Imagination à la Forman in Dresden: magic and fascination
Created: 11/24/2022 3:33 p.m
A carousel is set up in one of the rooms of the Japanese Palace in Dresden.
© Sebastian Willnow/dpa
When there was neither technology nor computers, itinerant and puppet theaters were handmade.
The sons of a star director follow this tradition - and create magic for young and old.
Dresden - Shadow play, marionettes, peep boxes and moving images - the twin sons of Hollywood director Milos Forman (1932-2018) turn eight rooms of the Japanese Palais in Dresden into an "Imaginarium" for five months.
The theater of the Forman brothers is a guest at the State Art Collections in Dresden (SKD) during the Czech season.
The installation, created by visual and theater artists, which has already inspired audiences in France, Italy and Denmark, can be seen in Germany for the first time, according to information from Thursday.
The colorfully painted theater scenarios, puppets and figures made of wood and paper, painted, roughly carved and filigree fairytale creatures and animal figures encourage play.
There's a racing arena with a rocking horse, boar or zebra, a self-propelled carousel and a walk-in circus arena or life-size elephant puppet.
Half a room alone is filled with a sea with waves, an island with a lighthouse and a little wooden sheep, and another with a giant ship with stretched sails, whose crew can be brought to life with little levers and cords.
"In the theater as in the blind box you can use all kinds of technologies, these are tools to create a magical moment," said Matej Forman of the German Press Agency.
You don't need a manual for playing, you would recognize whether a fleeting touch or a glance into the fairy-tale labyrinth is enough, where skill is required or the imagination has to help shape it.
"And in the last room you should feel like you're on a stage."
The new work "Kunstkammer" by the Czech surrealist Jan Švankmajer can be seen in the Residenzschloss.
The filmmaker and artist said his own collection was the inspiration behind this last film, which is without words.
You should come out of a Kunstkammer in a different state than when you went in, "become a different person," said the 88-year-old.
"And that is the essence of imagination." dpa