New World Order at the Malta Festival 2015
The Malta Festival Poznań 2015 is coming. For a 25th time the urban space will be transformed into a huge outdoor musical and theatre stage. There will be Thomas Mann, Michael Nyman and important questions about the role of art in the disputed visions of a new world.
This year’s anniversary edition of the international art festival will be held from 8 to 28 June, 2015. The British artist Tim Etchells, artistic director, founder and leader of the Forced Entertainment experimental theatre, will be the curator of the Idiom section. And his main topic – the great social and political change that has taken place in the world over the past 30 years. The festival will be held under the slogan New World Order. That is?
I’ll deal with topics such as the fall of communism, capitalism, global warming, surveillance, war on terror, the internet and social media development, the economic crisis and the growing importance of nationalist movements in Europe – lists the curator. – It is impossible to exhaust these topics at the festival, but it is the basis of what I want to present, when I think about the New World Order. I invited artists who have something to say on these topics from very different points of view – he added.
Etchells has also prepared a special installation that will be displayed in Poznań: a neon sign, consisting of two words: Never Sleep – a life-affirming statement, on the one hand, which at the same time comments on the economy of work of the 21st century – ‘do not sleep, work’. – ‘Capitalist society tells us to work always, at any time. Capital rules 24 hours a day’ – says Etchells.
In the lading role: Tomasz Mann
The hit of the festival will be the Maltese Magic Mountain. Thomas Mann’s literary masterpiece was taken up by four renowned artists: the composer Paweł Mykietyn, the director and actor Andrzej Chyra, the acclaimed playwright Małgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk, and Mirosław Bałka, a world-famous Polish artist who will create the stage design for the opera.
According to Andrzej Chyra, The Magic Mountain is a story about our state of mind and our civilisation.
It is very relevant today. We read Mann’s novel in the context of World War I, or the idiotic war enthusiasm, which killed millions. For many people, this is one of the most important books of their lives, thus we had to forget about the expectations of the audience.
– explains the director, for whom The Magic Mountain is the second encounter with the opera genre, after The Gamblers by Shostakovich.
In the part dedicated to Mann the audience will also be able to see Doctor Faustus interpreted by Romeo Castellucci, Italian director and playwright, sometimes compared to Jerzy Grotowski. The concert of the pianist Marcin Masecki will close this part of the festival with Ludwig van Beethoven’s last sonata, making reference to its description in Doctor Faustus.
One of the biggest events of this year’s festival will be the concert of the English pianist and composer Michael Nyman. The author of the music for Piano (1993) and The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982), among others, will present compositions, inspired by the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the World War I. The musician will perform with his ensemble against the scenery of Lake Malta.
In turn, the Rimini Protokoll group from Berlin will invite viewers to unusual social games in private homes. About a dozen people will sit at the same table and discuss the future of the Old Continent. The show will be part of the House Visit Europe project.
The International Malta Festival will take place in Poznań from 8 to 28 June, 2015.
Sources: PAP, press materials, ed. AL, transl. Bozhana Nikolova, May 2015
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