Puppets & Design

Objects are all around us every day. They can be useful, or beautiful. We often use them in a careless and automatic way. About 1 century ago with the rise of contemporary Design, objects became an expression of social imaginary, material shapes of the Zeitgeist as well as of the views of their designer: a vehicle of culture. Thanks to the intuition of a specific branch of puppetry, which we will call “Object & Figure Theatre”, objects can also be storytellers. They thus transcend their material and utilitarian dimension to earn a soul, a life, a destiny of their own.

The Puppets & Design project (P&D) aims to emancipate everyday objects from their utilitarian feature, instead lifting them up to the role of meaning and artistic expression conveyers, communication and intercultural dialogue tools. P&D will interweave the paths of puppet theater artists and of designers. The designers’ competence can help puppetry to renew itself; puppetry and object animation will help designers to rethink objects and give them a soul by giving them specific shapes. P&D will innovate the Puppetry practice and increase its popularity with adults, children, families, schools by cross-fertilization with design practitioners (professional designers, scholars, students) through a set of cultural, educational and promotional EU activities.

P&D involves 3 puppet theatres (from IT, CZ, SI) and a higher education school of design (from ES). The project will provide new artistic and professional inputs to both puppetry and design practitioners, and to the audience, whom the project aims to expand and diversify by focusing on objects which could belong to everyone’s daily experience yet can provide self-produced artistic experiences. The project’s dissemination events strategy will foster knowledge of the historical and cultural heritage of the “Object & Figure Theatre”, often wrongly confined to the children’s world, gaining to it an increasingly widespread and diverse audience.

Funded projects

European film screening in 2024

European film screening in 2023

European film screening in 2022

European film screening in 2021

European film screening in 2020

European film screening in 2019

European film screening in 2018

European film screening in 2017

European film screening in 2016

European film screening in 2015

European film screening in 2014

European film screening in 2013

The Film Corner Clubs 2026-2028. From virtual to real (TFCClubs)

Here I am! (HIA)

EUthentic Detectives – Fostering Media literacy of people who face cognitive challenges, their caregivers and young volunteers

CEE Animation Workshop (CEE AW) – 2026

Film in Hospital - a pan-European Film Initiative for Young Audiences in Healthcare Structures (Film in Hospital 3.0)

THE FIRST DOG (TFD)

36. and 37. Ljubljana International Film Festival (LIFFe)

The 22nd and 23rd Kino Otok - Isola Cinema International Film Festival in Years 2026 and 2027

The 12th and 13th edition of FeKK - Ljubljana Short Film Festival

Animateka International Animated Film Festival (AIAFF)

Young Stories from the Old Continent (YSOC)

Bookmark – Marking Europe's Best Narratives

No Person Is An Island (NPII)

Immersive European Cultural Heritage Outreach (Immersive ECHO)

European Media Art Platform Extended (EMAP Extended)

EHIN - European Hybrid Intelligence Network

W.Write – Women, Writing, Rights, and Rites: reimagining the ecosystem of Literary Arts

RE-MIND: A Mindfulness-Based Capacity-Building Model for Digital Wellbeing and Intergenerational Audience Engagement in Museums

New Steps: EU’s first steps towards career transition support for dancers

Brave Creative Producers (BCP)

stART point - a platform where performing arts and young people get connected (stART.)

Heritage Understanding & Participation Hackathon: Co-creating Cultural Heritage Experiences with and for youth (Hup Hackathon)

Artificial Intelligence for Artistic Futures and Creative Talents (ARTIFACT)

CULTIVATOR

Architecture With an Approach to Regeneration and Empowerment (AWARE)

Upsala – SUITCASES

Invisible painting (IP)

Building, Revising, Including - Diaspora and Gender Equality (BRIDGE)

Studio Virc – Mini Slate 2025: Izzvenelo bo, Dolasilla, princesa usode, Tujek, Pobeglo srce

NOSOROGI – Mini Slate 2025: Three Waters Meet, The Healers, Liar, Thief, Flea-Eater

Mono O – Mini Slate 2025: The Happiest Day, The Last Roast, After Sunday

Cvinger – Mini Slate 2024: Before the Eyes Turn Black, Reckoning by the Sea, Project North

Venice Eastern Gate

ECHOES from Invisible Landscapes

PORT OF DREAMERS

ACuTe: Culture Testbeds for Interactivity, Performance and Technology

Rail2Dance (Rail to Dance)

Innovation through media collaboration: Digital assets exchange platform (MEDEXCHANGE24)

Animation HUB (A-HUB)

Word: Enhancing European Graphic Novel Perception, Circulation and Market Development

Roma Soul Food (ROMASOUL)

Tying the European Cultural Landscapes with Knots and Patterns (Knots and Patterns)

Hiking Heritage Trails (INHERIT)

Sensory Artistic Experiences for the Blind (Multisensory Art)

PASS – Pass the Street (Art), Shake the Hand

Slow Performing Arts Festivals for Improved Wellbeing, Mental Health and Social Inclusion (Festival SPA)

Staragara – Slate 2024 (The Colour of the Doubt, Black Swan, Removal, We would have told each other everything, Kozmonavti)

PAGE: Project for Advancing coGnitivE accessibility in publishing

NEB COOLTOURS: Transforming Tourism Through Cultural Innovation and Environmental Stewardship in Alpe-Adria

Bridges

Transition to 8: European societies in flux

ENACT – Easy-to-understand News for Collaborative Transformation

THRIVE – Talent Harvest: Rural Intangible Heritage and Value Empowerment

Land of Lace

CAFE: Redefining Historic Cafés as European Cultural Heritage

ArtElevate – Fostering Inclusive Cultural Expression in Europe

CARE – Culture for Mental Health

Glassmaking Between Tradition and Innovation (GTMI)

WONDERCUT – Collaboratively Exploring the Public Value of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Next Level Cultural Experiences

Heroes Unleashed: Implementing a Sensory Reading Program in European Public Libraries (HERUN)

DATAS – The Data and the Sovereign

TALKING HEADS – Conversation with the art of the past

Libraries of Emotions for Good – LOE for Good

GreenHeritage – Nurturing a sustainable future in the gardens of time

G-BOOK 3 – Audience engagement activities for the social and emotional education of EU teens through gender-positive literature and digital technology

DIGITAL on STAGE – Unleashing the Performing Arts Experience through Digital Innovation

OASis – Open Art Spaces in Synergy