Silvan Omerzu. From a Sketch to a Puppet 2008

Silvan Omerzu was born in 1955 in Brestanica. After finishing his studies at the Ljubljana Pedagogical Academy, he received a scholarship to study in Prague, where he pursued his specialisation in puppet stage and puppet design.
His displayed his work at 40 solo exhibitions and 60 group exhibitions both at home and abroad and co-created 32 performances.
Lately, Omerzu has been working on spatial installations, such as the exhibition Tears in the church of the Franciscan monastery in Kostanjevica (2006) and exhibitions in the galleries La Bellone in Brussels (2007) and Kazemate at the Ljubljana Castle (2007 and 2010). He staged another exhibition entitled Automatons in KiBela in Maribor (2008) and the spatial installation Round Tables (2009) at the International Centre of Graphic Arts.
He directed a number of performances in the Mladinsko Theatre in Ljubljana, namely Kleist (2006), The House of Mary Our Helper by Ivan Cankar (2008) and A Tower by Ivo Svetina (2011).
Omerzu also directed the shows Forbidden Loves (2009), adapted from antique motifs in the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre, Salto Mortale (premiere in May 2012) in the Maribor Puppet Theatre and You Catch! by Saša Eržen in the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre (premiere in November 2012).

Throughout his career, Omerzu has been involved in book illustration as well. In the period 1994–2013, he illustrated 17 books for a number of publishers while working permanently for Cicido and Ciciban, literary magazines for children.
He was awarded 13 international and 12 Slovene awards for his work, including the Prešeren Fund Award.