About Tu Mateixa Marionetes Company
Based in São Paulo Since 2015, Cia Tu Mateixa Marionetes was founded in 2014 in the city of Barcelona, where the puppeteer, clown and actress Júlia Barnabé graduated in pedagogy Jacques Lecoq Physical Theater at international school Estudis Berty Tovías and learned to build string puppets at Taller de Marionetas de Pepe Otal, a traditional puppet research and creation studio.
Created from the confluence of the languages of puppetry, physical theater, circus and humor, the company takes the Catalan name “tu mateixa” which means “yourself”, since the puppets and the scenography are built by hand, in wood, by the artist, who also signs the authorial dramaturgy of her shows.
In 2016, the co. premiere of the show “Laia and the Flight of Imagination” and, since then, it has been touring several theater and circus festivals around the world, having performed in France, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, Slovenia, Russia, Algeria and Paraguay, as well as several cities in Brazil.
Foto Rogener Pavinski
In 2019, the Company was awarded the Cleyde Yáconis Award from the Municipal Department of Culture of São Paulo with the project “The ends of the thread of life”, circulating with the show “Laia and the Flight of Imagination” in Elderly Living Centers and in public libraries, holding workshops on the construction of string puppets and manipulation of puppets free of charge for the population.
In 2020, Argentine puppeteer Rocío Walls joined the company and together they founded their own atelier in São Paulo city, where they built dozens of puppets. In addition to performing shows, they teach string puppets building workshops, puppet manipulation, physical theater and clowning, provide guidance and consultancy for cultural projects and make puppets to order.
Fotos Marina Decourt
In 2020, Cia Tu Mateixa was awarded the 5th Call for Promotion of Circus of the Municipal Department of Culture of São Paulo with the project “Circus of the Traveling Puppets” and, in 2021, the show “Cabinet of Curiosities” premiered, directed by Carla Candiotto, who held an online season in several municipal public centers. This year, they participated as puppet-handlers in the TV series "Partimpim'' with songs by Adriana Calcanhoto for Globo Play and Gloob channel, in addition to several online theater and circus festivals.
Júlia Barnabé
Her main puppet-building mentor was the Catalan Lope de Alberdí. She studied construction with Stephen Mottran in Italy and string puppet manipulation techniques with Angel Navarro in Spain. She was a member of Buzum! of Cia Pia Fraus as an actress-manipulator. In addition to being an actress, puppeteer and street artist, she has also been a clown for over ten years. He began her circus career at Circo Escola Picadeiro in 2004. She studied clown with important masters such as Phillipe Gaulier (France), Chacovachi (Argentina), Cristiane Paoli Quito, Ricardo Puccetti, Esio Magalhães, Domingos Montagner and Fernando Sampaio (Brazil). She is one of the founders of Cia Cromossomos and a collaborator of Clowns without Borders Brazil. She is a member of the collective Casa das Marionetistas Livres and the Rede de Bonequeiras Brasileiras. Graduated in Social Sciences from FFLCH - USP.