Behrooz Gharibpour - a renowned Iranian director and playwright- is the first Asian artist to write the message for the ‘World Puppetry Day’, being celebrated on March 21. The message has been translated in 50 languages.
The global NGO Union Internationale de la Marionnette (UNIMA) had requested him to convey the message. In his message, Gharibpour not only encouraged UNIMA to discover various types of puppets around the world, but also underlined the “vital duty of all puppetry lovers to remind the people of their childhood serenity and to reduce human hostility globally,” ILNA reported.
Language of puppetry is a medium which is comprehensible everywhere, and each puppet is regarded as a symbol of ancestry and the past, he said, in a part of the message.
“Talking to other art lovers during my travels, I found that we can take advantage of this medium of art to educate the world against violence and war, since puppetry allows us to promote the noblest human values such as peace and mutual understanding among the peoples of the world, regardless of their origin, political or religious convictions and cultural differences,” he said.
UNIMA
Founded in Prague in 1929, UNIMA is a non-government organization (NGO) and an official partner of UNESCO. It gathers people from all around the world who contribute to the development of puppetry art.
Present in more than 90 countries, UNIMA is a platform to exchange and to share ideas between people who practice puppetry (amateur or professional), work on this art (researcher, historian etc.) or anyone who is passionate about this art.
Prolific Artist
Born in 1950, Gharibpour is a renowned theatre director and pioneer of traditional Persian puppet theatre. He founded the Tehran and Esfahan puppet theatre centers and changed Tehran’s “old slaughterhouse into the Bahman cultural centre.”
He has directed stage theatre, puppet theatre, cinema, documentary movies, and TV shows. He is known for his research works on Iranian puppetry which was common in the Qajar era (1785-1925).
