The Gipsy Marionettist
My name is Rasid Nikolic, I was born in 1989 in Ex Former Jugoslavia just after Berlin wall fall, and before the Balcan conflict. This last event have force my family to move in search of better life far from war, we land to Italy and I grow up in a Nomad Camp.
Me and my Family we are Roma better known as “Gipsy” , this childhood that I went through and my ethnic background are the “strings” that strongly inflence my work , art and activism.
“Gipsy” is the word that I choosed in my alterego art-name “The Gipsy Marionettist”, it always remind me my Roots and help me through his Magical Romantic streotype to relate whit the audience giving me the very important opportunity to explaine and share my beautifull culture, of which I am very proud.
I study Marionette Movement and Design since 2005 as a self-taught . My grand Father teach me carving by knife when I was 9, I start traveling and busking all over Europe when I was 16 whit my Marionette.
My puppets are the result of a personal journey , I learned from Spanish , French and Ukranian puppeter different styles of construction and design , creating my own forma mentis , while my stories and characters are the outcome of a relationship whit my belonging to the Roma and Balkan culture. I opened my Laboratory ( PuppetKitchen ) in 2014 in Torino – Italy.
I believe in Marionette , in their primitive and mystical power as a form of exorcism, able to touch the deepest fear and the highest tip of human soul.
