Li Shasha | 2022 Research Trip
Switzerland | Theatre
2022 — Theatre
Nationality: China
Residency location: TBD
Partner organization: TBD
Puppeteer, Director, Contemporary Puppetry Artist.
Li Shasha was born in Hebei in 1987. Graduated from Shanghai Theatre Academy in 2011. From 2011 to January 2016, she worked in Shanghai Puppet Troupe as the leading actor. In 2008 and 2012, she won the Golden Lion Award and the best performance award of the national Puppet Industry. In 2011, she won the individual award “best performance award” in Russia golden clown International Puppet Art Festival. The interview on the front page of Wenwei Po in 2011 was included in the list of new cultural talents in Shanghai the next year. 2012 Shanghai outstanding literary and art worker award. In 2013, she won a scholarship from Rockefeller Asian Cultural Council of the United States. The next year, she exchanged as a puppet artist in New York. In January 2015, she studied calligraphy and painting in Shifang jingshe, Songshan. In 2019, she founded “Puppeteer Studio”. It is committed to the research and promotion of traditional puppet art and culture and the exploration and creation of contemporary puppet art. “Who’s talking” project of KOLK 17 Puppet Art Museum in Germany in 2021 One of the artists.
“Folk art is a sunken ship in the abyss of oblivion, full of unknown treasures. In China, puppet art is huge, complex, official, folk and so on. Starting from learning the traditional rod puppet, I found my identity as a puppeteer. As I explore what tradition is? Slowly discover the mysterious relationship between puppets, people and gods. Chinese puppet art does not belong to theaters, art galleries and other so-called fields derived from civilization. It is a part of rituals, with the mission of sacrifice, carrying people’s spiritual aspirations and full of signs of the mysterious world. My works always revolve around puppets. Even if I enter into different fields, I try to create with its original energy and mission in a kind of argot or oath, or vow. “
“Puppet art is also world-wide, through which we can understand the relationship between people, people, environment and belief. What Swiss cultural foundation provides is an opportunity, unknown and treasure.”
