Congo to Norway: Animal puppets complete 20,000km journey

Life-sized wooden puppets of giraffes, lions, and several other animals completed a 20,000km journey from Congo to Norway in August, symbolizing the animals fleeing from the effects of climate change.

In the last leg of their intercontinental odyssey, these puppets scaled the Jostedalsbreen Glacier, the largest glacier in mainland Europe, and concluded the trek at Nordkapp, one of the northernmost points in the world.

The puppets were operated by theater artists as a part of The Herds, a public artwork project for climate awareness by non-profit organization The Walk Productions.

The 25-city procession set off in April from Kinshasa in Congo, followed by pit-stops at the deserts of the Sahel, European cities like Madrid and London, and finally, the glaciers of Norway.

Along the 20,000-kilometer journey, The Herds organized 56 public events that included puppet displays and puppet-building workshops. The prototypes were designed by the Zuabi and the Ukwanda Puppets and Designs Art collective in South Africa, with students at London's Wimbledon College of Arts testing out and building the puppets.

The puppets are made of recyclable art materials like cardboard and plywood. The animal troupe started with 15 puppets in Kinshasa, growing to 65 in London and Manchester.

The initial puppets included life-sized replicas of elephants, giraffes, gorillas, lions and other animals native to Central Africa. As the journey continued up north, new species were added like wolves and deer in central Europe and moose and reindeer in Scandinavia.

Amir Nizar Zuabi, the artistic director of The Herds, summed up the four-month journey as "a moment to grieve for what we are losing but also an invitation to think differently, to adapt, to not accept reality."