Kujawsko-Pomorskie Newsletter. No. 5 · September 2010

News at a glance

Kujawsko-PomorskieNewsletter

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2010

www.torun2016.euwww.mojregion.eu

Marshal Officeof Kujawsko-

Pomorskie Region

Our anniversary

In October 2010 the Information Office of Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region celebrates the fifth anniversary of its presence in Brussels.

our region has made a tremendous progress

The highlight of our celebrations is going to be a concert of Toruń Symphony Orchestra conducted by the internationally renowned maestro Oikawa. They are going to perform the works of Chopin, Schuman and Shostakovich.

During our five years in the capital of Europe the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region became well known for its entrepreneurial spirit and innovation. Since the day of Polish accession to the EU in every area: cultural, economic and social. The result of this

Kujawsko-Pomorskie Newsletter. News at a glance 3

The fifth anniversary of theInformation

Office in Brussels

The Universeof Culture

Skyway ’10

Toruń like Avignon?

Toruń’s Artistof the Month

Our anniversary

Marshal Office of Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region

development is, amongst others, the more frequent localization of foreign investment in our region.

Many of these investors are from Japan such as Orion, Sharp, Sumitomo Chemicals etc.

That is why the The

music played by the Toruń Symphony Orchestra and conducted by maestro Oikawa not only symbolizes this fruitful collaboration between our region and Japanese investors, but is also the one small step in the deepening friendship between Japan and Poland.

We sincerely hope that you all will and you

will enjoy it. Should I mention that the concert is followed by the reception with the Polish and Japanese specialties?

More than 192 thousand entities, with 1697 with foreign capital are active in Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region.

main theme of our event is the Polish-Japanese cultural and economic co-operation.

participate in our event in Cirque Royal in Brussels on 6 October, 2010

4 Kujawsko-Pomorskie Newsletter. News at a glance

Our anniversary

The Universe of Culture

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On the 27th of August, Toruń finished work on the application form for the title of European Capital of Culture 2016. The document was delivered to the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

The universe of culture

The main idea of Toruń’s application is Toruń:

. It fits the whole representation of cultural achievements of Europe, Poland and the city itself. “Visiting us in the year 2016 will let you travel through the whole universe of the European culture. The universe full of stars of dance, film, visual arts, theatre, contemporary art, photography and all other art disciplines presenting human artistic emotions. What are the pillars we want to build our universe on? Science and ‘Copernican humanism’, European cultural exchange, a well-understood regionality and local

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Toruń: the Universeof Culture

Kujawsko-Pomorskie Newsletter. News at a glance


Skyway ’10



Our anniversary

cultural heritage, civil society with understanding for culture” – says Krystian Kubjaczyk, the Acting Director of the Municipal Institution of Culture Toruń 2016.

From the very beginning encouraged Toruń in the European Capital of Culture bidding process. From presidents, to students; from small-scale associations, to the whole cities. Toruń has obtained the official support of Kraków, the only Polish city honoured with the title of the European Capital of Culture. Toruń’s efforts are supported by the Mayor of Oxford – John Tanner. Mayors from Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region also support Toruń – Włocławek, Inowrocław, Grudziądz, Świecie, Brodnica and Solec Kujawski. Words of support were sent to Toruń from musicians, actors and artists. As part of the “I support Toruń” campaign hundreds of people declared their will to support Toruń bidding process.

Submission of the application was accompanied by a , which took

many people and institutions

three-day festival of Toruń’s art and science


place in the heart of the capital of Poland. Warsaw residents could learn about the operation of the and

equipment.

was represented by excellent bands: Sofa, Paraliż Band, Nocna Zmiana Bluesa, Czaqu, Soima, Los Angeles Trio. The festival featured the run by the District Museum in Toruń – it was an interesting activity as Toruń’s gingerbread is one of the most recognizable brands in Poland. The special classes

were conducted by educators from the Centre of Contemporary Art in Toruń.

During the event was presented, a spectacle prepared by the Baj Pomorski Theatre. Also, the winner of the Polish edition of TV show “You Can Dance”, Artur Cieciórski, gave a to the audience. On a Sunday morning in the Hoover Square organizers prepared a “Breakfast on the grass” – a

– that ended the festival.

solar telescopeCopernican astronomical

Musical Toruń

gingerbread show

ArtCoolinaria

“Candide”

dance show

picnic accompanied by sounds of classical music

9Kujawsko-Pomorskie Newsletter. News at a glance

Skyway ’10

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Between the 26th and the 28th of August 2010, Municipal Institution of Culture Toruń 2016 once again delivered to Toruń a set of illuminating, engaging and entertaining art installations and interventions, on the theme of the Solar System.

dynamic circuit of visual and acoustic environments

The programme of Skyway ’10 transformed the Old Town into a

, with visitors being invited to “visit” the different Inner and Outer Planets, the Moon, as well as Planetoids, Meteors, Comets and other celestial bodies. Heavenly bodies were the inspirations for installations by artists from Great Britain, Brazil, Portugal and Poland.

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Luminous Toruń:Skyway ’10 International

Light Festival



Skyway ’10



Our anniversary

Accordingly, the central point of the project was formed by the installation created by Polish artist and art theorist Wiesław Smużny, located right in the middle of the Old Town in the Old Town Square.

The was interpreted by artists Stefan Kornacki and Dominik Smużny, along with musician Jerzy Mazzoll. The trio’s cosmic metaphor included the use of a gigantic vintage neon from the communist-era supermarket icon “Uniwersam”.

British artist Simeon Nelson came to Toruń’s Skyway to present , a dynamic light installation atop the university’s Collegium Maximum building, inspired by the recent discovery of ice and water under the surface of the Moon – a piece that unites art and science.

The closest planet to the Sun, , was the inspiration for Dominik Lejman’s project, which revolved around painterly and lighting effects that represented the speed and transience of communication.

“Sun”

“Earth”

“The Moon”

“Mercury”


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Toruń-based artist Agata Dworzak-Subocz presented , a set of pink-hued paintings and grand-scale

projections on the façade of the Art Nouveau-style Wilam Horzyca Theatre in Toruń.

Three more pieces were set beyond the centre, including by Portuguese artists Miguel Soares and António

Contador and by Polish artist Marcin Chyliński which was displayed at the largest housing estate in Toruń, Na Skarpie, in the Rubinkowo quarter.

The works were installed as if for the brief period of the festival the Celestial Bodies, while still captured in their orbital movement, somehow “landed” on the city’s urban space.

For more information and photos visit the website of the festival: .

“Venus”

“Neptune”“Pluto”

With Skyway ’10, Toruń was transformed in a magical way.

http://www.skyway.art.pl/


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Iwona Kempa, the artistic director of the Wilam Horzyca Theatre in Toruń, speaks with Toruń 2016 about her last premiere, the theatre and the city

Iwona Kempa: Levin’s characters live in small towns and do not deal with the great world. They usually yearn to be elsewhere, because they believe that happiness is somewhere else. For me the most important thing is the universality of these texts. Levin raises important issues for us

Toruń 2016: In the latest theatrical premiere you once again exposed the drama of Hanoch Levin, this time it is “Winter Funeral”. What intrigued you in the world of his plays, the world of ordinary people living on the outskirts of the metropolis, an ineffective world conglomerates with the pettiness and defects, shown without embellishments?

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Skyway ’10



Our anniversary

all, shows a man in all aspects, from the physicality and physiology to the fear of death and dreams of immortality. Although Levin’s heroes are ordinary, small and scared, living somewhere on the margins of the great world and fed the usual longings, they experience fundamental and existential issues that affects all of us.

Actually, the whole Levin’s dramaturgy is writing about the vanishing and death, it is a continual reflection upon this topic in different variants. This perspective in the Levin’s dramaturgy is the most important to me. I do not think that it can be something more important in life. So really the only subject that, in essence, we care about is death and perhaps, maybe, love?

The major theme described by Levin is passing…

“Winter funeral” is a performance of the abrasion of two forces – the force of life and death…


photo Wojtek Szabelski

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The forces of life are represented by characters in the play,who by all means want to organize a wedding, even though in the eve of the wedding a close person dies in the family. All of these characters see the wedding as the fulfillment of their dreams and longings. On the other hand there is the death and escape from death, which is very human.

I do not marvel the text because of the theatrical reasons. On the contrary, I usually work on dramas that seem impossible to realize on stage. I decide on the text, only because it moves me, touches me. I can’t stop thinking about it. Of course, then I wonder how to expose the drama on stage. On the day of premiere, I learned from the interpreter that “Winter funeral” was only once exposed on stage in Israel, its

Levin’s dramaturgy operates with contrasts, describes a wedding and a funeral, physiology, lofty dreams and surreal buffoonery. Is such a variety of tones, feelings, emotions interesting in theatrical matter, is it inspiring when it comes to creating a performance?


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author’s country, since the directors were not able to meet the author’s imagination. Levin allows himself to the unusual, even malignant movements in relation to the theater, invents scenes that seem impossible to realize on the stage, for example a flight of a group of heroes across the Himalayas…

I think that Toruń has a huge potential, in dreams it reminds me Avignon. I would like Toruń to be so charming, so neat, so lively, living the art. I believe that the European Capital of Culture should mean not only the presence of large events, which we are not lacking, but should also care about how we live every day, the environment in which we move, how our streets smell and look. I wish that people loved to live here, they wanted to live here. Toruń has huge complexes, unnecessarily. It often seems to me that Toruń’s inhabitants feel like Levin’s heroes, sentenced to Toruń, believing that happiness is somewhere else. Let’s accept the fact that we

How do you think the project of European Capital of Culture may affect the development of Toruń?


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are a small city, but let’s see how special and unique. Toruń instead of appreciating, supporting and respecting the artists who create in Toruń, keeps bringing the stars or peopole of questionable authority who will only improve our opinion of ourselves. For many people, the success is to escape from Toruń, yet Polish directors who cooperate with our theatre fall in love with the theatre and in the city, and all of them want to return. Whenever we come to Toruń for a day or two, the beauty and uniqueness of this city moves us every time. People really should stay here longer…


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Toruń’s Artist of the Month

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Toruń’s Artist of the Month

exclusive interview:“Dancing Jupiter”

Toruń 2016: Your installation “LED’s dance!” was one of the most impressive works presented during Skyway ’10 International Light Festival. The title is a wordplay: it works as dance invitation and contains some references to modern technology, LED screens…

In your interpretation Jupiter means entertainment, a dancing planet…

Dorota Kraft, Festival Artist: I enjoy playing with words, rearranging them. References to the dance and to LED screens were intentional.



Skyway ’10



Our anniversary

Video was created last year for the International Year of Astronomy. I associate it with the cosmos, and I associate the cosmos with old video games. In my work I used pixel graphics. My work was expanded for the festival and took the form of an installation. It was projected on the floor and it brought a new effect: an illuminated dance floor.

In my opinion, each installation presented during the festival was surprising. A combination of modern technology, all kinds of projectors throwing a huge picture on the medieval walls… It was an unusual phenomenon.

Your installation combines medieval architecture and new technology. The pavement of the castle moat became a screen. This is an unusual combination.

You deal with multimedia which derive from various media sources: text, sound, graphics, animation… Who is the artist in multimedia? Is he only a designer?A creator of the context?


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A work of art comes to life at the time of interaction… It does not necessarily have to be a physical interference as in the case of “LED’s dance!”. I do not know who a multimedia artist is, but I hope that he or she participates in the dialogue between the artist and the spectator.

Mass culture is a condensed image of our times, our desires and needs… I derive from mass culture as it draws us and I transform it again, giving it an individual characteristic.

The art accompanied man since the dawn of time, it is an internal need, an integral part of every one of us. The art seeks to investigate the essence of humanity and a man – curious in his nature – creates or admires art searching for the answers to the question of “who I am”.

Your installation refers to video games, entertainment, mass culture…

Does a modern man need art? For what?


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Municipal Institution of Culture Toruń 2016ul. Pod Krzywą Wieżą 1, 87-100 Toruń, Polandphone: +48 56 621 0 333fax: +48 56 651 02 37e-mail: [email protected]

Information Office of Kujawsko-Pomorskie RegionAvenue de Tervuren 84, 1040 Brussels, Belgiumphone: +32 2 734 12 17fax: +32 2 734 29 96e-mail: [email protected]

Marshal Office of Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region

Documents

Kujawsko-Pomorskie Newsletter. No. 5 · September 2010