This is a story of a place, where every thing is forced to be in white color. A story of an old man name Siwa, who tries to keep everything in order, about a little girl name Malini, who would love to celebrate the beauty of colors.. and about a little bird that brings the symbol of a freedom.
The White World of Siwa and Malini is an interactive performance, where audiences will be involved in the story. It’s a performance that combines puppetry, shadow play, music, and acts.
This performance will be fit for family.
This is a story that will bring people to embrace the diversity, that different colors will bring richness in the heart and of course…. Happiness.
The White World of Siwa and Malini was a commissioned work of National Gallery of Singapore, as part of Children Biennale 2017.
Pesta Boneka is an international biennial puppet festival in Yogyakarta, which was initiated by the Papermoon Puppet Theatre back in 2008. In every performance, Pesta Boneka brings together puppeteers, audiences, as well as creative communities to experience various stories and cultures intimately and creatively. Pesta Boneka envelops its audience with a sense of warmth, displaying an awe-inspiring movement of puppets acting as living objects, telling various heart-wrenching stories, world culture, as well as local wisdom to its loyal audience.
This year, PESTA BONEKA#7 will be presented as a virtual festival, hosting more than 35 artists (individuals and groups) from 25 countries.
The Pesta Boneka Menu
1. Puppet Performances
Yogyakarta is a city where the arts and community blend together. Therefore, Pesta Boneka’s performances happen in both traditional theatre and community settings, so that the artists can share their work with a wide range of audience members. In 2016, Pesta Boneka took place at the PKKH theatre space at Gadjah Mada University, as well as in Kepek Village in the Bantul area of Yogyakarta.
2. Workshops & Presentations
As part of the festival, a variety of workshops are facilitated by local and foreign artists. For example, in 2016, Pesta Boneka hosted a special talk and presentation by Ahmad Naseer Formuli about his practice as a puppetry artist in Afghanistan.
3. When Puppeteers Cook
Pesta Boneka artists also have a chance to get to know some of the local people in Yogyakarta through this cooking session—in which everyone is invited to prepare their favorite dish for a group meal with members of the community.
4. Puppet Art Installations & Puppet Film Screenings
Not only limited to puppet performances, Pesta Boneka is also open to art installations and films that feature puppetry.
The Journey of Pesta Boneka
PESTA BONEKA #6 (2018) : Tom Lee & Lisa Gonzales (USA), Peter Backwill ( Canada) feat. Papermoon Puppet Theatre (Indonesia), Bonnie Kim (Hawaii), Company Palin Dromo (Argentine), Tiny Feat (Singapore), Circo Poeira (Brazil), Main Theatre (Malaysia), Gwen Knoxx (Australia) feat. Flying Balloons Puppet (Indonesia), Cirque Obscure (Germany), I Pedalangan (Indonesia), Puppet By Jae (Thailand), Ta Babymime (Thailand), Kohey Kawamura (Japan), Måt Trån Ensemble (Vietnam), AssociationmanŒuvres – Marine Midy- (France), Marta Sieczak (Poland), Miyuki Kataoka (Japan) & Oscar Artunes (Indonesia), Mochinosa (Japan-Germany), Sakatoya (Indonesia), Mermaid Players Puppeteers (USA), STUDIO BATU (Indonesia), Travelling Light (UK), Axm & Ben (Thailand), Ayo Dongeng Indonesia (Indonesia), Cecile Bellat ( France), Prodjx Artist Community (Philippines), ABC(Indonesia).
PESTA BONEKA #5 (2016)
Anino Shadowplay (Philippines)
Babymime (Thailand)
Flying Balloon Puppet (Indonesia)
For What? Theatre (Thailand)
Ahmad Nasir Formuli (Afghanistan)
Frigg (The Netherlands)
Anne-Sophie Lecourt (France)
Lemonys Puppet Theatre (Australia)
Papermoon Puppet Theatre (Indonesia)
Tim Spooner (England)
PESTA BONEKA #4 (2014)
Anak Muda Bicara Teater (Indonesia)
ANINO Shadowplay (Phillipines)
Jae Sirikarn Bunjongtad (Thailand)
Cake Industries (Australia)
GNAYAW Puppet (Indonesia, Mexico, Spain)
Tamas Kovacs (Hungary)
Bernd Odgrodnik (Iceland)
Papermoon Puppet Theatre (Indonesia)
Polyglot Theatre (Australia)
Belén Rubira (Spain)
Tokyo Independent Collaboratory (Japan)
PESTA BONEKA #3 (2012)
Indieguerillas (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
Marianna Lis, Olga Salamon (Poland)
Nasirun (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
Pak Arden (Indonesia)
PM Toh (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Angela Stempel (USA)
The String Theatre (UK)
Wayang Beber (Indonesia)
Wayang Hip Hop (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
Wayang Kancil (Indonesia)
Wayang Ukur Ki Sukasman (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
PESTA BONEKA #2 (2010)
Automne 2085 (France)
Papermoon Puppet Theatre (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
Sanggar Teater Boneka Indonesia (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
“Pesta Boneka has truly succeeded in sharing the rich culture and heart of Indonesia with participants and guests from all corners of the world. Hearts were deeply touched and minds were strengthened in order to encourage each of us to keep inspiring and healing the world around us. With such a team, such smiles, and such an audience, a performer is playing in heaven. Thank you, Yogyakarta and Papermoon Puppet Theatre for the most wonderful performance experience in Pesta Boneka!”
—Bernd Ogrodnik & Hildur M. Jonsdottir, World of Puppets–National Theatre of Iceland
“It was a beautiful gathering of people involved in the art of puppetry, and eventually, it can be a huge and important festival in Southeast Asia. I think in the future will be just fantastic—it’s growing edition after edition!”
—Victor Hugo Hidalgo, Mexico
“Pesta Boneka is one-of-a-kind festival, unique. It’s a reunion where artists become friends, or we can even say become a family, sharing knowledge, talent, and more important, hearts and life. It’s a perfect field for creation. Relationship with locals and the other artists is a very special intimate matter, through shows, talks, cooking together, workshops, and encounters with local theatre companies and artists; all very well orchestrated by Papermoon Puppet Theatre, so generous, talented and dedicated.
Sometimes theatre work runs so fast that there’s no time to get deep in the things that really matter in art and in life. It’s magic when you can find a festival like Pesta Boneka, a break in the race, and you can touch and be touched by the community that shared those wonderful moments. I came back to Spain so full of inspiration and gratitude.”
—Belén Rubeira, Spain
“For me, Pesta Boneka is a very honest festival, no pretensions. What you see is what you get. You’ll get the chance to see the beauty of each other’s art, and also the beauty of Jogja’s community…. The festival breaks the wall of artists and the community. More of this festival, please! Pesta Boneka is a festival of arts, love, and friendship.”
—Andrew Cruz, ANINO Shadowplay, Philippines
“In Pesta Boneka, I witnessed the world and the locals meeting organically in an artist-initiated festival. I witnessed emotion and mind in inanimate material, the puppet.
Yogyakarta is a great place for something like this to happen, with its independent spirit and lively arts community. Papermoon, on the other hand, is a great host, offering both experience and passion in equal measures. The realization of the festival seemed like a magical or miraculous event that I had never seen before.”
—Kanade Yagi, Japan
“With the enormous wayang tradition of Indonesia, Pesta Boneka is a necessary open window to explore and share locally and internationally about the diversity and richness of the puppetry world.”
A love story in times of violence and revolution, Saidja: Once Upon a Time in the East (Hete Peper) explores the post-colonial era of Indonesia through theatre, storytelling, puppetry, dance, and music. The project is a collaboration between Papermoon Puppet Theatre, the theatre company Het Volksoperahuis and Rop Severin of The Netherlands, as well as several Indonesian musicians.
Old Saidja seems to live happily with his grandchildren in Kampung Tebu, a little village at the bottom of a volcano. One day, a Dutch man named Eric Coen arrives—he is on a journey to find out the history of his family, who were the owners of an old sugar factory, now in ruins, nearby. His visit opens up the memories—and old wounds—of Saidja.
Saidja premiered in Yogyakarta, Indonesia and also toured to The Netherlands.
“Climb aboard and be rocked and rolled across a strange ocean, dive to the bottom of the sea, hear stories on the wind and in the currents of the water and face great danger before coming to safe harbor.
“Cerita Anak (Child’s Story) draws its inspiration from the seafaring history in Java and the true tale of arrival told by a small boy.
“Combining puppetry, song, shadow imagery, and sound, the show bustles with all the life of the ocean. Audience members, both young and old, are passengers and storytellers on this adventure.
“Melbourne’s Polyglot Theatre and Indonesia’s Papermoon Puppet Theatre worked with local children from a fishing village north of Java to conceive and create this exquisite encounter.
“The development of Cerita Anak (Child’s Story) was generously supported by the Commonwealth through the Australia-Indonesia Institute of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, City of Melbourne through ArtPlay’s New Ideas Lab, Arts Centre Melbourne, Playking Foundation and Creative Partnerships Australia through Plus1.”
“Polyglot and Papermoon worked alongside children and adults from two villages beneath the volcano Merapi to make a story told through play, puppets, and comic book style. Drawbridge takes the child’s instinctive nature to play and builds this energy into a story of giant proportions.
“Misteri Siung Buto—translated into The Mystery of the Ogre’s Tooth—is a new story made by the kids of the villages from the mythology of the region, when ogres lived in the forests of Java, protecting them from humans.
“During part two in Melbourne, children from the Victorian College for the Deaf reinterpreted the story to incorporate Auslan, English, and Indonesian in a giant walk through comic book which took over Deakin Edge at Federation Square in Melbourne.
“Featuring a mix of contemporary and traditional music, artwork and performance, Drawbridge is a cross cultural, cross company, cross age collaboration.
“Artists on this trip were: Directors and Designers Sue Giles and Maria Tri Sulisyani, Comic Book Artist Mandy Ord, Puppet Designer and Maker Octo Tri Andriatna, Sound Artist Marco Cher-Gibard, and Community Artist Ian Pidd.
“Drawbridge Indonesia-Melbourne is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia International Cultural Council, an initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The project is also supported by the Australia-Indonesia Institute and in Melbourne is commissioned by Federation Square.”
Rojer is a collaborative 16mm film project. Taking on the theme of “being neglected,” we did experiments on the relationship between characters and either puppets or puppeteers.
Lung/Paru-Paru is an experimental performance that combines installation, dance and puppetry to explore themes of need, sacrifice and what it means to be alive. Lung/Paru-Paru incorporates dance by Kinanti Sekar Rahina, puppetry by Papermoon Puppet Theatre and Belen Rubira, and musical composition by Ari Wulu.
Originally presented as part of Papermoon Puppet Theatre’s fourth Pesta Boneka biennale in 2014, Lung/Paru-Paru was also presented at Jogja Contemporary in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
This workshop combines puppet making and movement, storytelling, and performance creation. Each workshop depends on the goals of the participants and of the workshop itself. Our primary aim is to enjoy the creative process, though we can also create finished performances together through this experience.
In this workshop, we learn the different techniques of puppet making using paper, rattan, bamboo, balloons, fabrics, found objects—or even fruits and veggies! We can make paper shadow puppets, lantern puppets, paper rod puppets, table-top puppets, or giant puppets. We are open to discussion about the materials to be used.
