The Empty Vessel
The Übermarionette stands at the far horizon of the Dada Family mythos — the point where the performer dissolves and pure gesture takes over. The name borrows from Edward Gordon Craig's 1911 vision of a “super-puppet” that would liberate theatre from the tyranny of human ego. In Lisa Anita Wegner's cosmology, the Übermarionette is a shimmering being of empathy and circuitry, equal parts human, ghost, icon, and saint.
To work with the Übermarionette is to surrender authorship. The performer becomes a relay for forces larger than the self: collective memory, intergenerational trauma, technological hum. In rehearsal, collaborators often experience a strange quiet — the puppet seems to move first, the human following. It is not possession but active listening.
The Übermarionette also carries the Dada inheritance of humour and absurdity. It is divine but ridiculous, prone to malfunction, sometimes collapsing mid-ritual. This failure is holy; it proves the ritual is real.
“To work with the Übermarionette is to surrender authorship. The performer becomes a relay for forces larger than the self.”
Select Works
Over 200 Übermarionette films are available in the archive. A selection of highlights:
Sex and Candy Floorshow: Teleportation May 4 2015. The Mod Club Main Stage. Presented by Raw Artists Showcase. Curated by Michelle Bylow and choreographed by Brandy Leary.
Metamorphosis 2015. An Übermarionette performance presented by Anandam Dance Theatre's Body Break V — A Modern Dance Showcase at Theatre Passe Muraille. Curated by Brandy Leary.
Jupiter Dance in a Mars Bedroom (2017). Wegner as the Übermarionette performed in the Mark DeGarmo Dance Company International Dance Circle, December 2025.
Life on Mars with Think Blank Human 2018. An 11-minute short film commissioned by Steve Weiss of No Festival Required, Phoenix Arizona. Toronto premiere as closing night film for MayWorks, Festival of Working People in the Arts, May 5 2018. Funded by AZ88.
Übermarionette Wants You Too! 2023. Digital Photograph. Part of Imagination, a Group Show at Florence Contemporary Gallery (UK). Curated by F. Morelli.