?Independent Without Borders: Poland in Japan? is a Polish-Japanese artistic project which encompasses a Polish-Japanese performance co-production entitled ?(Re)verberations. Bridges Between Poland and Japan? directed by Katarzyna Pastuszak, a series of public space performances by Piotr Wyszomirski entitled ?Bronisław Piłsudski Was Here?, drama workshops and performative reading based on two plays written by Polish female playwrights coming from the publication ?Of Feminine Gender.Anthology? (ed. dr hab. Agata Chałupnik, dr Agata Łuksza), masterclasses, lectures, meetings and presentations promoting Polish art and culture. The main part of the project will take place in Japan in the period 13.09-8.10.2019 in Sapporo, Tokyo and Akita.

The co-production ?(Re)verberations. Bridges Between Poland and Japan? directed by Katarzyna Pastuszak will be developed in co-operation between Polish artists from Amareya Theatre & Guests, Pomysłodalnia Foundation and women from Ainu Women Association. The premiere performances will be presented in Studio Concarino in Sapporo (28.09), Babylon Tokyo Theatre (5-6.10) and a pre-premiere will also be shown at the Akita Village Art Festival at Kamaitachi Museum, Tashiro (21.09). The series of performances by Piotr Wyszomirski entitled ?Bronisław Piłsudski Was Here? will be presented in the public space of Sapporo (16-25.09) and Tokyo (1-6.10).

The project will also encompass the publication and promotion of the book ?Broniś Piłsudski, or How to Become Famous in the Far East? (author: Katarzyna Nowak; translation into Japanese: Miho Iwata; illustrations: Paulina Paździera). The Polish version of the book about the famous Polish ethnographer – Bronisław Piłsudski – was published in 2018 by Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology in Cracow. This year Manggha Museum is a key partner of the project ?Independent Without Borders: Poland in Japan? and its Deputy Director – Katarzyna Nowak will also visit Japan together with Amareya Theatre & Guests to lead a workshop and present a lecture on the extensive project devoted to Bronisław Piłsudski realized by Manggha Museum.

Through co-operating with Japanese artists and promoting the brother of Marshal Józef Piłsudski – Bronisław Piłsudski and his research on the Ainu, the project is part of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of signing diplomatic agreements between Poland and Japan, celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Poland’s regaining independence, priorities of Polish cultural policy aimed at promoting the image of Poland as a country that is particularly concerned about cultural heritage and supporting indigenous ethnic minorities, as well as the priorities of Polish diplomacy for 2019.

The project involves a close cultural exchange between the people of Ainu and the Polish artistic community represented by dr Katarzyna Pastuszak, Amareya Theatre & Guests and Pomysłodalnia Foundation who have been implementing projects in co-operation with Japanese partners for many years. Starting from critical ethnography, the implementation of the Polish-Japanese co-production ?(Re)verberations. Bridges Between Poland and Japan? aims to pay special respect for the Japanese and Ainu social and cultural contexts. The aim of this work is to preserve and disseminate the cultural heritage, decolonize ethnic minorities and strengthen the position of women by making their voice (narrative) and subjectivity visible. The partnership of Amareya Theatre & Guests with CEMiPOS, Ainu Women Association Sapporo, Pomysłodalnia Foundation and Japanese institutions dealing with the issues of cultural heritage protection, decolonisation and women’s empowerment is particularly important here.

?(Re)verberations. Bridges Between Poland and Japan?

Amareya Theatre & Guests (PL)

Direction: Katarzyna Pastuszak

Assistant director: Piotr Wyszomirski (Pomysłodalnia Foundation)

Script: Magdalena Olszewska (Pomysłodalnia Foundation) Choreography: Katarzyna Pastuszak

Performance: Kimiko Naraki, Ryoko Fujioka, Yoshiko Saito, Yohko Koyama, Katarzyna

Pastuszak, Piotr Wyszomirski, Natalia Chylińska, Aleksandra Śliwińska, Tsugumi Matsudaira

Music: Natalia Chylińska

singing: Natalia Chylińska

Costume: Daisuke Tsukuda

Production: Amareya Theatre (Amareya Art Association), Ainu Women Association (Sapporo),

CEMiPOS ? Centre for Environmental and Minority Policy Studies (Sapporo)

Premiere: 28.09.2019 Sapporo, 5-6.10.2019 Tokyo 2019.10.5-6

The reverb – understood as a sound that still resounds, becomes a moment of capturing what is left of the song, and further ? of the culture that is the source of the sense of identity. What are the points of contact between the Polish and Japanese tradition? A voice or a song may turn out to be the closest form of communication with both one’s own and somebody’s culture. ?(Re)verberations. Bridges Between Poland and Japan? is new Polish-Japanese co-production of Amareya Theatre & Guests (PL), Fundacja Pomysłodalnia (PL) and Japanese partner ? Centre for Environmental and Minority Policy Studies (Sapporo) represented by prof. Hiroshi Maruyama. It is also a continuation of the co-operation of Amareya Theatre & Guests with Ainu artists from Sapporo and Ainu women gathered around the Ainu Women Association in Sapporo, which was initiated in 2017. The performance is inspired by the history and culture of the Ainu people living in Hokkaido. The bridge between Poland and the Ainu was built at the beginning of the 20th century by a Polish ethnographer ? Bronisław Piłsudski, brother of general Józef Piłsudski. Bronisław Piłsudski dedicated his scientific passion and heart to the Ainu. Between 1902-1922, he studied the culture and customs of Ainu from Hokkaido and Sakhalin, and married an Ainu woman from the tribe in Sakhalin. In addition to many notes on the customs and life of the Ainu, Bronisław Piłsudski also managed to record Ainu music and the language on phonographic rolls. The rich output of the Polish ethnographer provoked artists from Poland and Japan (including currently active  Ainu artists) to reflect on the phenomenon of the memory of ancestors, and in particular the memory of women. The performance assumes building bridges between Polish and Japanese culture on the level of women stories and also in the musical layer. The performance will feature traditional Ainu songs in old and new arrangements accompanied by traditional Ainu instruments and juxtaposed with Polish songs sung using white voice technique performed by Natalia Chylińska.

?Bronisław Piłsudski Was Here? ? Street Performance

Performance: Piotr Wyszomirski (Pomysłodalnia Foundation) Place and dates: Sapporo (16-25.09), Tokyo (1-6.10)

?Bronisław Piłsudski Was Here? is an interactive street performance in the public space of Sapporo and Tokyo, which aims at bringing closer the figure of a Polish exile and ethnographer who was deeply involved in the research of Ainu culture ? Bronisław Piłsudski. The 45-minute presentation, presented in numerous public sites in Sapporo and Tokyo 20 times, will be combined with the promotion of the project and the relationship between Poland and Japan. The performer ? Piotr Wyszomirski (The Flying Circus of Ideas), referring to the ethnographic activity of Bronisław Piłsudski among Ainu people, will record the statements of the audience, which will be processed live and each performance will end with the recording and broadcasting of the processed statements of the participants of the performance. These recordings will become the base for a multimedia installation presented in the further phases of the project.

?Laboratory of body, movement and dance improvisation: Polish physical theatre tradition and contemporaneity in the practice of the Amareya Theatre (Poland)? ? dance/theatre workshop

Workshop leaders: Katarzyna Pastuszak, Aleksandra Śliwińska

Date: 17-18.09 (Sapporo), Time: 13:00-15:30, Place: Sapporo Freedom School, Sapporo

Date: 4.10.2019 (Tokyo), Time: 18:00-21:00, Place: Babylon Tokyo Theatre, Tokyo

Content: the workshop is based on the integrative body/mind method developed by Katarzyna Pastuszak (PhD) and Aleksandra Śliwińska (PhD) during the last 22 years of their dance/theatre practice. The workshop uses elements of contemporary dance and physical theatre techniques. The workshop is especially focused on participants interested in joining dance/movement improvisation and composition class but it is open to everyone who wants to express through dance and move  with mindfulness. In the improvisation tasks we will work a lot with different ways of connecting movement, text, breath and space. The workshop will broaden participants’ scope of expression and range of using the body in the daily programme of drama for education and creation. The workshop will also help participants develop powerful presence, broaden their creativity and psycho-somatic awareness, trespass boundaries, develop performative and improvisation skills as well as abilities of partnering work.

?Tissues ? Sounds ? Resonances? ? Sound workshop

Workshop leader: Natalia Chylińska (Poland)

Date: 17-18.09 (Sapporo), Time: 16:00-18:00, Place: Sapporo Freedom School, Sapporo

Date: 4.10.2019 (Tokyo), Time: 18:00-21:00, Place: Babylon Tokyo Theatre, Tokyo

Using techniques used in sound studies and sound art, participants will discover the sound layer of the landscape they live in. How does the sound landscape resonate in the ecosystem in which we live and of which we are part? And how do we resonate in such a sounding landscape? What is the natural environment? We will answer these questions – between sound anthropology, documentation and sound art. In the workshop we will use deep listening techniques and field recording. We will start sound correspondence between Poland and Japan in the form of sound postcards.

?Drama Classics’ Backstage. Performative reading? ? drama workshop

Workshop leader: dr hab. Agata Chałupnik (Warsaw University/Institute of Polish Culture, Poland)

Date: 2-3.10.2019, Time: 14:00-20:00, Place: Babylon Tokyo Theatre

Date of performative reading open to the public: 4.10.2019, time: 19.00, place: Babylon Tokyo Theatre

?Drama Classics’ Backstage. Performative reading? – drama workshops based on two plays written by Polish female authors and translated into Japanese by Tomomi Splisgart and Miho  Iwata, coming from the publication ?Rodzaju żeńskiego. Antologia dramatu? (Of Feminine Gender. Anthology, ed. dr hab. Agata Chałupnik, dr Agata Łuksza).

During the workshop, participants will look at how the literary canon is constructed – both in European and Polish literature, as well as in Japanese literature. Together with Agata Chałupnik, workshop participants will reflect on whether similar mechanisms of exclusion work here, whether the canon has gender, whether it is possible to indicate the characteristic features of women’s style and construction of dramaturgy, we will compare the subject matter taken up by Polish and Japanese playwrights. The starting point of the workshop will be a discussion about two plays – ?Kucharki? (The Cooks) by Nora Szczepańska and ?Płyty? (Vinyls) by Krystyna Uniechowska.  The first text rewrites the canon of the European drama (?Antigone?, ?Hamlet? and ?Waiting for Godot?) from the perspective of the kitchen and bedroom. The second text, on the other hand, is a search for a metaphor that could enable one to tell the story of trauma. Is there anything specifically feminine in this form? What would a specifically feminine form mean in Japan, and what would it mean in Poland? The result of the workshop will be a bilingual performative reading with the participants of the workshop. The workshop is the first part of a project planned for 2020, within which three dramas by Polish women authors directed by Japanese artists will be staged in Japan.

?Bronisław Piłsudski ? or How to Become Famous? – creative workshop for children and teenagers

Workshop leader: Katarzyna Nowak – Museum of Japanese Art and Technology ? Manggha (Cracow, Poland)

Date: 6.10.2019, Time: 11:00-13:00, Place: Babylon Tokyo Theatre

Workshops for children inspired by Ainu culture on the basis of a book about Bronisław Piłsudski and Kamishibai theatre (a picture theatre in a wooden box, used to present illustrations that create the plot), the scenario of which will be based on the book ?Broniś Piłsudski, or How to Become Famous in the Far East? (author: Katarzyna Nowak; translation into Japanese: Miho Iwata; illustrations: Paulina Paździera). During the classes, children and the author will create their own handicraft, which will be used during the show, based on folklore art, using fabrics and jewellery.

?Bronisław Piłsudski ? an Amazing Person and a Famous Researcher? – Lecture

Date: 2019.10.6, Time: 14:00-15:00

Lecturer: Katarzyna Nowak (Deputy Director – Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology in Cracow)

Presentation of an extensive project dedicated to Bronisław Piłsudski and realized by Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology in Cracow.

?Broniś Piłsudski, or How to Become Famous in the Far East? (author: Katarzyna Nowak; translation into Japanese: Miho Iwata; illustrations: Paulina Paździera)

The first book for children in Japan about a great and extraordinary man – Polish ethnographer Bronisław Piłsudski. The publishing is part of the celebrations of the centenary of the death of Bronisław Piłsudski and the centenary of Poland regaining its independence. The language of the publication is light, clear and accessible for audiences of all ages and are supplemented by interesting and funny illustrations inspired by manga. The content and form make up an important publication, whose educational role in promoting the figure of Bronisław Piłsudski is extremely important. The promotion of the Polish version of the book published by Manngha Museum Cracow, took place during Children’s Literature Festival in Cracow and aroused great interest among younger and older audiences.