This will be the 12th edition of the "CASTLE OF IMAGINATION" INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL. In line with tradition, it will begin in northern Poland, in the city of Slupsk and the nearby coastal town of Ustka, and given its nature as a traveling festival, it will then wander south, reappearing in Krakow and Bielsko Biala.
"CASTLE OF IMAGINATION" is a unique, cyclical, international festival of performance art organized in towns located in the region of Pomerania and throughout Poland. It is one of only a handful of performance art festivals in Europe and the world. During its eleven-year history, the festival has played host to three hundred and two artists from thirty-one countries, including Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Japan, Holland, Slovakia, Estonia, Poland, France, Sweden, Israel, Ukraine, South Korea, Lithuania, Portugal, Hungary, Hong Kong, Finland, Denmark, Spain, Singapore, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Northern Ireland, Belarus, Mexico, Austria, Canada and the United States.
Twenty-eight artists from nine countries have announced their participation in this year's edition. Performers will hail from Israel (Adva Drori, Tamar Raban), the USA (Jeffrey Byrd, Jeff Huckleberry, Juniper Perlis, Jose Torres Tama), Germany (BBB Johannes Deimling, Christopher Hewitt), Great Britain (Di Clay, Anthony Padgett, Ilana Michell, Clare Charnley), Italy (Roberto Rossini, Massimo Tiscali, Danilo Casti, Alessandro Carboni), Spain (Joan Casellas, Angel Pastor), Poland (Artur Grabowski, Maciej Adamczyk, Antoni Karwowski, Andrzej Pawelczyk, Karolina Stepniowska, Magda Sowierszenko, Ewa Rybska, Wladyslaw Kazmierczak), Chile (Aleksandro Del Re) and Kazakhstan (Kanat Ibrahimov).
This year's festival will be special for the fact that it will feature artists who are very well known in their own countries, but who will appear before the Polish public for the first time. The festival will thus offer audiences an opportunity to experience performance art by artists from other countries who are simultaneously great individualities.
Performance art continues to demonstrate incredible vitality on the art scene. Its fascinating longevity and development derives from artists' unending and highly personal need to react to the world, from their conversion of this stance into artistic, performance-based manifestations. Performance art denies the existence of any rules, styles or commercial concerns - aspects that remain observable in other art forms - and instead offers directness, participation, unpredictability, variation and experimentation. These features have helped to make each edition of the festival an unrepeatable manifestation of various personal utterances, expressions that have often proved surprising and controversial.
The festival's curator and organizer is Wladyslaw Kazmierczak - an artist, performer and director of the Baltycka Galeria Sztuki Wspolczesnej (Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art) in Slupsk.
PROGRAM
August 26-28, 2004, Ustka, Slupsk
August 26, opening: 6 p.m., Ustka, The Baltic Art Gallery
Ewa Rybska & Wladyslaw Kazmierczak, Slupsk, Poland
Ilana Michell, Newcastle, UK
Joan Casellas, Barcelona, Spain
Jeff Huckleberry, Boston, USA
Juniper Perlis, Boston, USA
Christopher Hewitt, UK
Antoni Karwowski, Szczecin, Poland
The night screening.
August 27, 6 p.m, Slupsk, "Rondo" Theatre
Magda Sowierszenko, Slupsk, Bochum, Poland
Jose Torres Tama, New Orlean, USA / Mexico
Tamar Raban, Tel Aviv, Israel
Clare Charnley & Magda Sowierszenko, Leeds, UK
Anthony Padgett, UK
Di Clay, Carlisle, UK
Roberto Rossini, Genoa, Italy
August 28, at 6 p.m., The Baltic Art Gallery
Karolina Stepniowska, Torun, Poland
BBB Johannes Deimling, Berlin, Germany
Adva Drori, Tel Aviv, Israel
Jeffery Byrd, Iowa, USA
Andrzej Pawelczyk, Swinoujscie, Poland
Danilo Casti & Alessandro Carboni OOFF.OURO, Sardinia, Italy
The night screening.
September 1-2, 2004, Bielsko-Biala, BWA Gallery Bielsko-Biala
September 1, at 5 p.m.
Artur Grabowski & Maciej Adamczyk, Krakow, Poland
Ewa Rybska & Wladyslaw Kazmierczak, Slupsk, Poland
Roberto Rossini, Genoa, Italy
Magda Sowierszenko, Bochum, Slupsk, Poland
Karolina Stepniowska, Torun, Poland
BBB Johannes Deimling, Berlin, Germany
September 2, at 5 p.m.
Massimo Tiscali, Monza, Italy
Joan Casellas, Barcelona, Spain
Tamar Raban, Tel Aviv, Israel
Adva Drori, Tel Aviv, Israel
Jose Torres Tama, New Orlean, USA / Mexico
Jeff Huckleberry, Boston, USA
Danilo Casti & Alessandro Carboni OOFF.OURO Sardinia, Italy
August 30-31, 2004, Krakow
August 30, at 6 p.m., Krakow, Schindler's Factory
Artur Grabowski & Maciej Adamczyk / Krakow, Poland
Ewa Rybska & Wladyslaw Kazmierczak, Slupsk, Poland
Antoni Karwowski, Szczecin, Poland
Roberto Rossini, Genoa, Italy
Angel Pastor, Barcelona, Spain
Magda Sowierszenko, Bochum, Slupsk, Poland
Jeffery Byrd, Iowa, USA
Karolina Stepniowska, Torun, Poland
Andrzej Pawelczyk, Swinoujscie, Poland
BBB Johannes Deimling, Berlin, Germany
Anthony Padgett, UK
August 31, at 6 p.m.
Di Clay, Carlisle, UK
Massimo Tiscali, Monza, Italy
Ilana Michell, Newcastle, UK
Joan Casellas, Barcelona, Spain
Tamar Raban, Tel Aviv, Israel
Adva Drori, Tel Aviv, Israel
Jose Torres Tama, New Orlean, USA / Mexico
Clare Charnley & Magda Sowierszenko, Leeds, UK
Jeff Huckleberry, Boston, USA
Danilo Casti & Alessandro Carboni OOFF.OURO Sardinia, Italy
Organizer: The Society of the Contemporary Art in Slupsk / Towarzystwo Przyjaciol Sztuki Wspolczesnej w Slupsku
Co-organizer: The Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art in Slupsk / Baltycka Galeria Sztuki Wspolczesnej w Slupsku
Office: ul. Partyzantow 31a, 76-200 Slupsk
tel. (+48 59) 814 60 89
Agnieszka Okrzeja, 0-505 802 157
Ewa Tatar: 0-502 565 723
Assistent: Artur Grabowski, 0-505 210 606
www.performance.art.pl