as part of the Annual Meeting of European Network of World Heritage Associations
October 10-12th 2024

I Pupi is immersed in the Sicilian culture, interlacing dance, tradition and literature. To represent great stories through minute bodies is the leitmotiv of puppets’ tradition for centuries, incorporating adventures, defeats, vicissitudes or perhaps more simply the lives of people and characters in small scale.

With their bodies, supported by wires and crossed by an iron rod from the skull to the pelvis, the puppets try to reflect the human being both at a structural and metaphorical level.

Set in a narrative dimension, the characterization of the gesture blends with the search for the character that follows the ideal thread of a story, that of Orlando Furioso.

A camouflaged story, made of comic and dramatic substrates, of landscapes that appear and disappear instantly, becomes an opportunity to deepen and detail the spatial and temporal dynamics useful to bring out a quality of movement that can recall the “pupo”.

Giuseppe Muscarello, choreographer, dancer and performer, has collaborated for over twenty years with many dance companies and directors of cinema and theatre.
He carries out training activities on the scenic movement addressed to dancers and professional actors throughout Italy. In 1999 he founded and directed Muxarte, a dance company, directing his work towards research.
In recent years his career has extended to the study of visual arts and writing. In 2016 he published, with the publishing house Leima, “Io sono mia madre” (“I am my mother”), a book connected to a photographic project and the homonymous performance.
In 2017 he founded in Palermo ConFormazioni, a dance and contemporary languages festival, of which he is the artistic director.

direction and choreography: Giuseppe Muscarello
with Beatrice Biondi, Luca Piomponi, Giulia Gilera, Andrea Palumbo, Raffaella Barone
and with Naomi Byrne, Camilla Caminiti, Ilenia Carusone, Laura Conte, Ilaria Diquigiovanni, Emma Franzolin, Costanza Greco, Marta Luzzu, Gabriella Menegat, Eleonora Pisani, Giovanna Santoro, Nina Silvestri
original music: Roberto Costa (Pisk)
music performed live: Arianna Rimi, Daniele Rimi, Pino Basile
production: PinDoc
co-production: Muxarte
with the support of MiC and Regione Siciliana

I Pupi – in site specific by Giuseppe Muscarello is part of the project “Celebrating UNESCO World Heritage” – Feel Florence: from digital transition to sustainability for a new tourist destination.

Show promoted by the Municipality of Florence – Department of Culture and Sport – Florence World Heritage and Relations with UNESCO” Office with the financial support of the Ministry of Tourism “UNESCO Sites and Creative Cities Fund”.

From 10 to 12 October 2024, the city of Florence hosts the Annual Meeting of European Network of World Heritage Associations (Annual Meeting ENWHA – Florence, Italy) with the task of making people understand the importance of the values of the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention, highlighting the issues of management and education related to responsible and sustainable tourism.
Experts from all over Europe are invited to participate in this international meeting, which takes place within the framework of the project “Celebrating UNESCO World Heritage”, to exchange experiences, knowledge and good practices and to raise awareness and provide information on World Heritage sites.
The European Network of World Heritage Associations is an organization of Associations from 14 European countries that aims to raise awareness on the theme of World Heritage in Europe, in order to support its protection and conservation and to dialogue on common themes and problems using an open and transparent approach.
The European Network of World Heritage Associations is a union of associations from 14 European countries that aims to raise general awareness of European World Heritage, to advocate its protection and conservation, and to discuss common issues and topics using an open and transparent approach.

photo: Anna Fici