In this masterclass, participants will craft large-scale puppets, figures, and masks of various dimensions and forms. The focus will be on expressive caricatured faces, peculiar characters, distorted human heads, comical grimaces, and grotesque masks. Inspiration will be drawn from Fran Milčinski's Butalci, offering a rich array of whimsical and eccentric characters, as well as from wordplays associated with "head": airheads, blockheads, numbskulls, bigwigs, baldies, noggins, cabbage heads, and more.
The puppets will be animated using simple mechanisms, designed to be grotesque, expressive, and tailored to the festival's themes and settings. Each participant will create their own original creature, guided by the mentors and fundamental design principles using tried-and-tested materials like paper and cardboard. Prior to the festival's commencement, we'll refine the details and experiment with animation during the creation process.
Participants will thus produce puppets of resistance—artistic figures that convey social critique and encourage reflection on current issues. The workshop will culminate in a socially critical carnival, where participants will showcase their puppets in a performative event blending art, humour, and activism.
Brane Solce (SI), Sanja Fidler (SI)
Teatro Papelito, formerly known as Papilu Theatre, was established in 1982. This small, entirely original travelling theatre, founded by Brane Solce, has toured across Europe, as well as in Japan, the USA, Israel, and beyond. Its foundation lies in paper—a material offering endless possibilities for shaping and transformation. With a distinctive visual language of metaphors and symbols, combined with music and sounds, it crafts poetic stories without words—akin to animated paper picture books.
Over four decades ago, Brane Solce developed his own small paper theatre, which he has presented at renowned international festivals. He integrates various creative fields—designing paper creatures, composing music, scenography, video, and animation. His performances are playful, animated paper musicals, each designed using different techniques: featuring giant masks, crumpled paper accordions, boxes, cut-out shadow figures, and more.
Beyond theatre, Brane Solce engages in film and video animation, cartoons, photography, graphics, and numerous other media. In recent years, he has collaborated with the talented Sanja Fidler, creating more interactive performances. Together, they have performed at festivals in Slovenia, Sweden, Belgium, Italy, Austria, and have been invited to Brazil—with more destinations likely to follow.
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