Na zdjęciu: Gosia Gajdemska. Fot. Marcin Hnatkowski.
We are pleased to announce the artists headlining the 17th Body/Mind Festival, themed ?Orient Yourself!? and to be held on 30 September ? 5 October 2018 at STUDIO teatrgaleria. This year?s edition poses personal questions, without accusations, ready-made solutions and unambiguous answers. They tackle stereotypes and address the present by digging into the rich traditional cultures of their respective cultures. The individual experience conveyed in the presented pieces opens the possibility of dialogue based on empathy, helping revise the known clichés. It also acts as a starting point to a conversation about Europe and the Arab world.
Omar Rajeh (Lebanon)
#minaret
first presentation in Poland
(premiere: 30 September 2018, Romaeuropa Festival) trailer
Can a city die? And with this city, its history, culture, and the memory of its residents? The minaret of the Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo, which had towered over Aleppo for nearly a thousand years, was reduced to a pile of rubble. It was the soul of Syria?s largest city and a witness of Aleppo?s history for many generations. Omar Rajeh?s piece expresses his dissent to the annihilation of Aleppo. How does one face the destruction and appropriation of entire cities and the infraction of human intimacy and privacy? How does one build on debris?
Omar Rajeh is the most famous choreographer of the Arab world; his output has blazed trails for contemporary dance in this cultural area. The Polish audience at the Body/Mind Festival will have a chance to watch his latest piece #minaret only two days after its premiere in Rome. The choreography bridges contemporary dance with traditional music drawn from Aleppo?s cultural heritage.
When: 2 October 2018, 8:30 pm
Where: STUDIO teatrgaleria
Tickets: 40/50 PLN
Simon Mayer (Austria)
Sons of Sissy
first presentation in Poland
(premiere: 2018, Vienna) trailer
Four men playing live folk music and performing group men dances. Simon Mayer, a young choreographer from Upper Austria, took up folk dances and music from his home region. A quartet of naturists, an experimental dance combo, or a queer folk band? ? Sons of Sissy escape easy labelling within traditional patterns of masculinity. They juggle with temporary meanings and impulsively play with conventions. Conservatism? They answer it with humour.
When: 3 October 2018, 8:30 pm
Where: STUDIO teatrgaleria
Tickets: 40/50 PLN
Radhouane El Meddeb (Tunisia/France)
Facing the Sea, for Tears to Turn into Laughter
first presentation in Poland
(premiere: 2017, Avinion Festival) trailer
Having spent 20 years in France, Radhouanne El Meddeb returned to Tunisia, which went through a revolution and still hopes for a change. He met with Tunisians who had taken part in the revolution. To many of them, El Meddeb was the one who had abandoned his country. He created a piece for ten artists from Tunis ? dancers, actors and musicians, men and women ? in which he builds on his personal experience and the past and present of Tunisia. He contemplates identity and belonging, mourning and detachment, while also expressing his rage against the country that leaves the poor to themselves and gives them away to extremists.
The piece builds an intensity of gesture, music, song, image and ? above all ? gaze. Tensed men and women gaze into the sea, into the audience. The eponymous sea not only divides Europe from North Africa but also individual people from one another. Dance is usually defined through movement and gesture, but this piece actually takes place between gestures, faced with broken bonds. Each side is still waiting for something. Am I in the right place? ? this is the question that the artist poses to himself and each person in the audience.
When: 5 October 2018, 8:30 pm
Where: STUDIO teatrgaleria
Tickets: 40/50 PLN
The programme of the 17th edition of the Body/Mind Festival will also include:
Premieres by Polish artists, an exchange project, discussion panels, meetings with artists, presentations of Arab cuisine and music.
Orient yourself! Don?t miss the Body/Mind Festival!
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Body/Mind Festival
Artistic director: Edyta Kozak
Organiser: Body/Mind Foundation
Co-organiser: STUDIO teatrgaleria
Partners: network apap ? advancing performing arts project, Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw, Institut Francais de Pologne, Centre for Dance Art in Warsaw
Media patrons: Chilli Zet, TVP Kultura, Didaskalia, Teatr, Aktivist, Notes na 6 tygodni, In Your pocket, E-teatr.pl, taniecPOLSKA.pl, Teatralia.com.pl
Co-financed by the Capital City of Warsaw, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and the EU programme ?Creative Europe?
More information on the festival at: www.cialoumysl.pl
30 September – 5 October 2018, STUDIO teatrgaleria, Warsaw
