Artesanía de Galicia - POTSFINK

The show Untitled 4x8x6. Mixed media on stage set, used the creativeprocess of a craftsmen who makes puppets which, in a leap ofmagic, jump out of the sketch on the paper into reality, producinga whole puppet show on the boards, made with the same materialsand the most unlikely techniques, ranging from classical rod marionettesto others made with pots, clothes hangers and scrap material.Kukas, as a craftsman, has a very clear and stable working process,in which the first and longest phase is that of thinking, “going roundin one’s head” until coming to the point at which the design can bevisualized, to go on to the technical phase of production, which onlydepends on his technical skills.And the creative freedom is also greater, both on the technical andconceptual level. Having a studio in Compostela thirty years ago wasmuch more complicated, as finding mechanisms or slightly unusualmaterials implied having to go to Madrid or Barcelona. Nowadays,thanks to the Internet, it is much simpler and everything is within reach.And on the conceptual level everything remained to be done, so therewas nothing left to do but take a chance. “In the theatre and withmarionettes it is important to run certain risks. There was no school,so we tried things out ourselves, and at best we would have to eat theshow with potatoes”, yet Isabel tones down Kukas’s reasoning: “Wealways took risks on the plastic level and on the text and conceptuallevel, and we had no problems”. For this reason each type of show isthought out, discussed and debated, and its plan is drawn up accordingto the idea. Each work requires it own puppet, with its style andits language. “The characteristic of our shows is that we work hard onthe articulated puppet, with unusual or invented mechanisms, with acardboard articulated head and a wooden body”, Isabel explains.Doubts are arising in relation to the continuity of this craft, somethingwhich often threatens so many crafts and workshops. This is generallypositive, although, like everything else, thinks could be improved,and Kukas points out that training is needed for the tradition not to belost. This is the direction they are taking, with an ambitious large-scaleproposal. The Puppet House is a project that is at the moment goingthrough the phase of “negotiation”, explains Isabel, a centre that isindispensable today, as a logical step to take on their trajectory. “Thisis very ambitious for Galicia, but there are similar things throughoutthe world”, so Kukas sees that its viability and pertinence would bejustified. “We are trying to set about creating a centre that will includetraining as well as a museum”, something which Isabel feels is verynecessary. “We have a vast heritage, we have all the marionettes,which are a part of the history of marionettes in Galicia, and a veryimportant part. We have kept all the settings, and when we exhibitour puppets we do this as a set, as a part of the show”, somethingwhich is very showy but which occupies a lot of space. Now, for example,they are in the Galician Craftwork Centre, in Lugo. “We havemore or less structured the basis of what will be the permanent exhibitionof our work”, a space that will also receive temporary showingsfrom other companies and from other places.“Kukas is a person who as a maker, as a craftsman, is very wellknown, and it is a shame if this experience and expertise is lost”,and Isabel thinks that the workshop, both in terms of making puppetsand in teaching others, would be a way of bringing stabilityto the profession and providing jobs. Because research and experimenthave always been a constant factor in designing Kukas’s puppets,in which they acknowledge the great influence on them in thissense by Paco Peralta and Matilde del Amo. “They came to givea course in Galicia, and they taught us a new way of designingmarionettes, here we had kept to glove and rod puppets”, and theyconsider themselves to be disciples of these two Andalusian puppeteers.“They gave the vice to me.” She finishes off by acknowledgingKukas himself. One of his major contributions as a craftsman is theresearch he has done into the string support, which has greatly sim-16