For many years, Malta Festival Poznań had had a tradition of holding free-admission open air concerts, providing many years of artistic thrills. These events have always drawn thousands of Poznanians and have become a prominent event in the life of the city. This year’s concert will be a combination of operetta-musical classics and modern tracks by ABBA, Manaam and Portishead. The final concert will be staged in the very heart of Poznań – on Św. Marcin Street, where in the future the new home of the Teatr Muzyczny theatre will be located.
The person behind the arrangement of the concert line-up is Mateusz Holak – a guitarist for the Kumka Olik band and hip-hop duo Małe Miasta. In 2017, Holak released his solo album The Introvert and later the artist perfomed at numerous music festivals such as Open’er, Polish Hip-Hop, Upto Date and Kraków Live. The music during the Malta concert will be performed by Orkiestra Collegium F and conducted by Marcin Sompoliński along with soloists who have worked or are currently working on Poznań music stages such as Justyna Szafran, Marta Mazurek, Michał Kocurek, donGURALesko, Andrzej Donarski, Emose Katarzyna and Mateusz Holak.
The visual setting of the concert will be provided by the collage works of Alicja Biała, inspired by an anthology of poems by Marcin Świetlicki called Polska (wiązanka pieśni patriotycznych) published early this year.Three of the artworks have been travelling as exhibits around the country as part of the Polska bez obrazy (No offence, Polska) campaign – ever since the launch of the project anyone can volunteer to take them into their home, look at them closely, enjoy them, reflect upon them and send them on their way to other homes. The collages depict well-known persons from the world of politics, culture and television, among others Jarosław Kaczyński wearing the infamous plastic raincoat with the Polish eagle emblem being chased by naked women-sharks. The artist wanted the works to spark conversations about Poland and permit us to look at our country through irony. Over 200 people volunteered to take the works home in just a few days. One of the visuals, which features women dressed in traditional Polish outfits set against a metal container sprayed with graffiti which reads: „You are living in the Matrix”, is being used not only as the visual preview of the concert but also as an inspiration for the title of the event.