KOLK 17: A new cultural institution for puppet theatre emerges

KOLK 17 Puppet theatre & museum

KOLK 17 stands for entertainment of a high artistic level – for everyone.
KOLK 17 stands for openness and diversity.
KOLK 17 shares knowledge.

Waht’s New?

Puppet Theatre and Museum?

What makes KOLK 17 so special?

From the Museum of Theatre Puppets Luebeck and the Puppet Theatre of Luebeck we have created a single institution: Kolk 17 Puppet Theatre and Museum.
Here two active institutions dedicate themselves to the art form of puppet theatre and it’s many aspects.
Hand in hand, the puppet theatre and the museum will take the next step in their intensive cooperation. 

KOLK 17 Puppet Theatre & Museum is unique in that it combines a collection of over 20,000 exhibits with a permanent theatre.

Outreach

Outreach & MEDIATION

The new dialogue between puppet theater and museum should not remain a secret, but should include urban society in all its diversity.

KOLK 17 sees itself as an open place for encounters and joint creative research with visitors and non-visitors. That’s why KOLK 17 is coming to you too. Little by little, we approach people and communities in the city, form socio-spatial partnerships, ask about connections to the world and relevance and also want to include those who don’t visit us on their own.

What does puppet theater have to do with you, you and them? What is important to whom? What questions can we find better answers to through play? What role can characters play in this…?

Together we are developing the role that puppet theater can play in society in the future. To achieve this, we work with cooperation partners and look forward to many old and completely new contacts.

Contact:

Alke Vierck and Johanna Dyckerhoff
alke.vierck@kolk17.de
johanna.dyckerhoff@kolk17.de

Exhibition

Who’s Talking?
Six Artistic Views of the KOLK 17 Collection

The project “Who’s Talking?” opened the door to an artistic exploration of the KOLK17 collection. Six artists from African, Asian and European countries turned their gaze on the collection and developed their personal response to self-chosen puppets. The resulting views are now revealed in the virtual exhibition “Who’s Talking? Six Artistic Views of the KOLK 17 Collection”.

The exhibition consists of six rooms in which six featured artists can be found and six meta-rooms with conceptual fields that become important over the course of the project. The meta-rooms are currently only available in German. However, you can download the English translation as a PDF.

How should we actually name it …

Puppet theatre? Figure theatre?
Or Object theatre?

All the terms are up for debate, as if art, religion, theatre, play crosses (the wooden crosses used to control some puppets), paper, threads, lime wood, fabrics, projections and digitality were discussing the subject amongst themselves.

The row of marionettes, hand, rod and table theatre puppets, masks, shadow plays and animated objects are now joined by large and small robots…and of course by the puppeteers themselves. All are eager to perform… curious as to what will happen. Today, creativity and the imaginations of those involved are developing the once familiar craft further.  New, unforeseen productions are emerging time and again… The playful animation of material allowing a puppet to emerge, through the art of acting with the puppet oneself – or by watching the animation and understanding it, letting it tell it’s story.  We are on the hunt: Where is the puppet looking, what does it see, what is it planning, what does it feel….and, what is about to happen?

Through these eyes of the puppet, of the counterpart that one has brought to life oneself, one can perceive one’s own humanity. The term puppet theatre comes from this animation. When the animation ends, what remains is perhaps a sculpture, material, memories and experiences. This is where the museum’s questions and perspectives begin: What knowledge, thought and dream spaces do objects in the collection inspire? how can they be conceptualised and how do they and questions arising from them relate to the present day?