Lecture by Elisabeth Heymer

From 1900 until the interwar period, puppet theatre became a field of artistic experimentation. Maurice Maeterlinck’s symbolist theatre in particular inspired a large number of artists. In the search for new forms of representation that focussed not on language but on visual-spatial design, puppets became a new and innovative way out. Also, unlike actors, puppets allowed the creation of a completely artificial world that could interact with the stage set. The lecture will outline how the puppet could thus contribute to a renewal of the theatre, but also allow a new view of avant-garde sculpture. Elisabeth Heymer is an art historian and researches the points of contact between theatre and the visual arts around 1900.