Started working at 7am. Had another breakfast of dry muesli and bread with jam. Margaret, Kathleen, Sheila and Steven headed over to Radio Merkury, one of a handful of regional branches of Polish State Radio, for a ten-minute interview segment. To the chagrin of the English only speakers in the group, the whole thing was conducted in Polish. The rest of group got a tour of the facility at 10am. The building the station was housed in dated from 1919. There were a considerable number of old reel-to-reel recorders tucked in amongst the newer digital gear.
Outside Radio Merkury, the first of many group shots. From Left to right: Asia, Kathleen, Todd, Pauline, Juliusz, Steven, Sheila, Joanna, Laura, Koby, Alicia, and Margaret. The ornate glass window on the second floor of the radio station building.
Views of Radio Merkury. Old reel-to-reel recorders have been replaced with digital gear. The main foyer.
Gazeta Poznańska, a local newspaper, was our next destination. The cultural affairs reporter, who was a good friend of Dr. Juliusz, gave us a tour. Of all our meetings with people under the guise of cultural exchange, this was the first one where the party giving the tour really wanted to get some hard information about our project. Joanna was grilled at length and will probably be the subject of an upcoming article.
The guard at the Gazeta not looking thrilled. The cultural affairs reporter talking about the line up of Chief Editors.
We had a brief meeting with one of the members of Teatr Porywacze Ciał (Bodysnatchers Theater). They are a very avant-grarde group, most noted for an early transgressive piece about domestic violence entitled “I Love You.” Rather than get pigeonholed as a transgressive group, they have worked hard to diversify their pieces and refuse to play the old ones over and over again.
Meeting with one of the members of Bodysnatchers Theater. Enjoying pyzy (steamed buns) with the group at fudo.
We squeezed in a meeting with Prof. Bronisław Marciniak, the proctor of the Adam Mickiewicz University. He basically gave us a half-hour long PR pitch for school and eventually drug in the Director of their English School to talk with us.
With the Director of the English Department and the Proctor of Adam Mickiewicz University. Juliusz interviewed while Wojciech set up his installation about Los Angeles.
Had to cancel an appointment with the programming director for the Stary Browar in order to make it over to Stara Rzeźnia (Old Butchery) to talk with Michał Merczyński and Lech Raczak, the director of Malta and the artistic director of the festival. Asia, Koby and I headed over with Dr. Juliusz in his car. We got there considerably ahead of the rest of the group so we sat down for a drink. I sampled one of the local beers. It was quite nice, although it did leave me feeling a little light-headed. When the rest of the group finally arrived we got to talk with festival director Michał Merczyński and artistic director Lech Raczak. They definitely had the slick PR pitch down, with the artistic director never taking off his sunglasses for our indoor meeting.
The first draught of Żywiec.
Our first theater piece in the evening was Jeśli kochasz, zabij (If You Love, Kill) by Polski Teatr Tańca. As seems to be the order of the trip, our group showed up a little bit late and caused a stir as we all got settled in. The performance was an interesting dance piece about domestic violence. The movement was quite good, with each of the three characters exhibiting a very unique style. The music that was used to signal a shift in focus from character to character was not mixed as well as I would have liked it to have been.
Ran over to the Platforma Artystyczna to see Dmitri Galas’ Zemsta czerwinych bucików (The Vengeance of the Red Shoes), a one-man play operformed by Janusz Stolarski. The piece was about a down on his luck Cellist that plays at weddings.
Our next performance was not until 10:30pm, so we grabbed a bite to eat before heading down to the Swimming Pool. The pool still felt incredibly creepy, but none of the locals seemed to give any real consideration to the history of the place. We all herded in to take in the preview performance of Teatr Strefa Ciszy’s DNA. The piece had some interesting visual moments, but ultimately seemed to be very disjointed and really did not take full advantage of the space or really touch on its history. Some of the little vignettes included two altar boys trying to bail water from the center of a floating platform. This was followed by some officials coming onto the platform via a ladder to measure the depth of the hole in the center of the platform and ordering the altar boys to fill it back in. A bit later, an aerobics instructor showed up on the platform and started a workout that was eventually attended by three garden gnomes that were tossed into the pool. The only moment that may have come close to making a statement about the history of the place, was a gentleman with a giant swan covering his head, urinating into the pool.
Teatr Strefa Ciszy’s DNA.
Next up was a mad dash over to the Old Butchery for “Kim jest ten człowiek we krwi?” from Teatr Biuro Podróży (Travel Agency Theater.) Their piece was one of eight different adaptations of Macbeth being performed throughout Poland this season. All of the events at the Malta festival seem to be oversold or lacking in crowd control. This performance proved to be one of the most attended, which made it a problem to see much of anything, as there was no seating and the few raised portions of the courtyard consisted of a couple of low fences and railings. To try and capture some of the performance on video, I hoisted my camera up on a small tripod. It was a little unwieldy, but seemed to do the trick. I gathered a little following of people behind me who were able to watch at least a little bit if the piece on my 2” monitor screen. A good portion of our group got fed up fairly early on and split. Several of us decided to hike back to the hotel. Just on the other side of the main square we decided to head back and find a place to try a Polish standard of Vodka flavored with Bison Grass mixed with apple juice. The first two places we tried either didn’t have it or were closing. Finally found one that did and ended up with little one-ounce vials of Vodka and pint glasses of apple juice. It smelled just like rubbing alcohol, but tasted all right. Poured the rest of it into the apple juice were it was plenty diluted. Finally made it back to the hotel around 2am.
Views of Teatr Biuro Podróży's “Kim jest ten człowiek we krwi?”.
Outside Radio Merkury, the first of many group shots. From Left to right: Asia, Kathleen, Todd, Pauline, Juliusz, Steven, Sheila, Joanna, Laura, Koby, Alicia, and Margaret. The ornate glass window on the second floor of the radio station building.
Views of Radio Merkury. Old reel-to-reel recorders have been replaced with digital gear. The main foyer.
Gazeta Poznańska, a local newspaper, was our next destination. The cultural affairs reporter, who was a good friend of Dr. Juliusz, gave us a tour. Of all our meetings with people under the guise of cultural exchange, this was the first one where the party giving the tour really wanted to get some hard information about our project. Joanna was grilled at length and will probably be the subject of an upcoming article.
The guard at the Gazeta not looking thrilled. The cultural affairs reporter talking about the line up of Chief Editors.
We had a brief meeting with one of the members of Teatr Porywacze Ciał (Bodysnatchers Theater). They are a very avant-grarde group, most noted for an early transgressive piece about domestic violence entitled “I Love You.” Rather than get pigeonholed as a transgressive group, they have worked hard to diversify their pieces and refuse to play the old ones over and over again.
Meeting with one of the members of Bodysnatchers Theater. Enjoying pyzy (steamed buns) with the group at fudo.
We squeezed in a meeting with Prof. Bronisław Marciniak, the proctor of the Adam Mickiewicz University. He basically gave us a half-hour long PR pitch for school and eventually drug in the Director of their English School to talk with us.
With the Director of the English Department and the Proctor of Adam Mickiewicz University. Juliusz interviewed while Wojciech set up his installation about Los Angeles.
Had to cancel an appointment with the programming director for the Stary Browar in order to make it over to Stara Rzeźnia (Old Butchery) to talk with Michał Merczyński and Lech Raczak, the director of Malta and the artistic director of the festival. Asia, Koby and I headed over with Dr. Juliusz in his car. We got there considerably ahead of the rest of the group so we sat down for a drink. I sampled one of the local beers. It was quite nice, although it did leave me feeling a little light-headed. When the rest of the group finally arrived we got to talk with festival director Michał Merczyński and artistic director Lech Raczak. They definitely had the slick PR pitch down, with the artistic director never taking off his sunglasses for our indoor meeting.
The first draught of Żywiec.
Our first theater piece in the evening was Jeśli kochasz, zabij (If You Love, Kill) by Polski Teatr Tańca. As seems to be the order of the trip, our group showed up a little bit late and caused a stir as we all got settled in. The performance was an interesting dance piece about domestic violence. The movement was quite good, with each of the three characters exhibiting a very unique style. The music that was used to signal a shift in focus from character to character was not mixed as well as I would have liked it to have been.
Ran over to the Platforma Artystyczna to see Dmitri Galas’ Zemsta czerwinych bucików (The Vengeance of the Red Shoes), a one-man play operformed by Janusz Stolarski. The piece was about a down on his luck Cellist that plays at weddings.
Our next performance was not until 10:30pm, so we grabbed a bite to eat before heading down to the Swimming Pool. The pool still felt incredibly creepy, but none of the locals seemed to give any real consideration to the history of the place. We all herded in to take in the preview performance of Teatr Strefa Ciszy’s DNA. The piece had some interesting visual moments, but ultimately seemed to be very disjointed and really did not take full advantage of the space or really touch on its history. Some of the little vignettes included two altar boys trying to bail water from the center of a floating platform. This was followed by some officials coming onto the platform via a ladder to measure the depth of the hole in the center of the platform and ordering the altar boys to fill it back in. A bit later, an aerobics instructor showed up on the platform and started a workout that was eventually attended by three garden gnomes that were tossed into the pool. The only moment that may have come close to making a statement about the history of the place, was a gentleman with a giant swan covering his head, urinating into the pool.
Teatr Strefa Ciszy’s DNA.
Next up was a mad dash over to the Old Butchery for “Kim jest ten człowiek we krwi?” from Teatr Biuro Podróży (Travel Agency Theater.) Their piece was one of eight different adaptations of Macbeth being performed throughout Poland this season. All of the events at the Malta festival seem to be oversold or lacking in crowd control. This performance proved to be one of the most attended, which made it a problem to see much of anything, as there was no seating and the few raised portions of the courtyard consisted of a couple of low fences and railings. To try and capture some of the performance on video, I hoisted my camera up on a small tripod. It was a little unwieldy, but seemed to do the trick. I gathered a little following of people behind me who were able to watch at least a little bit if the piece on my 2” monitor screen. A good portion of our group got fed up fairly early on and split. Several of us decided to hike back to the hotel. Just on the other side of the main square we decided to head back and find a place to try a Polish standard of Vodka flavored with Bison Grass mixed with apple juice. The first two places we tried either didn’t have it or were closing. Finally found one that did and ended up with little one-ounce vials of Vodka and pint glasses of apple juice. It smelled just like rubbing alcohol, but tasted all right. Poured the rest of it into the apple juice were it was plenty diluted. Finally made it back to the hotel around 2am.
Views of Teatr Biuro Podróży's “Kim jest ten człowiek we krwi?”.
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