Guilt Gifts Puppetry

One year into the spread of the Covid-19 virus, in a pandemic-ravaged world, we are witnessing an alarming increase in domestic violence, with aggravating consequences for the safety, and often, the lives of women and other family members. The isolation, limited contact with family and friends, working from home with the kids around due to schools being closed, have "imprisoned" women together with their attackers.
Breaking away from such toxic relationships is even more difficult for the victims because abusers are often people they trust and with whom they formed a long-term relationship. People who take advantage and manipulate them using gifts to make false promises of a better life thus keeping them locked in a vicious loop where they fail to report the aggression which in turn allows abusers to continue their harmful rampage.
After working for three years together, Cheil | Centrade and ANAIS would like this new campaign to raise awareness in women, so they admit being in a poisonous relationship and ask for help in due time without allowing themselves to be deceived by shallow gestures of forgiveness that only perpetuate the physical and mental abuse.
This is how the Guilt Gifts Puppetry came to life - a project where art becomes an instrument in recognizing aggression. Using toys belonging to real victims, we created an experimental puppet theater including 8 short plays depicting true cases of women affected by domestic violence. The stories reveal the damaging ramifications of “guilt gifting” and how through it, aggressors manage to deepen the victims’ traumatic experience.