A vervet monkey peeks out from behind a wall at the entrance to the workshop. Image: Shelley Christians/UWCA stampede of life-size animal puppets made from raw, recycled materials will embark on a 20,000-kilometer journey from Kinshasa to the Arctic Circle to raise awareness about wildlife and the threats posed by global warming. Along the route, animals indigenous to the countries the animal puppets are travelling through will join the group.
THE HERDS, as this large-scale public arts production is called, will make their first stop in Kinshasa this week, gathering on the banks of the Congo River from April 9th to April 11th.
From there, they will journey to Lagos, Dakar, Marrakesh, Casablanca, Rabat, Andalucia, Madrid, Barcelona, Marseille, Arles, Paris, Venice, London, Manchester, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Stockholm, and Trondheim, culminating in a final event in the Arctic Circle.
Ukwanda Puppets & Design Art Collective and the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape have partnered together with The Walk Productions to present The Herds. Ukwanda Puppets & Design Art Collective was founded in 2010 after the core group participated in a small youth development project in the impoverished community of Masiphumelele.
Luyanda Nogodlwana, Siphokazi Mpofu and Sipho Ngxola are supported by the CHR where they are artists-in-residence and fellows. Their studio is at CHR’s Iyatsiba Lab in Woodstock, Cape Town.
Puppeteers from each town will be trained a few days before the show begins. Speaking about the training process, Sipho Ngxola said, “It is easier to train people to puppeteer animal puppets than human puppets.”
For more information about the journey and to download a puppet guide to make your own puppet, visit theherds.org.
For more information, contact Georgina Seddon at georgina@thewalkproductions.org.
