French puppeteer’s exhibition opens in Taipei
2016/01/11
An exhibition showcasing the puppets and related materials of accomplished French talent Jean-Luc Penso kicked off Jan. 5 at Puppetry Art Center of Taipei.
The Origin of Puppetry features glove, shadow and string puppets, as well as posters, properties and scripts used in Penso’s past performances. Also on display are photos taken during the artist’s five-year stint studying in Taiwan under the late Li Tien-lu, a legendary proponent of the art form renowned at home and abroad.
“We met in a Taipei antique shop in 1970,” Penso said Jan. 6 at a news conference at the center. “At first, I didn’t realize who was standing in front of me, but after he staged an impromptu performance, I recognized his immense talent and decided to stay and learn from him.”
According to Penso, Li asked him to devote his life to promoting puppetry around the world. “I agreed and founded the Small Mirror Theater after returning to France. My glove puppet troupe has toured more than 80 countries and territories in the past 40 years,” he said.
Penso said Li also urged him to incorporate into his plays Western mythology and folk tales such as “Aladdin,” “The Legend of Maui,” “The Odyssey” and “Story of the Fox.”
One of the highlights of the exhibition is an assortment of puppets used in Penso’s hit play “The Odyssey,” which debuted in Greece to full houses 30 years ago. The use of Eastern performance techniques to tell a Western story brought new life and energy to the genre.
Of equal interest is the head of a marionette styled after Taoist ghost fighter Zhong Kui. Gifted to Penso by Li, the time-worn item is a special piece for the Frenchman as he is yet to discover how to manipulate properly when performing the traditional ritual of vanquishing evil.
After the exhibition wraps up March 27, Penso will stage a series of plays featuring the Monkey King from the classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West.”
Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=241058&ctNode=2194&mp=9)
