Exhibitions

20 éditions d'un festival d'exception

From 1961 to 2019, the Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes has given rythm and pulse to the daily lives of the inhabitants of Charleville-Mézières through each of its 20 editions.

Visionary and full of humanism, Jacques Félix, founder of the Festival, shared with the entire city his vast curiosity and passion for puppetry. This whole story will be told through this exhibition encompassing memories and a huge range of vibrant stories about puppets, documents and emblematic objects of each major period of the Festival.

Special creation for the Festival
From July 5 to September 30
During the Festival : 10am to 7pm
Out of Festival : 9:30am to 12:30am / 1:30pm to 6pm
Saturday and Sunday : 11am to 1pm / 2:30pm to 6pm

Free access
3 - Musée de l'Ardenne

A exhibition by the musée de l’Ardenne in collaboration and co-production with the FMTM ;
Thank to the generous lenders : Les Anges au Plafond, Philippe Genty, Neville Tranter, Stéphane Georis and all the others...

© FMTM

20 cardinal points is an exhibition about the Festival printed in our memories, how it has been a revelator of our own passions in our lives to make it echoing the 20 editions.

Photographer Christophe Loiseau specialized in puppetry, and asked 20 inhabitants / volunteers / artists / spectators for a memory of the festival, which he later staged and shot in Charleville-Mézières.

The 20 portraits are also to be discovered in the exhibition "20 éditions d'un festival d'exception" at the Musée de l'Ardenne.

Special creation for the Festival
In the town of Charleville-Mézières from 20 to 29 September
and at the Musée de l'Ardenne (3)
During the Festival : 10am to 7pm
Out of Festival : 9:30am to 12:30am / 1:30pm to 6:30pm
Saturday and Sunday : 11am to 1pm / 2:30pm to 6pm

Free access

Production : Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes de Charleville-Mézières Réalisation : Christophe Loiseau ; Thank to all participants

© Christophe Loiseau

Photos by Richard Termine

The Art of Basil Twist proposes a photographic journey through Basil Twist’s performances for the past 23 years.

From 20 to 29 September
From 10am to 8pm

Free access
Galerie Lebon

Sponsored by The Jim Henson Foundation which supports innovative contemporary American puppet theater and The Jane Henson Foundation.

© Richard Termine

Photos by Richard Termine

Richard Termine demonstrates thru still image the extent of puppet theater in the United States.

From 20 to 29 September
From 10am to 8pm

Free access
Galerie Lebon

Sponsored by The Jane Henson Foundation.

© Richard Termine

The Temporal and their puppets

Haut les bras! is presenting the work of Marcel Temporal and his son Jean-Loup. In their past times both influenced the story of puppetry. There will be glove puppet created in the 30’s by Marcel Temporal, wooden heads, drawings, documents and photographies different to the traditional aesthetic.

Creation for the Festival
Fri. 20, Tue. 24, Thu. 26 and Fri. 27 September from 1pm to 6pm
Sat. 21, Wed. 25 and Sat. 28 September from 10am to 6pm
And during the shows played at Médiathèque's Auditorium

Free access
11 - Médiathèque Voyelles

Conception and realization : Renaud Robert ; Scenography and construction : Serge Dubuc ; Production : EFFIGIE(s) THEATRE ; Co-production : FESTIVAL MONDIAL DES THÉÂTRES DE MARIONNETTES FMTM, L’HECTARE / Scène Conventionnée de Vendôme ; Subsidies : DRAC Centre-Val de Loire, Région Centre-Val de Loire, Département du Loiret, Ville de Meung-sur-Loire ; Partners : Association du Musée Vannier (Beaugency), L’Atelier 75 (Paris), Musée des Arts de la Marionnette / Gadagne (Lyon), Institut International de la Marionnette, Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris)

© Dominique Temporal

An ancestor of manga and anime, Gaito-kamishibai is a long-gone street theater emblematic of Japanese popular culture. Storytellers carried small wooden theaters called butai at the back of their bikes.

While telling their stories, they were showing illustrations originally painted by hand. The exhibition offers a unique panorama on this popular art still unknown in France.

Every day, puppeteers bring to life the theaters exhibited during a Voyage en Kamishibai to be booked by ticket office.

Special creation for the Festival
From 20 to 29 September
From Monday to Friday, from 2pm to 7pm
Saturdays and Sundays from 11am to 6pm

Free access
2 - Espace Osaka

A collection from the Torokko puppetry library - collaboration Emei and Fumiko Katami ; Contribution of Pierre-Stéphane Proust ; Exhibition curator : Barbara Mélois for the FESTIVAL MONDIAL DES THÉÂTRES DE MARIONNETTES FMTM ; Spatial installation : Barbara Mélois, of an original scenography by Jean-Luc Félix ; Construction and arrangement : Gilbert Meyer and Barbara Mélois ; Signage design : Mathilde Mélois ; Translation and performance : Shiba Yuko and Tomoe Kobayashi ; Production : Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes de Charleville-Mézières ; Thank to Torokko puppetry library, René Sostelly, Sylvie Jupinet, “The Center for Japanese Studies”, Université de Hawaï and Pierre-Stéphane Proust, Tara McGowan

© From the Walter A. Pennino Postwar Japan Photo Collection, courtesy of the Center for Japanese Studies, University of Hawaï at Mānoa

Stanislava Stuchlá (Czech Republic)

Cabinet Stuchlas is a playful visit through a series of small wooden puppets, animated by miniaturized motors.

From 20 to 28 September
From 10am to 7pm

Free access
10 - Église Saint Remi

Conception : Stanislava Stuchlá

© Ota Palán

Cie Drolatic Industry

Exhibition-entresort according to La mastication des morts by Patrick Kermann

Playmorbide transports us to an offbeat and surprising universe: a miniature cemetery created from old and contemporary toys, vectors of memory, melancholy and joy.

From 25 to 29 September
From 11am to 1pm and from 3pm to 6pm and until 10pm on 27 September

Free access
20 - Hôtel des ventes

Conception, cemetery keepers : Maud Gérard, Cédric Radin. With the complicity of Bastien Lambert

© Drolatic Industry

Cie Yokaï

Killing Alice makes you travel through a broken looking-glass, when Antonin Artaud seizes Lewis Carroll. A meeting with five supernatural installations.

From 20 to 29 September
From 2pm to 6pm

Free access
6 - 6 rue Pierre Gillet

Installation animated, imagined and conceived by Violaine Fimbel and Marjan Kunaver

© Cie Yokaï

Luc-Vincent Perche

A scientific exhibition by a mad scientist who loves books. 14 sculptures and installations, both playful and interactive, to animate books. An exhibition to handle!

On Wednesday 25 September, three visits are organised around Robert Sharley Jr, a dishevelled scientist, founder of the BibliOtronique, an eccentric process that would bring a book to life. Reservation at 06 73 26 88 19.

Fri. 20, Tue. 24, Thu. 26, Fri. 27 September from 1pm to 6 pm
Sat. 21, Wed. 25 and Sat. 28 September from 10am to 6 pm

Free access
11 - Médiathèque Voyelles

Texts : Benjamin Colin and Luc-Vincent Perche ; Directed by : Luc-Vincent Perche ; With : Benjamin Colin ; With the support of the médiathèque l’Odyssée (Lomme), the théâtre de l’aventure (Hem) and the espace Athéna (St-Saulve). Luc-Vincent Perche and his "Cycle du Livre" are accompanied at the Tas de Sable-Ches Panses Vertes during the 2020/2021 season ; Thank to Sebastien Dannel and Cedric Vernet, Laurane and Emmanuelle Perche, mini Golgoth, and all books donors

© Luc-Vincent Perche

Believe and create a common future for the puppet

For its 90th anniversary, discover the story of UNIMA, whose head office is in Charleville-Mézières, through more than 70 puppets from all over the world, but also the story of an ancestral art that inspired many theatrical adventures of the 20th and 21st centuries.

From 27 July to 29 September
During the Festival : from 10am to 7pm
Out of Festival : 9:30am to 12:30am / 1:30pm to 6pm
Saturdays and Sundays : 11am to 1pm / 2:30pm to 6 pm

Full price 8€ (free - 26 y.o, inhabitants of Charleville-Mézières and for everyone on 20 and 21 September)
3 - Musée de l'Ardenne

Une exhibition by the musée de l’Ardenne in collaboration with UNIMA