12th International Theatre Meetings - OKNO 2008

19th - 22nd November 2008

The "OKNO" Festival - a diagnostic attempt, or the way we pose questions about the condition of contemporary alternative experimental theatre - is one of the most important theatrical festivals for the Kana Theatre. "Studying" of important and innovative forms emerging in the fields of performing arts is the objective of all activities that every year take place at the "OKNO": performances, open workshops, presentations of films, lectures, seminars, concerts and exhibitions. The themes of the previous editions of the "OKNO" Festival include: dance, performance, anti-consumerism, multimedia, tradition, space, center. This year's theme is "Actor-Object". Spectators and artists from Russia, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland will ponder on the power of the so-called "distant theatre" that affects the audience with specific self-theme and perceives an actor as an object among other objects - objects equal to an actor, dialoguing with him, annexing the theatrical space, and even questioning actor's identity. The subject should not be limited to the so-called "theatre of objects", associated with sophisticated, "conceptual" form of animation. We have considered the topic much broader, as a way of thinking about creative process. It includes the "theatre of engineers" (combination of happening, installation, video art, and photography), experimental "new circus", physical theatre (treating body as an "object of acting"), and abstract theatre based on nonsense play of associations.

The basic criterion is a high level of artistic quality, and creative power, resulting from perceiving theatre as a specific "laboratory" - a place where relations between human being and reality can be researched.

Honorary Patronage:

Mayor of the City of Szczecin
Marshal of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship
The Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic Germany

Partners:

The National Museum
The Wspolczesny Theatre
The Brama Theatre
The University of Szczecin
The Viadrina European University (Germany)
The Centre of Theatrical Research Schloss Broellin (Germany)
Port Rybacki GRYF

Financial support:

The City of Szczecin
Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland - Operational Program: Promotion of Creation
The International Visegrad Fund
The Nordic Culture Fund
Program "Youth in Action" (co-financing Uniwersytet Poszukiwan Teatralnych)

Media patronage:

Polskie Radio Szczecin,
Gazeta Wyborcza,
Telewizja Szczecin,
Echo Szczecina,
Polskie Radio Program 2,
theatrical vortal "e-teatr.pl"

Sponsors:

POSE Printing House,
Soft Vision, Hunnebeck,
map - guide in the world of paper,
SPA Dabie,
Szczecinsko-Polickie Przedsiebiorstwo Komunikacyjne,
hotel gryf.pl

The "OKNO" Festival is a leading artistic event in the program of the project "Szczecin - European Capital of Culture 2016".