PuppetOscope: Out of the Shadows

Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi is supporting Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust for its second edition of PuppetOscope to present a one-of-its-kind performance in Delhi: an all-night traditional shadow puppet theatre show from Karnataka’s Togalu Gombeyatta tradition. Renowned artist Sri Gunduraju, along with his family, will perform episodes from the Ramayana (Sita Apaharan and Ram-Raavan Yuddha) as part of the Shri Raja Rama Togalu Gombe Mela group. A much-awaited celebration of puppets and storytelling, this festival event at the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi will feature street-food stalls, and mark the return of our immersive VR project ‘The Infinite Library’ for one-night-only. The Infinite Library is a traveling installation produced by Mika Johnson and the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan that reimagines the future of libraries as interactive spaces that engage visitors through multisensory forms of storytelling. It seeks to embed human stories within a much grander narrative, one which includes the birth of our planet and the evolution of all life forms.

Partners:

Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust

Katkatha is an amalgam of two Hindi words. Kat means wood and is derived from the word
Katputli (puppetry), Katha meaning story and together they become puppets and stories.
Katkatha started as an association of puppeteers in 1998 and is a professionally set up and
managed space for the promotion, preservation and development of Puppet Theatre and allied arts.

Anurupa Roy

Anurupa is an Indian puppeteer, puppet designer and director of puppet theatre. She started at her group Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust 1998. She has directed over 15 shows for children and adults ranging from the Ramayana and Mahabharata to Shakespearean comedy to the Humayun-nama. The shows have toured across Europe, Japan and South Asia.

Gunduraju

Master Puppeteer Gunduraju is the 9th generation of the leather shadow puppet form called Togalu Gombeyata from Karnataka. He is from Hasan, and one of the few from his community that still practise this form.

Mika Johnson (The Infinite Library)

Mika is the creative director of The Infinite Library and a multimedia artist by profession, interested in dream-like narratives, mythos, rituals, and biodiversity. While his concentration is designing XR experiences, Mika Johnson also works in many mediums, including as a director for fiction and documentary projects.