Incanti, an international Puppet Theatre Festival now in its 26th edition, has always been a forge of ideas and projects, and a hub for writers and artists at the forefront of the contemporary cultural scene. Launched in 1994 with the support of the Piedmont Region, Incanti is dedicated to marionettes, shadows, puppets, visual and object theatre aimed at both adult and youth audiences. Puppet Theatre is a genre that combines fantasy, craftsmanship, imagination and depth, providing a thrilling experience to adults and children due to its approach to content and form: a composite and interdisciplinary approach that especially comes across in this year's rich and heterogeneous program.
The Piedmont Region is renewing its support for the planning and production of this festival, whose main purpose is the diffusion and promotion of Puppet Theatre in Piedmont and Italy, through a highly contemporary language that dialogues -in its complexity and contamination- with current performance languages.
During the period 2018-2020, Incanti is probing the theme of journey in its many guises, and the 26th edition is showcasing companies from Canada, Peru, Spain, France, Switzerland and Italy, exploring this theme from different viewpoints including literature and philosophy, and touching on the meaning of migration.
This year, Incanti is paying tribute to Guido Ceronetti, who was an influential figure for both the festival and its organizer, the company Controluce.
Keep up the good work, and best wishes for ongoing recognition of the quality of Incanti in its eight-day program!

VICTORIA POGGIO
Councillor for Culture, Tourism and Commerce of the Piedmont Region

This year, from 3 to 10 October, the international Puppet Theatre festival Incanti is featuring companies from countries such as Switzerland, Peru, Canada, France, Spain and, of course, Italy. The 2019 edition is continuing the research initiated last year on the theme of journey, understood as a path of knowledge or actual travel, enabling a program that will last until 2020, linked to contemporaneity and unveiling the topic´s infinite  potential.
The festival also provides an opportunity of visibility for young companies. With the Cantiere project, Incanti supports the young companies that have distinguished themselves in the field of Puppet Theater with innovative and high-quality projects, offering them accompaniment towards production. In addition, the Accademia project opens new doors, by inserting foreign theatre schools in the official programming, thus training young generations of Puppet Theatre artists. As in past editions, Incanti is welcoming a major puppetry school, this year hosting the ESNAM - École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette of Charleville Mézières. The festival thus simultaneously reveals the level and quality of puppetry education at the European level, and offers the broad public an opportunity to deepen its knowledge of this art.
Due to its top-quality proposals, the artistic and educational heritage that lncanti continues to foster, disseminate and renew, is further enhanced by the attention that the organizers dedicate to training young people, who, by deepening their knowledge, become pivotal in continuing the preservation and enrichment of this ancient art.
Many thanks to all the players of this unmissable initiative and wishes for yet another year of its well-deserved success.

FRANCESCA LEON
Department of Culture, City of Turin

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