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08/06 - 28/06/2015

photo Maciej Zakrzewski
Galleryphoto Maciej Zakrzewski

Over 1100 artist and activists together draw out a program of almost 300 events which during the next 21 days will supply the city of Poznań with energy and unforgettable experiences.
Today takes of the 24th Malta Festival Poznań!

We will start in a dancing mood along with dj Rebolledo, a Mexican disco pirate. Apart from that the first evening will also include an open debate prompted by the 25th anniversary of the first free elections in Poland after the collapse of the communism system. The guests during the debate will be Mr. Bogdan Zdrojewski, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage along with several citizens of the city of Poznań who played a key role in the process of regaining our freedom.
Malta Festival offers both fun and reflection. It is a place for artists and spectators, professionals and amateurs. For three weeks we will live together on theater, dance and experimental performances as well as films, concerts, exhibitions in unusual places, dozens of free workshops, unprecedented meetings and unconventional social and artistic shows. Visit us at ‘Generator Malta’ – the heart of the city in the Liberty Square – and on our website www.malta-festival.pl where, with our help, you can come up with your own way around the festival.

Latin America in a nutshell

The Idiom Latin America: Metizos is the most intensive and international part of the festival. Over 200 artists from 7 countries will show the diversity and complexity of the day-to-day reality of that part of the world. During this exceptional, as far as Poland and Europe concerned, presentation of performance arts from Latin America we will have a chance to see the dance performance by Marcelo Evelin ‘De repente fica tudo preto de gente’, the delirious show by the legendary Mapa Teatro from Columbia and also the performance by François Chaignaud and Cecil Bengole, which combines elements of the classical Brazilian ballet with the religious dance candomblé and dancehall.

As response to a special request of the Malta Festival two projects are being created. Candelaria Saenz Valiente, an Argentinian artist living in Poland, is working on an installation in Stara Rzeźnia[Old Slaughterhouse], which will combine music, literature and theater. The music for the installation is being composed by Marcin Masecki. The other project, from the master of site-specific art Gerardo Naumann, will refer to the well known film of the Lumière brotheres ‘Workers Leaving The Lumière Factory in Lyon’ from 1895. The workspace of the artist will be the factory of Beiersdorf Manufacturing.

The artists for the Idiom program were carefully chosen by Rodrigo García. As Piotr Gruszczyński, the playwright for the New Theater of Poznań said, Rodrigo García is one of those people who create the theater as a whole. He puts up only his own plays, so he always talks about what moves him most, what concerns him most and what shocks him most. During the Malta Festival he will put on his „Golgota Picnic”. One of his texts, an adaptation of „King Lear” by William Shakespear, inspired Emilio García Wehbi, the creator of one of the most important fringe theater groups in Argentina - El Periférico de Objetos. During the festival he will show his interpratation of „King Lear” by García, which is supposed to be a moral portrait of the times we live in.

Malta generating

The heart of the festival will be set in the city center – in ‘Generator Malta’. It will change the usually abandoned Liberty Square into a scenery of music and theater, a place where workshops take place, debates are raised, games are played, bars and restaurants frequented. All the events organized by ‘Generator Malta’ are free.
The festival will be also a great opportunity to see some of the most important theatrical plays that were put on in Poznań during the last season – both alternative and repertory. As part of ‘Scena Malta’[the Malta Scene] we will be able to see ‘Dziady’ [Forefathers' Eve] directed by Radosław Rychcik from the New Theater of Poznań as well as plays from the Polish Theater of Poznań and such groups as Scena Robocza[the Workers Scene], Republika Sztuki[the Arts Republic], Tłusta Langusta[Fat, Spiny Lobster], Barak Kultury[Cultural Barrack], Polski Teatr Tańca[Polish Dance Theater], Teatr Ósmego Dnia[Theater of the Eight day] and Lech Raczak. Plays created during the Wielkopolska: Rewolucje[Great Poland – Revolutions] project will also be displayed. A special program has been put forward by ‘Stary Browar, Nowy Taniec’[Old Brewery, New Dance] as a celebration of the 10th anniversary of its existence and a fresh idea is the project ‘Młoda Malta’[Young Malta], as a part of which students from 4 countries and several Polish cities work on their own plays.

Music as a starter and the final course

On the outdoor stage in the Liberty Square we will get the chance to see performers from Latin America such as Cabalito, an artist who combines traditional rhythms with progressive electronic music and cumbia, or the excellent minimalist Murcof from Mexico. For and indie-electronic adventure we will be invited by an american, british and italian trio Mighty Oaks or the oldschool Berlin Ballet School. The Polish alternative scene will be represented by Błażej Król, the leader of the no longer existing Kawałek Kulki[Piece of a Sphere] as well as vocalist and guitarist of the UL/KR duet, and an experimental electronic and analog duet XXANAXX. Apart from that we will get the chance to see an Argentinian hip-hop group Actitud María Marta who are going to play along with Pink Freud.

The finale of the three week marathon is going to end with a concert of Damon Albarn – the guru of britpop. On the 29th of June the main star of the Malta Festival will perform in Stara Gazownia[the Old Gas Plant] pieces from his first, greatly appreciated studio album „Everyday Robots”. Meanwhile, this upcoming weekend, we will host the second key personality of our festival – Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker. The legend of choreography, after a 19 year long absence in Poland will put up the plays „Fase” (which she herself dances in) and „Drumming”

Come visit us today in the Liberty Square and become one of us!