9th International Street Artists Festival - BONDS OF CULTURE
2 - 5 JULY, 2008 - SZCZECIN
EVENTS
THEATERS:
TEATRO DUE MONDI (WŁOCHY) - "AY L'AMOR!"
Teatro Due Mondi is an Italian independent theatre group that for almost thirty years has been giving street and experimental performances. The group has performed various artistic works, taken part in international exchanges and workshops, travelled across South America, performed in all Italian cities and also in many other European countries including Poland, France, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Holland, Austria, Ireland, Great Britain and Serbia. "Ay l'amor!" is a performance based on a sequence of popular songs from the rich musical traditions of southern Italy and originally created polyphonies. Actors wear masks with two faces - a duality that introduces lots of surprising perspectives, simultaneousness and contradictions of emotions: joy and sadness, hope and disappointment. Life and death.
SILENCE ZONE THEATER (POZNAŃ) and CLIPA THEATER (ISRAEL) - "DOUBLE SOMERSAULT" (SALTO MORTALE)
A joint spectacle by two independent theaters - SILENCE ZONE from Poznań (one of the most important Polish alternative groups performing in open spaces) and Clipa Theater from Tel Aviv (visual theater, combining the original language of movement with expressive plastic forms) - commissioned by the MALTA International Theatre Festival in Poznań. This cooperation is the result of artistic activities undertaken during the Polish Year in Israel. After the premiere in Poland in June (following the MALTA festival, the group joins the 9th International Street Artists' Festival in Szczecin), the troupe will take part in the ACCO Festival for Alternative Theater (Israel, October 2008). "Double Somersault" - a black circus with six pianos and twelve actors. It is an unusual funeral procession - inspired by a true story of hundreds of pianos dumped on the lake shore by soldiers who plundered Szczecin after the war. Based on this image, "Double Somersault" introduces a sequence of touching scenes performed by a peculiar derailed circus-troupe who rebuild the damaged instruments one by one, then play them and finally destroy both their form and function, which leads to the ultimate disintegration.
TEATRO TATRO (SLOVAKIA) - "BIANKA BRASELLI, A WOMAN WITH TWO HEADS"
The name of this Slovakian theater is equally uncommon as its stage. It reads: "The Free Association of Actors, Directors, Artists, Their Husbands, Lovers, Children, Dogs and Cats, that is to say the Teatro Tatro Wandering Theater-Circus". Teatro Tatro is the closest to the tradition of fair-time-theater, using many references to classical theater, puppet theater, street theater and circus art. The artists began with plays by Ghelderode and Shakespeare, but received praise for their "Ballad about a bandit" by Ondrej Spišák, first performed in 1995. Their greatest hit - "Bianka Braselli, a woman with two heads", performed under a circus tent, was a revelation of the 'Contact' festival in Toruń and was very well receive in Warsaw. The Slovak Teatro Tatro is a magic theater. In a circus-tent, spectators will see the spectacle "Bianca Braselli, a woman with two heads". A speaking dog, knife-thrower, levitating people, hypnosis, clown performances - all that is what Mr. Giacomo's circus has to offer, where we become spectators and participants at the same time.
HOROS THEATRE COMPANY (GRECJA) - "GOLFO 2.3 BETA"
HOROS THEATRE COMPANY was founded in Thessaloniki in 2004. The company has assembled a repertoire consisting of plays that are representative of certain important periods in the history of Greek culture, drawing inspiration from styles such as 19th century pastoral melodrama, Renaissance tragedies, early Renaissance poetry, medieval tales, stock character comedies and ancient drama and presenting these plays in a particularly innovative way.
Horos' modern production of Golfo was inspired by the tradition of buluki - popular travelling theatre companies which were active all over Greece mainly from the late 19th century until the mid-1950s. The company travels all over Greece and performs in various theatrical and non-theatrical locations, trying always to interact with the local community on and off the stage. In addition to Golfo, the Horos repertoire includes Apokopos, based on a 16th century poem and presented at the 2007 Epidaurus Festival in Athens, and Nootica - a selection of stock character comedies from the 19th and 20th centuries.
In contemporary Greece Golfo creates an instant reference to folklore, childhood memories and national symbols. Shadow theatre, manga comic and the meaning of national symbols today in the era of European Community and globalization are the elements with which the director tries to approach the Modern Greek audience. Horos Theatre Company has earned the Greek Critics Union award for its work in 2007.
AMT THEATRE COMPANY (RUSSIA) - "Exorcism"
The leader of the theater, Alexey Merkushev, is an actor and dancer, a graduate of the Theatrical Academy in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). In 1986 Merkushev began cooperation with the celebrated musical theater Avia. In 1987 together with Antone Adassinski and other independent artists, he founded the Theater Derevo, the first underground theater in Russia. Alexei Merkushev has worked with Theater Derevo for a dozen or so years, and is a co-author and actor of the Theater Jack & Joe. Experience gained during cooperation with Derevo helped Merkushev find an individual style of a physical theater, based on perfect control of the body.
"Exorcism" is a spectacle about a path; about a difficult, painful, but simultaneously purifying journey towards change. The point of departure is fear, solitude, weakness, the mind immersed in chaos and despair, possessed by "evil powers", full of aggression and destruction. However, in a crisis there appears something very strong and bright, which restores power and becomes the point of departure for change, giving a chance for purification and renovation, for the discovery of truth about our own life. For the meeting with oneself.
STELLA POLARIS THEATER (NORWAY) - CONCERT, WORKSHOP, THEATRE PERFORMANCE
One of the best-known independent theatre groups in Norway, in existence since 1985, founded by Mereta Klingen and Per Spildra Borg. The group creates indoor and immense outdoor shows with an explosion of color, music and movement. Their performances draw from the traditions of wandering medieval groups, and also from mythologies and rites of different cultures. This time we invite you for a special concert evening of the Stella Polaris Theater - the troupe will play specially arranged music from its own performances. The repertoire includes medieval, Jewish, Nordic, and Balkan, but also choral, and passionate Gypsy music.
All this happens close to the public, in a common rhythm, combined with the humour of improvisations and theatre performance.
TEATRO DO MAR (PORTUGAL) - 'NUSQUAM' polish premiere
The group started in 1986 in Sines, Portugal. It specializes in large outdoor spectacles which are presented at most of the important European festivals. The group uses modern artistic language which links circus, dance, music, fine arts and new technologies - video and animation. Work with the body becomes the base and point of departure for modern formal experiments.
Nusquam is the latest premiere of the Do Mar Theater. Using a sequence of suggestive images, the theater builds one of many possible portraits of a modern man, inscribed into a continuous pursuit of the illusion of freedom and happiness, and simultaneously condemned to solitude and isolation, separated from others by a wall - figuratively and literally, manipulated into the system. It shows that our life is based on conformity, that we surrender to continuous pressure and constraints, that we offer ourselves up to coercion and no longer perceive our own enslavement. Actors' activities take place on four moveable platforms, seven meters long , moving in a set space and every now and again evoking new situations, contexts and meanings.
TOM "OSKAR" GREDER (AUSTRALIA) 'ALL ABOARD'
Tom 'OSKAR' Greder finished a prestigious circus-school in London. For 18 years he has continued his own artistic travel around the world. He frequently improvises, inviting spectators to cooperate in his spectacles, and with a masterly wit reacting to unexpected events. He entertains and engages bystanders in his performances. The spectacle All Aboard draws inspiration from many years spent in an incessant journey and focuses on interactive comedy and physical theater. Together with Oskar, we follow an accelerating toy locomotive that takes the public for a poetic and captivating trip into the unknown. It is a beautiful and deep parody of human condition which reveals the entire cycle of life and death, wisdom and ignorance, laughter and tears. All Aboard draws a subtle comical parallel between the joy and despair of railway-travels...
CONCERTS:
BALTIC NEOPOLIS ORCHESTRA (POLAND - SZCZECIN)
A stringed chamber orchestra comprised of outstanding musicians, actively participating in local, national and international musical projects. The orchestra performs a wide range of compositions, from baroque or classical, to 20th century pieces. The ensemble works on a regular basis with musicians from the most well-known Western Pomeranian Sedina string quartet and orchestras: Camerata Nova and Polish-German Kammer Orchestra from Berlin.
MITCH & MITCH (POLAND - WARSAW)
Mitch & Mitch is a quintet established as a duo in 2002 by the notorious Mitch and Mitch. The band also includes the following individuals: James Boned Mitch, Mr. Bitch (formerly Mrs. Mitch) and Serious Mitch.
Their unusual shows have already wreaked havoc in many cities of Poland (for example the historic suicidal performance at the Country Picnic in Mrągowo in 2005 ) and other lucky countries (I.D.E.A.L in Nantes, France, of a supermarket tour in Portugal). The latest significant achievement is a composition for a 10 person strong combo, played live to an American silent film from 1925, 'Lost world'.
Future shows in bright colors for Mitch & Mitch. Regardless of circumstances, they intend to continue their own Neverending Tour, demolishing clubs and stadiums, leaving a mark on anyone who dares come to their concert. No place is too small, no city too clean and no country too distant, even Denmark.
BUDA FOLK MUSIC OF BANDS (HUNGARY)
Buda Folk music of Bands was founded in 2000. Its members began to play together at school where some of teachers were virtuosos of world renown, such as Sándor Csoóri and Péter Éri, members of Muzsikas Ensamble. From the beginning, the teachers emphasized the importance of learning traditional Hungarian music first-hand. These words inspired the ensemble to start a journey into the regions of historic Hungary (including Transylvania and other areas, presently outside the Hungarian state). They discovered the sources of their own culture and also found musicians who became their new masters, such as violinist Sándor Fodor 'Neti' from Kalotaszeg and musicians from the village Magyarpalatka in Transylvania. These trips, experiences and skills became the basis of the idiosyncratic experiments of the Buda Folk Band. Their repertoire contains pieces discovered from Kalotaszeg, Szatmár, Szék, Magyarpalatka, Vajdaszentivány, Bonchida.
MUSAFIR (INDIA) first time in Poland
The word "Musafir" means "wandering" and depicts the character of the ensemble well coming from different castes and religions, who decided to undertake a joint artistic travel. The founder of the group Hameed Khan invited the best musicians from different parts of Rajasthan (a state in north-western India), combining different styles and traditions (each caste has its own repertoire and characteristic instruments). Simultaneously, the group draws inspirations from other cultural areas - it performs Gypsy, Hindu, Persian and Mongolian music, ethnic and religious music, often using very complicated rhythms. Musafir has worked with performers such as Chico Bouchiki (Gypsy King), Natacha Atlas, Lakshmi Shankar, Herni Texier, Thierry Robin, and Henri Agnel.
The journey requires openness, both for new musical experiences and meeting new places and people. To the ensemble a journey is the way of expression and self-realization. As Hameed Khan says: "Staying in the same place is akin to stopping the rhythm of the universe and hence death". The ensemble will play in Poland for the very first time - and only in Szczecin, on special invitation from the 9th International Street Artists' Festival.
MITSOURA (HUNGARY)
Monika Miczura - a Hungarian vocalist, endowed with one of the most beautiful voices among modern Roma performers, for many years has fought for the right to her own music, "combining modernity with instinct", simultaneously opposing the stereotypes concerning Gypsy folklore. In the experiments of her own band, one may find electronica, rock, jazz and classical music, with musicians combining Indian and Balkan sources in an idiosyncratic and intriguing whole. Their concerts are accompanied by hypnotic visual presentations.
People have a very limited and false idea about "gypsy music". Music is a mixture of different influences, and each instrument gives it its own special atmosphere. I am an artist of the 21st age, brought up in a Roma family, but at the same time I am open to the world and have a modern approach to music.
THE SHIN/EGARI (GEORGIA)
The EgAri was founded in 1998 in Germany, where some of its members lived at the time. In their own country - Georgia - they are considered the best musicians and composers. The EgAri, called an 'instrumental theater', is a meeting of sound and the world. The polyphonic and virtuoso Georgian style meets jazz, funky, flamenco, Ravel and Shakti music. Their music is subtle, surprising, humorous and always enlivening. Musical dialogs by EgAri know no limits, and each time they sound differentl. The musicians have already performed for theater, film, television and radio in Georgia and worldwide. They have worked with many musicians of world renown, and performed at many festivals; the performance at our festival will be their very first show in Poland. The instrumentalists of the ensemble will be accompanied by singers and traditional dancers. EgAri is an unorthodox combination of archaic and modern elements, Caucasian instruments, Georgian harmonies and jazz. It is a dialog between the Levant and Occident, the ancient and the modern, 'us' and 'them' - a dialog which has existed in Georgian culture since time immemorial.
DIKANDA (POLAND)
Dikanda in one of the African's dialects stands for family. This is directly connected with the group's spirit - they live and work as if it was a small, loving family.The group was founded in 1997 in Szczecin, Poland. Passion for the traditional music and hard work let them create their own style and original sound. Their acoustic songs have been inspired wholly by Oriental culture, Balkan folklore - Macedonian and Romanian. Typical Dikanda's style is creation of new words and meanings in composed songs. So far they have released 4 albums, played hundreds of concerts, played on many significant European festivals. They were given numerous prices. Dikanda's concerts are a unique journey round the music of the world, a spontaneous meeting full of energy, charisma, genuine passion, joy and emotion for the audience as well as the band itself. They have played in India, Greece, and Russia and at the Montreux Jazz Festival. They achieved their popularity and great sympathy audience in many western-European countries (particularly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy).
Dikanda are:
Ania Witczak - vocal, accordion
Kasia Dziubak - violin, vocal
Daniel Kaczmarczyk - percussion
Piotr Rejdak - guitar
Grzegorz Kolbrecki - double bass
FESTIVAL PRODUCTIONS:
"ORION - MUSIC OF THE CITY"
The project is produced within the programme of the Kana Theatre Center - "In search for the identity of a place". The undertaking is a result of a meeting between composer and cellist Willem Schulz with Wilde Rose e.V. - a German association interested in performing arts and theater. "ORION - Music of the City" will be an original musical composition that will be first performed in an outdoor performance. The project focuses on Grunwaldzki square as a space subjected to numerous architectural changes , but maintaining the 'central' character for the city. It is the site of Carl Lewe's conservatory (built on the Śląska Street corner) and one of the 'stars' of Szczecin's "Orion Belt". The Polish-German line-up of performers reflects the multicultural identity of the place. Musical activities, on the border of contemporary music and modern improvisation experiments, will constitute a specific link between the past and the present.
Time: 3rd, 4th, 5th July 3 p.m.- 6 p.m.
Place: Plac Grunwaldzki and one of the tenements adjacent to the square.
Performers: An international team of musicians, soloists (Poles and Germans), organized especially for the occasion to perform a composition by Willem Schulz.
Instruments: violin, cello, double-bass, percussion, trumpet, tuba, saxophone, trombone, accordion, experimental dance based on tap-dancing (experimenteller Steptanz), sound poetry (soundpoesie).
Partners/co-organizers:
Wilde Rose e. V (Melle, Germany)
Pommersches Landesmuseum (Greifswald, Germany)
"WHERE TO?!" Kana Theatre (POLAND - SZCZECIN)
A Polish-German performance - produced thanks to a cooperation with the Kana Theatre Center and Schloss Bröllin Theatre Research Center. The spectacle is based on the multitude of forms inspired by surrealistic painting , where ethereal scenery transfers us to a world of unhindered imagination. Actors' actions are inscribed into strange and alarming musical rhythms which mark the consecutive stages of an inner journey of the individuals onstage. Their movement is the base of everything : the subject matter and the way of expression.
"Where to?!" is a projection of human wandering in the world of our own imagination - dreams, fears, longing and needs.
The Szczecin premiere of 'Where to?' will be preceded by a post-workshop demonstration in Schloss Bröllin in 24th May.
WORKSHOPS:
STELLA POLARIS
The Stella Polaris theater will lead 4-day workshops with a group of about twenty young people- and the effects of this work will be presented during a special final demonstration during the last Saturday evening of the festival. The workshops are focused on the techniques of shamanic expression. The participants will work on their movement, singing, rhythm and ancient dances. They will seek new forms of personality in themselves: a bird, hungry wolf, horse, and perhaps a monkey? They will also tackle acrobatics, walking with stilts and juggling.
BARBARA WILIŃSKA
BARBARA WILIŃSKA - sings Polish folk songs and songs from other Slavic traditions (Serbian, Bulgarian, Russian and Ukrainian) and improvises with her voice. For 7 years, she has been leading vocal workshops. Her concerts include singing and playing on a crank-lyre, lute guitar, dulcimer and other stringed instruments; she performs solo, with the Charivari band and other groups as well. Her repertoire consists of beggar songs, lyrical pieces, ritual songs, a capella, or with the accompaniment of instruments, using non-typical vocal techniques (so called "white voice").
JOHN ENEMUO
JOHN ENEMUO - a musician from Nigeria, inspired by the native music of his country. For the last few years he has lived in Poland. During the festival he will lead workshops with children, including teaching drums and African dance. It will be the learning of sounds, rhythms, cooperation and "conversation" among instruments. Drums play melodies - joyful, serious, threatening. Rhythm creates a framework for music, creates joy, calms anger, moves the body and opens the soul. Both in room and open spaces - music is always a conversation - a conversation with people and space.
NIGHT CINEMA:
GUGARA
director: Andrzej Dybczak, Jacek Nagłowski, Poland 2008
duration: 67 min.
Gugara in Evenk language is the sound of the bells hung around the necks of reindeer. It is one of the few sounds that can be heard in taiga, however this sound has recently been silenced. Dymitri and Tatiana, the last herdsmen in the districts have lost their entire herd. Soon, just as any other Evenk without reindeer, they will have to move from the forest to an entirely different world - a not very distant Russian village. Their oldest son Kola is already there. 'Gugara' is a story about the disintegration of a small Siberian community. The documentary describes the paradoxical world of ex-nomads and herdsmen forced to forsake the traditional way of living. The heroes of the film are at different stages of parting with their old known world.
EL RAVAL, LA ALEGRIA DEL BARRIO ((The Joy of the Neighbourhood)
by Carlos Callero, Spain 2008
duration: 45 min.
Presentation and premiere of a documentary that presents research into the artistic activities of the neighbourhood and their socio-cultural impact. The idea arose from the involvement of a number of residents in the Raval's dynamic life. Having been engaged in fieldwork for some years, they have become witnesses to the diversity and richness of the proposals generated in the district and to the most positive side of the Raval as a laboratory generating artistic endeavours. The documentary shows the power of music and of artistic creation in dissolving prejudice, crossing frontiers and bringing people together in enabling them to share experiences and foster respect among the residents.
EXHIBITION:
"PHOTOSENSITIVE IMAGES" DIFFERENT PHOTOGRAPHY: PAWEŁ KULA, SŁAWOMIR SLAVO DECYK, PIOTR RYBKOWSKI
Photography is widely believed to be an image which speaks to us in a comprehensible language. We can see places, we may recognize faces, we are convinced that what we have seen in a photo is close to the truth.
The language of photography started to develop in the 1840s and initially the usefulness of images was most important (especially for the customers of photo studios). However, this invention had a tremendous creative potential which transcended anything that we could have imagined. Photography is first of all based on the phenomenon of photosensitivity, which is ubiquitous and occurs independently from our will.
The first photographs obtained by man did not resembled the world as we know it. The pioneers recorded crowded cities, but what they saw were desolate streets. They saw a strange light in the sky, multiplied shapes of objects and translucent undefined forms of human bodies. It was this potential of photography that was used in the 'Solaris project', initiated by Sławomir Decyk, Paweł Kula and Diego Lopez. The effects of the project are presented at the Piwnica Kany.
VILLAGE ART FESTIVAL IN STRZELEWO:
Village Art Festival in Strzelewo started in 1998 at the farm of Zygmunt Heland's, the leader of the Creative Experimental Center in Strzelewo. For a couple of years, the festival has been co-organized by the Brama Theater, and since 2006 artists participating in the International Street Artists' Festival have been invited by the Kana Theater to come and visit Strzelewo. Thanks to the festival, art is accessible not only in the city. Each time, in the friendly space of Strzelewo, a unique atmosphere of a creative meeting is built, with joint workshops, spectacles, concerts and dancing till the morning light. It's a must-go.
