual practices and the collective, continuously filling and growing the space as an organic whole throughout the show. By creating different characters and playing with them like children, they speculate on the inner lives of beings and materials. In doing so, they aim to distance themselves from their usual perspectives, to relativize their own existence, and foster a deeper connection with ’the other.’ They also investigate whether it is possible to step into another’s shoes and communicate through creation and play.

As part of the show, the artists invite everyone to actively participate in the puppet play. In the form of a sculptural meeting place reminiscent of the Tower of Babel, there will be workshops over four weekends where anyone, young and old, can join to create their own character, letting their hands lead instead of their heads. During the opening and the Finnisage we will invite artists, friends, puppeteers and other beings to perform and merge each other’s worlds creating a festive carnavalesque puppet party where all creatures can celebrate life.