Porto International Puppet Festival is back this October

We said it last year, and we say it again, this year: FIMP- Porto International Puppet Show sets the standard internationally when it comes to the puppet art world.

Upon that statement, FIMP 2020 edition is based on the motto "Limites Humanos - Ciências e Políticas da Matéria Animada" (Human Boundaries - Sciences and Politics of Animated Matter", free translation), which kicks off on 9th October. The presentations take place in Porto and in Matosinhos.

Once again, puppets are brought to life, objects and matter, but this year, this edition is one to "challenge the audiences to rethink the world and things in a different perspective, in order to rediscover our old and undeterred humankind".

"This 2020 FIMP edition brings us different milieus and aesthetics that jointly utter some possibilities towards the debate on sciences and politics in the animated matter performance. Now, a virus, in its ambiguous state of immovable object that is manageable, makes us question the very notion of 'animated matter'?" enhances Igor Gandra, FIMP's artistic director.

He furthers, "What is still human (being), what is possible to know and to want from this condition?" these are some of the questions that FIMP 2020 will address in its shows, concert-performances, workshops, ongoing work projects and even some surprises".

The 2020 FIMP edition starting point is on 9th October, with the performance "Kamp", a play by Dutch Hotel Modern. The show will be presented at the Teatro Carlos Alberto, on 9th and 10th October, at 9pm and 7pm, respectively and takes the audience to the daily lives at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

FIMP 2020 will also showcase debut performances, namely "O cheiro dos velhos", coproduced by the Theatre Group of Centro Cultural Português do Mindelo and the Teatro de Marionetas do Porto, setting the tone towards a "new theatrical era", where "the line between truth and lies are dimmed", on show at the Rivoli, on 10th and 11th October, at 5pm.

"Liliput", a play by Ainhoa Vidal, invites to embark in a journey for the not so grown up, as it is about little human beings and the human body. On show at the Café Teatro do Campo Alegre, on 16th October, at 10.30am and at 3pm, and it repeats on 17th and 18th October, at 4pm.

"O que já não é e o que nunca foi", is the motto of the performance by Joclécio Azevedo that is established "from rituals of research around time, time use, suspension and its condensing. On display at Palácio do Bolhão, on 17th and 18th October, at 7pm and 4pm, respectively.

FIMP also celebrates laughter, namely with the show "Bad Translation", created by the Spanish artist Cris Blanco that "turns the set into an analogue computer", and brings digital to the stage by means of the card, plastic and canvas. On show at the Teatro do Campo Alegre, on 10th October, at 9pm. And, alas, the "Troubles", by Belgian artist Agnès Limbos, on a "troubled wedding night in New York", featured at the Teatro Municipal Constantino Nery, in Matosinhos, on 16th and 17th October, at 9.30pm.

FIMP'20 will take the stage at venues such as Círculo Católico de Operários do Porto, the Teatro Helena Sá e Costa, the Mira Fórum and the Trindade Metro Station.

FIMP organization complies with all the current preventive health measures regarding the ongoing pandemic.

The Teatro de Marionetas do Porto was created in September 1988, the same date in which the company was present at the official selection of the Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes, in Charleville-Mézières.

See here for more information.