Within the 10 days of Malta Festival, nearly 300 events are going to take place, 200 of which can be attended by anyone as free passes will be issued. Exactly one month before the inauguration, the complete program of Malta Festival’s 29th edition was announced. This year’s edition (21-30 June) will feature over 700 artists from 15 countries.
To create the festival’s program, a curator Nástio Mosquito has invited artists from all corners of the world, each from a vastly different social and cultural background. Together, they form the eponymous Army of the Individual.
All the invited artists will debut in Poland. Benjamin Abras, together with Poznanians, wants to deal with the issue of experiencing multiculturalism through his dance workshops. Priscila Rezende also intends engage in direct dialogue with the audience by staging a performative city intervention. Alice Joana Gonçalves, Lisbeth Gruwez and Radouan Mriziga will present their dance spectacles, while Vic Pereiro will enchant us with his immersive audiovisual installation. Kelly Schacht will tackle the Idiom’s theme directly, surprising the audience with her site specific performative acts inspired by Army of the Individual. Our movie repertoire includes a selection of productions by Geração 80, a platform for young Angolan filmmakers, as well as a number of movies by Li Ran, an emerging star in Chinese art world.
Malta’s stage is the city. This year, Generator Malta is getting ready for peace. The program includes a performance by Army of Love - a creative collective looking for new recruits, music workshops with donGURALesko (rapper) and Karolina Czarnecka (vocal), break-dance workshops and a spectacle by a Palestinian dance group named Stereo 48, or the 858. an archive of resistance installation, to name a few. This year, Poznań’s Summits will slightly stray from the convention and take place in the evenings, while as we gather stories from the local inhabitants of a few districts of Poznań (i.e. Naramowice, Wilda and Grunwald-Północ), sentimental maps will be created. Additionaly, our Poznań Garage Sale will again support people with refugee experience.
The festival’s events, both the main Idiom features and those within the Generator, shall intertwine with various spectacles in theatres across the city, let alone the rich program of Stary Browar Nowy Taniec - a renowned dance initiative currently celebrating its 15th anniversary. For more information, read Joanna Leśnierowska’s curatorial statement. Another major event will also be the premiere of the theatrical adaptation of John Maxwell Coetzee’s “Disgrace”, directed by Maciej Podstawny, and coproduced by Malta Festival and Stefan Żeromski’s Theatre in Kielce.
What’s for starters? The 29th edition of Malta Festival will begin on 21 June at 7:00 PM, inaugurated with a colourful parade of acrobats and musicians, prepared by a French group Transe Express - participants will have to brace themselves for a spectacular finale. This parade of self-affirmation, featuring 5-metre effigies, dancers, acrobats and drummers will walk the main streets of Poznań, finishing at Adam Mickiewicz’s Square.
For the past seven years, Liberty Square in Poznań has been transformed into a temporary arts & culture centre, open to all from morning to night. Filled with trees, huge cushions and hammocks, it is place where you can relax, meet new people and, most importantly, actively contribute to the festival events taking place here.
We invite you to performances by the younger generation of Polish theatre-makers: Maria Dąbrowska, Jakub Skrzywanek, Klaudia Hartung-Wójciak, Szymon Kaczmarek and Magda Szpecht; to Forum discussions with Piotr Andrusieczko, Wojciech Jagielski, Andrzej Leder, Janina Ochojska and Katarzyna Wężyk among others; as well as to Generator Malta, concerts and the well-loved Silent Disco, programmed this year by Nástio Mosquito. Malta at Liberty square will also feature art installations, the Children at Liberty programme, culinary workshops and yoga sessions. As we dance, take part in discussions and artistic activities or mindfully chill out, we will be creating our urban agora.