IÑAKI MATA (English)

Actor, creator and Basque puppeteer. Born on 27th October 1964 in Antzuola, Gipuzkoa.

At the end of the 80's, he decides to give up his studies in Industrial Engineering and his job as a draughtsman to take up his career in the theatre.

In 1987 he takes part in the foundation and management of the puppet theatre company TAUN TAUN.
As of 1998 he takes charge of the puppet company KILIMILIKLIK. Through his association, until the year 2000, he is in charge of the management of the puppet room in Zugarramurdi (Navarre) and of the show about the caves there called AKELARRE.
He is also the ideologist and creator of the project 'The museum of witchery' which is currently running.

In 2007 he decides to present himself as an independent company in his own research projects. Thus BARRERAS is born, an urban work of visual poetry which fuses the object, the puppet and the clown. This work has been represented in more than 20 countries and served as the base on which another proposal of urban visual poetry, H,02TOPOZ, was developed in 2012. In 2017 a self study search into migration led to his third work WELCOME!

Throughout all this time he collaborates with other theatre companies in the Basque Country as an assistant director and in direction, construction and interpretation. He also gives conferences and courses in the making and operation of puppets in The Basque Country, Spain, Central America and South America.

At present he continues researching, working for other entities, groups and TV. The latest project he is involved in is the setting up of a training centre for the Art of the Puppet and the Object.

BARRERAS

This is a street show which uses a wheelchair to show day to day life. The object, the puppet and the clown fuse to make reality come closer. The wheelchair is quite simply a metaphor, an excuse, an object through which we can look at ourselves and find ourselves.

By using gesture, sound or the simple word, something which is normally vetoed, hidden or distant becomes accessible and thought producing.

Places visited: The Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia, Valencia, Andalucia, Castilla and Leon, Asturias, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Hungry, El Salvador, Coast Rica, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uraguay. Estonia

(See video 1) (see video 2) (see video 3-Documental video 15 minutes)

H,O2TOPOZ

It is a work of urban interaction. A search through movement. When motion is the protagonist comes the need for time and space, a reference point from which to observe a standstill

Certain moment invites us to stop, some stop inviting us to think.

Some invitation to VIEW. (see photo gallery) (see video)


WELCOME!

WELCOME is a journey of visual poetry in motion.
A way of welcoming all internal migratory processes
A migratory flight of empathy, connection and reflection through ‘necessity’
A nomadic backpack on transit through life invites us on a journey of ‘possibility’
A realistic doll with human features in a human reality with doll like features.

(see video)    download dossier    


PUPPET COURSE

Puppet course is an open proposal to anyone or any entity who wish to get closer to puppets as an expressive driving force.

‘The making of a puppet drives creativity and develops the imagination. However, the most interesting thing is that definite spaces are created where one can feel like the driving force through the object being handled. (see video)

THE WORKSHOP

The workshop is a service which aims to cover any demand from companies, people or entities which need this space.

The speciality of the workshop is the making of the dolls, the staging and preparation of the sets.

The materials worked with are wood, aluminium, iron, latex, sponge, cardboard and fibreglass.

Work done so far (in pictures)