“The art of puppetry feels lonelier,” stated the company, expressing sorrow over the passing of an artist who dedicated his life to this art form, as Delphim Miranda departed on September 4.
“Delphim Miranda believed that puppets could engage with various technologies and integrate seamlessly with other artistic languages,” making it “a versatile art form and a significant channel to convey messages and tell captivating stories,” emphasized the Gondomar-based company.
Born on May 17, 1947, in Lisbon, Delphim Miranda attended the Painting course at the School of Fine Arts. He began teaching Visual Education in 1971 and was a trainer in Plastic Expression. His artistic career spanned cartooning, comic strips, animated films, painting, illustration, and artistic intervention, eventually leading him to theater, specifically puppet theater, both as an actor and author, working on costumes, props, and scenography.
As a teacher, he discovered in puppetry a “work unit capable of engaging students across all expressive areas,” prompting him to specialize in this art, eventually becoming a professional “Storyteller with Puppets,” according to his biography.
Delphim Miranda created his own shows with original stories, performing alongside puppets in notable works such as “Por alguns contos de reis,” “Queres que te conte outra vez?” and “A caixa dos bonecos.”
With these productions, he toured the country, participated in theater festivals, performed in France, Spain, and Germany, participated in the Reading Support Program of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, exhibited his works, and conducted training sessions with teachers and animators.
“Over the years, the artist maintained a profound connection with puppet art in Portugal, developing a distinctive range of animated objects and forms and making significant contributions to the cultural dynamics,” recalled Teatro de Mandrágora today.
As an actor without puppets, Delphim Miranda appeared in the film “Requiem” by Alain Tanner, based on the novel by António Tabucchi, playing the role of the copyist painter.
During Expo ’98, he participated in the daily performance “Peregrinação,” driving one of the ‘Peregrimóveis.’
In the 2016-2017 season, the Puppet Museum in Lisbon hosted a retrospective exhibition dedicated to Delphim Miranda, celebrating his 40-year career.
For Teatro de Mandrágora, “it is essential to acknowledge that [Delphim Miranda] paved very personal aesthetic paths,” which today help us understand “his profound involvement with puppet art, contributing to its development in recent decades,” and find, throughout his journey, “an artist characterized by an aesthetic and social approach that allows us to understand not only the work but also the thought behind his pieces and the cultural dynamics of the relationship between puppet art and education.”
The Union of Teachers of Greater Lisbon also responded to Delphim Miranda’s death today, recalling the “excellent teacher,” the “remarkable figure” in the art of puppetry, and the dynamizer of the Espaço António Borges Coelho (Espaço ABC), at the union’s headquarters, where he brought “joyful but also value-laden stories” to life.
The wake for Delphim Miranda, according to a family source, will begin at 4:00 PM on Friday at the Church of Santo Condestável in Lisbon.
The body will be taken from there to the Crematorium of the Carnide Cemetery on Saturday at 11:00 AM, with the cremation taking place at 12:00 PM in the Edifício da Saudade.
