The 8th edition of the Ovar International Puppet Festival (FIMO) starts on Friday and, until Sunday, will take to different spaces in this city in the Aveiro district, several free presentations of 18 shows by companies of nine nationalities.
The event is organized by the Junta da União de Freguesias de Ovar, São João, Arada and São Vicente de Pereira, which reinforced the 2022 program with “three days full of shows” and with the participation of more foreign companies than usual.
“FIMO 2022 will take on another dimension thanks to the commitment of the organizing team, which managed to bring us some of the best companies in the world, among which nine countries will be represented,” the Chairman of the Board, Bruno Oliveira, told Lusa.
The objective of the initiative continues to be “invigorating public spaces in the city” and creating attractions for both the local population and tourists and other visitors.
“To speak of FIMO is to imagine the streets and squares of the center of Ovar populated by artists of diverse origins and cultures, in constant involvement with the community, and thus turning common spaces into improvised stages”, defended the mayor.
Among the proposals for the three days of the festival, which always starts between 09:30 and 10:00 and ends at 00:00 or 01:00, are the Portuguese companies Puppets Rui Sousa, Historioscopia, Universo Paralelo, Mãozorra and Contact, as well as the artist Bruno Gama.
The first of these groups will present at the FIMO robertos theater a creation on “Magic Threads” held by everything from rock musicians to vampires, while Historioscopia will explore a “Nine-Sided Box” a story unfolded between sewing accessories and Universo Paralelo will will dedicate himself to “An unknown caravel”, inspired by the “Conto da Ilha Desconhecida” written by José Saramago.
The company Mãozorra, for its part, will use a van to take the public on a “Journey” through intimate desires that arise at certain moments of daily life, and Contact will apply “Azul de Colores” on a plot of land on the plantation of a garden and Bruno Gama will have a “Musical Circus” on stage.
As for the foreign companies, there are 11, starting with the Spanish La Fam, whose show will take an “Achilles” over five meters tall and weighing almost 800 kilos to circulate through the streets of Ovar.
Also from Spain, the groups Tiritantes and Fantoches Baj will be at FIMO. The first will lead “Ulterior El Viaje”, a parade about a trip to the future with time machines and the second will stage “Auga que non vas bebe”, a musical comedy with songs from the common tradition of the Iberian Peninsula.
In spaces such as the urban park, the so-called Largo do Neptuno and the Palace of Justice square, productions from six other companies will also be broadcast, including the Polish Marionbrand Theater and the German Kabaré Púpala.
The puppeteers from Brazil will bring the Ovar “Metamorfose”, in which the Grupo Ereoatá Teatro de Bonecos tells the story of a “backcountry gentleman who lives the difficulties of the drought that devastates the backcountry”, and those from Italy will come with “Mettici il cuore / Put your heart into it”, with which the Nina Theater company unravels the contents of a suitcase and brings to life what it finds.
Chile will be represented with the Hugo & Inês Theater, whose puppeteers will create a “Body Rhapsody / Corporal Rhapsody” transforming parts of their bodies into different characters, and Argentina will be present with two productions: the show “Psicorock”, in which the Puppet company Viajeras uses rope characters recognizable by the whole family, and the show “La Semilla / The seed”, in which La Pajarera addresses the risks of species in danger of extinction.
Swiss artists from the Zoazola collective will also be present at the 2022 edition of FIMO, whose show “Robot” will go through scenarios of the future with a concentration camp and a figure in a wheelchair, thus proposing a “shared artistic vision of an intolerant and unfair”.
Source: Observadora
