ZURICH.- From 25 August to 8 October the Kunsthaus Zürich is presenting large-format picture stories from southern Italy. Dating from the early years of the 20th century, some 70 colourful panels depict the great themes of culture: mythology, creation, heroism and battles – and not just between the sexes. These masterpieces of folk art, which were used by two families of puppeteers as advertising for their performances, are receiving their first showing in Switzerland.

‘Cantastorie’ are a fascinating collection of pictures and picture cycles from the folk art of southern Italy that, for many years, were owned by two families of street singers and puppeteers in Foggia and Naples. Achille Parisi, his son Rinaldo and two other sons painted the sceneries on paper using distemper paint. Created in the first decades of the 20th century, worn away from heavy use, folded and tattered, they were consigned to obscurity when the puppet theatre tradition was supplanted by cinema and television. Measuring up to 1.5 metres in height and 3 metres in width, they are receiving their first museum exhibition in Switzerland at the Kunsthaus Zürich. Beautiful princesses, valiant knights, chaotic battles, fabulous animals and supernatural manifestations combine in a cheerful yet sometimes macabre spectacle. Connoisseurs of Italian literature may identify familiar personages and stories among the figures of Orlando, Guido Santo, Dolores, Martuffo, Fioravante, Palmerino, Erminia della Stella, Gattamugliera, Gennaro Sorrentino and the fishers of Pusillico. But the puppeteers of the time were primarily concerned with entertainment. Puppet theatre was the cinema of the day; the ‘bench singers’ and their songs the contemporary version of the hit parade. The main thing was to give the audience some idea of the existential events portrayed; even so, similarities with individuals either living or historical were less than purely coincidental.

EARLY COMICS
Guest curator Daniela Hardmeier and Kunsthaus Director Christoph Becker have arranged these early ‘comics’ into a sensuous, humorous and instructive visual treat. The large exhibition gallery of the Kunsthaus is transformed into a marketplace at which the approximately 70 large-format works on loan from the Würth Collection are offered up to visitors. A mighty brightly coloured and quite loud historical fairground organ plays each afternoon at 3 p.m. Equipped with a big stage for theatre and concert performances, the gallery becomes a place of lively exchange, with artists as diverse as La Lupa, Lotte Reiniger, the Marcel Oetiker Trio, Theater Sgaramusch, Töbi Tobler, Etta Scollo, Theater Gustavs Schwestern, members of the Tonhalle Orchestra and many others. Tickets are available at the Kunsthaus and from Ticketcorner.