pelly * made

By: pelly*made

Aug 26 2017

Tags: Alonissos, art, color, curiosities, graffiti, Greece, minimal, painting, photography, ruins, street, time, travel

Category: Archives, photos

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of shadows

A worn out painted board for a play of “Karagiozis” in Alonissos ~ Greece

wiki: Karagiozis is an iconic shadow puppet and fictional character of Greek traditional folklore.
He is the main character of the tales narrated in the Greek theatre of shadows. Karagiozis means ‘black-eyed’

Shadow theater became more widespread around the 16th century among the Otoman Empire. Karagiozis seems to have come to mainland Greece, probably from Asia Minor (Anatolia) in the 19th century, during the Ottoman rule. The genre became fully integrated, though adapted, among the Greek population

Karagiozis is a poor, ugly, hunchbacked Greek, his right hand is always depicted long, his clothes are botched, and his feet are always bare. He lives in a poor cottage with his wife Aglaia and his three boys, during the times of the Ottoman Empire. The scene (called “Karagioz Berde”) is occupied by his cottage in the left, and the Sultan’s Palace (“Sarayi”) on the far right. Because of his poverty, Karagiozis uses mischievous and crude ways to find money and feed his family

A Character

Students of folklore divide Karagiozis’ tales in two major categories: the ‘Heroics’ and the ‘Comedies’. The Heroics are tales based on tradition or real stories involving the times under Ottoman rule, and Karagiozis is presented as a helper and assistance of an important hero. The themes of each “Karagiozis” play were adapted to various current social and political issues, as well as to historical events of Ottoman-ruled Greece. These historical “Karagiozis” plays were very popular in the past and during times of crisis, as they lifted the audience’s spirits and offered hope

The puppeteer who stood behind the illuminated screen and masterfully moved the paper or leather-made puppets representing humans, was known as the ‘Karagiozopaihtis’ (the “Karagiozis” player). The ‘Karagiozopaihtis’ brought to life the puppets by altering his voice according to the character and by changing the story line depending on his inspirations. In fact, he was responsible for all aspects of the play, as he was the mime, the writer, the musician, the singer, the stage-designer and the director. Through Karagiozi, the puppeteer would satirize authority figures and situations. Karagiozis represented the common folk, in a collision with everyone and everything unjust, whether it be a social or political injustice. He often pretended to be a man of all trades in order to find work and sought silly but cunning solutions to the various difficult and strange situations he’d get into. He is famous for his pranks, which he set up to tease those around him

Karagiozis, as well as all the figures, the characters of his tales, are two dimensional and designed always in profile. They were traditionally made from camel skin, carved to allow light through the image, creating details, but today are most often made of cardboard. Traditional puppets gave off black shadows against the white screen, but some more recent puppets have holes covered with colored silk or plastic gel materials to create colored shadows.
The torso, waist, feet and sometimes the limbs, were separate pieces that were joined together with pins. They were moved with a stick attached to them, except in the case of the figure of Karagiozis and a few other characters whose arms or other limbs required separate movement. The ‘scene’ was a vertical white parapet, usually a cloth, called ‘berdes’ (curtain).
Between the figures and the player (who was invisible), were candles or lamps that shed light to the figures and made their silhouettes and colours visible to the audience through the cloth

Today, Karagiozis is mostly performed for adults and children alike in outdoor village squares, small theatres, and festivals

* sources: https://www.createspace.com/260215  –  https://photius.com/thus/karagiozis.html

** a nice article on Karagiozis: 

http://www.portesmagazine.com/2014/06/03/arts-culture-karagiozis-greeces-iconic-character/