Pictured: Dada von Bzdülöw Theatre “INTRO”. Photo: Dominik Werner.
Between 15 October and 8 November 2016, the Art and Modernity Foundation and the Centre for Contemporary Art-Zamek Ujazdowski will host the 23rd International Meeting of Live Arts CROSSROADS 2016, featuring performances by artists from Holland and Poland.
The festival will include performances bordering on contemporary dance and theater, and a piece combining theater and film animation. The invited shows have been created by artists based in Holland and Poland. The presented pieces are characterized by original form and expressive power gained through intensive interaction between dance and music, and between animation and soundtrack.
This year?s edition will feature the Warsaw debut of the acclaimed Hotel Modern theatre of Rotterdam. The company will present the award-winning performance De grote Oorlog (The Great War), which had its premiere in 2001. Those witnessing this spectacle of animated objects simultaneously act as an audience of a live film-report from the trenches of World War I. Invoking authentic letters of soldiers and images of the trenches filmed by mini cameras, the piece reduces the horror and absurdity of war to an individual, human dimension.
Established in 1997, Hotel Modern is led by visual artist Herman Helle and actresses Pauline Kalker and Arlene Hoornweg. Apart from them, the presented piece was co-authored by Arthur Sauer, who composed the live soundtrack. The group acts at the junction of theater and visual arts, innovatively combining theater and film animation to create a new form: live animated film. The company?s performances take place at a space which blends the film set with the sound studio and a miniature model of a real-life location. The animated objects are filmed using mini-cameras, with the image transmitted onto the big screen. The Rotterdam-based artists have mastered the combination of documentary materials with fiction, aptly balancing between reality and illusion. Hotel Modern have presented their work at theaters and festivals in Europe, America and Asia (including Paris, Rome, Venice and Singapore). De grote Oorlog (The Great War) will be presented twice at the Centre for Contemporary Art-Zamek Ujazdowski.
Also debuting in Warsaw will be contemporary dance company Club Guy & Roni of Groningen, led by choreographers Guy Weizman and Roni Haver. An esteemed company, Club Guy & Roni have presented their work at numerous European theaters and festivals, among others in Paris, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Marseille, Barcelona and the prestigious Jacob?s Pillow Festival in the United States.
Happiness is the latest, this year?s piece by international contemporary dance company Club Guy & Roni and percussion ensemble Slagwerk Den Haag. Typically dynamic and tongue-in-cheek, the artists present a story of a search for happiness by a bunch of defective antiheroes. Does one have to be lucky to experience true happiness?, ask the authors. Inspired by Todd Solondz?s film Happiness, the piece is an ?explosive mix? of an absurd, bitter-sweet comedy and an expressive dance performed to riveting live music. The piece was created by Holland-based Israeli choreographers Guy Weizman and Roni Haver and composers Frank Wienk (Binkbeats, Slagwerk Den Haag) and Niels Broos (Kyteman Orchestra).
The international lineup of Club Guy & Roni (est. 2002) features Igor Podsiadły of Poland, winner of the Swan Prize for the best contemporary dancer in Holland in 2014 for his role in Naked Lunch. The prestigious Swan Prize has also been awarded to Club Guy & Roni for their Midnight Rising for the best contemporary dance piece in Holland in 2013. Happiness will be presented at the Nowy Teatr International Cultural Centre.
Slagwerk Den Haag was founded in 1977. Perennially considered as one of the world?s top percussion ensembles, the group is now made up by third-generation musicians. Famous for their instrumental innovations and increasingly expanding original repertoire, Slagwerk Den Haag have collaborated with Club Guy & Roni for many years, performing in most European countries, as well as in the United States and Japan.
The Dada von Bzdülöw theatre is one of Poland?s most acclaimed independent companies. Comprising dancers and actors working at the juncture of theater, contemporary and art performance, the group was founded in 1993 in Gdańsk by dancers and choreographers Leszek Bzdyl and Katarzyna Chmielewska. Commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the Dadaist movement, the company led by Leszek Bzdyl will present their grotesque piece Intro to the music of post-punk band Nagrobki (Maciej Salamon and Adam Witkowski) at the Centre for Contemporary Art-Ujazdowski Castle. Premiering in 2015 and directed by the founder of the company, the performance ridicules Polish stereotypes, myths and phobias. ?A maze of white-and-red symbols, harsh sounds of the vuvuzela, explosive charges, green leg partridge hens and demonic Muslim women, the piece compels us to re-established the long-lost distance towards the reality of today? (Anna Jazgarska, teatralny.pl).
The Dada von Bzdülöw theatre has created over 40 pieces exemplified by precise movement and unique visual value. The company has presented its work in 20 countries, including Germany, Great Britain, the United States, South Korea, China, France and Italy. Dada von Bzdülöw?s collaborations include the Miejski Theatre in Gdynia, Nowy Theatre in Łódź, Klub Żak in Gdańsk and, more recently, the Wybrzeże Theatre in Gdańsk. Co-created with Philadelphia?s Dance Advance and Poznań?s Art Stations Foundation, Factor T was deemed as the best Polish performance of 2008 by the critics. Dada von Bzdülöw has presented its pieces at the Polish Dance Platform in 2010, 2012, and 2014.
The curator of the Festival is Janusz Marek.
PROGRAM
25 October, 6 pm, Centre for Contemporary Art-Zamek Ujazdowski
Pauline Kalker? lecture on the oeuvre of Hotel Modern
26 October, 7 pm and 27 October, 6 pm, Centre for Contemporary Art-Zamek Ujazdowski
De grote Oorlog (The Great War) by Hotel Modern (Rotterdam), followed by a meeting with the artists
2 November, 6 pm, Centre for Contemporary Art-Zamek Ujazdowski
Lecture by Guy Weizman or Roni Haver on the oeuvre of contemporary dance group Club Guy & Roni
3 November, 7 pm, Nowy Teatr International Cultural Centre
Happiness by Club Guy & Roni (Groningen) and Slagwerk Den Haag, followed by a meeting with the artists
8 November, 6 pm, Centre for Contemporary Art-Zamek Ujazdowski
Intro by Dada von Bzdűlöw (Gdańsk), followed by a meeting with the artists (possible second show at 8:30 pm).
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For more information on the Festival, visit www.csw.art.pl, www.facebook.com/cswzu or call +48 22 628 12 71-3 extension 135.
For more information on Happiness, visit: www.nowyteatr.org or call +48 22 3793333
Tickets for the performances of Hotel Modern and Dada von Bzdülöw will be sold at the Centre for Contemporary Art-Zamek Ujazdowski (ul. Jazdów 2)
Group tickets for the performances of Club Guy & Roni and Slagwerk Den Haag will be sold at the Nowy Teatr International Cultural Centre (ul. Madalińskiego 10/16).
The 2016 CROSSROADS Festival has been co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Capital City of Warsaw and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The presentation of Happiness is supported by the Nowy Teatr International Cultural Centre. Festival partner: Qchnia Artystyczna.
