WAYANG PUPPET THEATRE AND MUSEUM
by Debo Laoye
The main focus behind this project was to create a space to showcase the art of Wayang Puppetry, an ancient Indonesian form of shadow puppetry, through both displays and live performances. Visitors would enter this space that engulfed them in the history and mechanisms behind Wayang Puppetry, involving displays giving an up-close view of the materials and equipment used for the performances, as well as passages of text that explained how everything worked. The journey would continue to the first floor where a Wayang puppet performance would be performed. The circular design of the performance space draws inspiration from both the Guggenheim Museum in New York, as well as the curved, tiered seating arrangement featured in Ancient Greek amphitheatres, as a result bringing together the two elements of a performance space as well as an educational gallery space within the building.
