12th Festival - BONDS OF CULTURE
7th - 9th JULY, 2011
During this year's edition of the Festival we decided to follow the trail of questions asked in the early 1960s by young Eugenio Barba when he saw for the first time a performance of Kathakali theatre: I knew nothing about this kind of theatre. I did not understand the language and the acting codes of the actors - dancers were unclear to me. I only new something about the stories presented, and I was confused by their noisy, folk context. However, at some moments the actor was able to grab my attention, to move my senses, to draw me into his actions, one after another. How did he do that? How could that happen? What were the active components of our interaction? Was it only a question of talent, of grace, of individual temperament? Or had it something to do with his technique? If so, in what way?... This year's "Bonds of Culture" will be, among others, an excellent opportunity to encounter traditions and cultures which - as Eugenio Barba emphasizes - inspired him to ask questions about "mystery of impact" - the most important for his further quest.
We would like to invite you to succumb to paradoxical magnetism of mysterious sounds, gestures, signs, and elusiveness of the past. Paradoxical, for - despite the distance caused by estrangement of form - inviting you to an attentive search for common, close and significant values. Magnetism, awakening a desire to find - in ourselves and outside us - the "crack, that gap through which we can observe the world, but also the world observes us".
