Pinocchio and other puppets of modern art

This article traces the modernist fascination with puppets, highlighting theatrical theories of Kleist, Rilke and Craig, to their expansion in the visual arts. It advocates for a kinaesthetic understanding of art, where the embodied perception of movement produces knowledge beyond linguistic and conceptual limitations. The analysis centres on Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio as a pivotal narrative that illustrates the dialectics of agency and control in both puppetry and modernity. It then explores how artists of the European avant-garde, such as Futurist Fortunato Depero with his Balli Plastici , used puppets to explore themes of bodily autonomy, control and the ‘thing-power’ of objects. The uncanny movements and material excesses of Depero’s puppets foster an alignment with Adorno’s concept of ‘non-identity’, which accounts for knowledge beyond fixed concepts. The article concludes with contemporary artists Annette Messager and Derek Fordjour who continue to employ the puppet to communicate complex social and political realities and demonstrate its enduring capacity to reveal truths that elude conventional artistic representation.