Description
The Antonio Pasqualino International Puppet Museum is Palermo's museum devoted to Sicilian pupi, to puppets and marionettes from all over the world. More than five thousand pieces, from pupi to shadow figures, automata and stage machines, tell the story of a popular theater that is also UNESCO world heritage. In 2017 it received the "Museum of the Year" award from ICOM Italy.
At its heart is the Opera dei Pupi, the theater of the Sicilian pupi. The museum preserves the complete "mestieri," that is pupi, little stages and backdrops, of three schools: Palermo, Catania and Naples. It is considered the largest and most complete collection of pupi of these types.
The oldest pupo is Carinda, from 1828, which came from the Canino family's theater: according to family tradition it was the first armed pupo built by don Liberto Canino. Another section welcomes the rest of the world: Japanese Bunraku, the shadow figures of Indonesian Wayang Kulit, the Cambodian shadow theater Sbek Thom.
There are also Burmese and Indian string marionettes, shadow figures from China and Malaysia and the water puppets of Vietnam, designed to perform on water. From Africa come the Do puppets of Mali and the Gelede masks of Nigeria and Benin.
Other rooms are devoted to contemporary work. The museum has produced shows with great artists: the sets by Renato Guttuso for Italo Calvino's Foresta-radice-labirinto, directed by Roberto Andò, in 1987; the marionettes and machines of Tadeusz Kantor; the puppets of Enrico Baj.
The museum was born from a story of rescue. In the 1960s the puppet theaters were closing one after another, and the puppeteers sold, sold off or gave away their "mestieri." Antonio Pasqualino, a surgeon and anthropologist, decided it would not end that way.
In 1965 he founded, with other scholars, the Association for the Preservation of Popular Traditions and, with his wife Janne Vibaek, began collecting pupi, scripts and furnishings. Ten years later, in 1975, the museum was born, with two complete "mestieri": a Palermitan one, of the Canino family, and a Catanese one, of Natale Meli.
Pasqualino did not want a storehouse of dead things. As early as 1975 the museum organized a festival of the opera dei pupi, which since 1985 has been the Festival di Morgana, open to companies from all over the world.
Don't miss
• Carinda.
• The Asian shadow theater.
• The water puppets of Vietnam.
• Guttuso's sets.
Did you know?
• The Sicilian Opera dei Pupi was proclaimed a Masterpiece of Humanity in 2001 and inscribed on the UNESCO List in 2008.
• The museum has a library and multimedia archives.
At its heart is the Opera dei Pupi, the theater of the Sicilian pupi. The museum preserves the complete "mestieri," that is pupi, little stages and backdrops, of three schools: Palermo, Catania and Naples. It is considered the largest and most complete collection of pupi of these types.
The oldest pupo is Carinda, from 1828, which came from the Canino family's theater: according to family tradition it was the first armed pupo built by don Liberto Canino. Another section welcomes the rest of the world: Japanese Bunraku, the shadow figures of Indonesian Wayang Kulit, the Cambodian shadow theater Sbek Thom.
There are also Burmese and Indian string marionettes, shadow figures from China and Malaysia and the water puppets of Vietnam, designed to perform on water. From Africa come the Do puppets of Mali and the Gelede masks of Nigeria and Benin.
Other rooms are devoted to contemporary work. The museum has produced shows with great artists: the sets by Renato Guttuso for Italo Calvino's Foresta-radice-labirinto, directed by Roberto Andò, in 1987; the marionettes and machines of Tadeusz Kantor; the puppets of Enrico Baj.
The museum was born from a story of rescue. In the 1960s the puppet theaters were closing one after another, and the puppeteers sold, sold off or gave away their "mestieri." Antonio Pasqualino, a surgeon and anthropologist, decided it would not end that way.
In 1965 he founded, with other scholars, the Association for the Preservation of Popular Traditions and, with his wife Janne Vibaek, began collecting pupi, scripts and furnishings. Ten years later, in 1975, the museum was born, with two complete "mestieri": a Palermitan one, of the Canino family, and a Catanese one, of Natale Meli.
Pasqualino did not want a storehouse of dead things. As early as 1975 the museum organized a festival of the opera dei pupi, which since 1985 has been the Festival di Morgana, open to companies from all over the world.
Don't miss
• Carinda.
• The Asian shadow theater.
• The water puppets of Vietnam.
• Guttuso's sets.
Did you know?
• The Sicilian Opera dei Pupi was proclaimed a Masterpiece of Humanity in 2001 and inscribed on the UNESCO List in 2008.
• The museum has a library and multimedia archives.