Puppets on a journey from West to East
THE ITINERARY
The planned route is the road from Rome to Istanbul, which follows the Via Appia and the Via Egnatia, the millennia-old east-west communication routes built by the Romans to link the Tyrrhenian Sea, the two shores of the Adriatic and the north of the Aegean Sea.
From Rome to Brindisi, the Via Appia, built from the 4th century BC and considered by the Romans to be the regina viarum (queen of roads), was the ancient Roman civilisation's
first gateway to Greece and the East.
From Durrës to Istanbul, the Via Egnatia, built from the 2nd century BC onwards as an extension of the same road, leads all the way to the Bosphorus, crossing the territories formerly known as Illyria, Macedonia and Thrace (now part of Albania, Republic of Northern Macedonia, Greece and European Turkey).
Over the centuries, they have served as a hub and route for exchanges and encounters between people, goods, cultures and religions.
THE PUPPET THEATRE
In this project, our intention has been to place puppetry at the origin and centre of the route.
Two puppeteers traveled along the route to promote the artistic and cultural exchange associated with puppetry in a place that has been a theatre of exchange for thousands of
years. The original dimension of the itinerant artist and the traveller has been revived and applied along two lines.
The first aspect aiming to engage with professionals: through detailed mapping, the team has identified artists and companies residing and operating in the towns alongside or near the route.
Then has organised meetings focused on developing mutual understanding,
exploring the techniques and styles used by the various artists, both traditional and contemporary, and gaining insight into the heritage of puppetry that they preserve and promote.
The second intended to meet the public: in the locations that served as stops on our journey, we put on street shows and performances, culminating in spontaneous and open encounters with the people
who live in these places.
THE DOCUMENTARY
The project has been documented and made accessible through a documentary recorded
during the trip.
This documentary has been shot from the point of view of the protagonists of this
journey: two puppets. Accustomed from birth to observing the reality of the world from a wooden puppet theatre, they realised for the first time that there is an unexplored world that they never knew existed. They then embarked on a ‘pilgrimage’ in search of other puppets and came face to face with the complexity
of human society.
MOTIVATIONS
Puppetry is the field in which we operate professionally, as the founders of a company that produces and directs shows and runs workshops for all kinds of audiences and venues.
The street was our first stage, the initial space where our performances and encounters with the public took place, starting from our earliest productions. For us, it remains a place that continues to inspire unique connections and ideas.
The street was also the theatre that hosted our first encounter, which took place in November 2012 during a puppet performance in a street of Thessaloniki, Greece.
The puppet in question had embarked on a particular journey which, beginning on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, in Fano to be precise, was to take her and her ‘creator’ to Azerbaijan,
via Thessaloniki, a key milestone of the Via Egnatia.
The Via Egnatia is therefore a route that is close to our hearts, and one that we have often had the opportunity to cross, walk along and cross over during many journeys over the years.
We chose to travel the entire route, in the certainty that once again this path would guide our steps and accompany our encounters.
We chose to document our journey with a camera,
following the path of two puppets and their creators, letting us be guided by their point of view, so that we can share this journey with anyone who wants to relive our adventure.
EGNATIA
The Egnatia project is a journey, an encounter, and an artistic and intercultural exchange.
A travel from Rome to Istanbul, realized between August and November 2025,
with puppetry as the central element of the journey.
Tracing the people who are active in puppetry along this route,
meeting them and involving them in a documentary.