Photo: ASF
On 26th January at 6 p.m. in Nowy Teatr in Warsaw (ul.ul. Madalińskiego 10/16) will be shown a performance aspart of the programmeWielkopolska: Rewolucje[Wielkopolska: Revolutions],implemented by the local authorities of the Wielkopolska province and curated byAgata Siwiak.Projekt. Noce i dnie[Nights and Days Project] is the second collaboration of Michał Mikołajczyk and the Wrzos choir of the village of Zakrzewo. The production comes after last year’s acclaimedTeraz jest czas[Now Is The Time], which was presented at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and the Malta Festival in Poznań, among others. Both are part of the programmeWielkopolska: Rewolucje[Wielkopolska: Revolutions], implemented by the region’s local authorities and curated by Agata Siwiak.
This year Mikołajczyk and his select team, includingMałgorzata Dziewulska(dramaturgy collaboration),Mirkiem Kaczmarkiem(set and video designer) andZbigniew Kozub(composer), decided to take a step further challenging older-age Wrzos singers not only to get involved in movement theatre, but also to reflect on their own life story. In the process they will be drawing inspiration from Maria Dabrowska’sNoce i dnie[Nights and Days], a 1930’s novel rooted deeply in Wielkopolska’s history and exploring questions about fulfilled or unfulfilled life.
The production will feature fifteen older-age singers and the choreographer Mikołaj Mikolajczyk, supported by noted artists: dancerIwona Pasińskaand actorAdam Ferency.This unusual theatrical genre which might be dubbed “participatory theater” will produce a common language between them. “Perhaps it’s worth to lose yourself in life and live a few mere weeks in such a manner as to remember them for your whole life to come.”
ØWielkopolska: Rewolucje
We associate revolutions with the city, metropolis, the centre of the world. Their impact is powerful. This project is devoted to micro-revolutions which, just as micro-histories, are not on everybody’s tongues, elaborated on in textbooks and discussed by the world’s media. Yet they are creative, frenzied, subversive. These are going to be ethical revolutions that do not eat their own children but provoke social involvement and living a passionate life.
(Agata Siwiak, curator ofWielkopolska: Rewolucje)
Set up by the local authorities of the region of Wielkopolska in 2012, the programmeWielkopolska: Rewolucje[Wielkopolska: Revolutions] was born out of defiance to a centralised understanding of culture. It aims to integrate local communities, stimulate them artistically, bring generations closer together, define identity through residence, and to do away with the stereotype that in the periphery there are no potential recipients (and co-authors) of avant-garde, critical art. Currently, new editions ofRewolucjeare being prepared to be presented in the course of the next two years as part ofBudzik kulturalny.Program działań promujących i aktywizujących kulturę Wielkopolski, a programme of cultural promotion of the local authorities of Wielkopolska supported by the European Regional Development Fund as part of the Wielkopolska Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013.Budzikis coordinated by the provincial culture department in Poznań.
To-date six projects have been realised forRewolucjeacross the region’s villages and little towns, their authors being: Joanna Warsza, Mikołaj Mikołajczyk, Janusz Orlik, Magda Hasiak, Antoni Beksiak, Bartek Frąckowiak and Monika Jakubiak, all representing different media – performing arts, film, music, fashion or design. The “revolutionary” outcomes of 2012 were presented at this year’s Generator Malta, Malta Festival Poznań.
