NO.THEATRE.PL – DIALOGUE ABOUT THE CITY


The seminar on the ship. The trance dance in the middle of the forest, next to the ruins of a stone observation tower, where you can read a sentence written with a piece of chalk that says: “Foreigners – out!”. The workshops in a modern gallery, and on a busy street. The exhibition in the site of the Social-Cultural Jewish Associations, a meeting place, a place of memory, and survived identity. The performance describing historical ventures of Europe, taking place next to the monument of commemorating the Soviet Army, on which someone sprayed the word “Katyn” [a name of a village in Russia where in 1940 the Soviet secret police murdered over four thousand Polish officers]. The Human Books, encountered in alleys of the municipal public library. The fairy tales told straight into one’s ear in the “relaxation space” created next to the busy intersection. The story of the recovered objects and human fates inscribed in space the post-shipyard building. The waiting room of the railway station, filled with provocative and infectious laughter, a place where the only thing that “happens” is just an act of waiting. The hypnotic “Kafkaesque” journey through elegant halls, cellar nooks, and inaccessible towers of the Voivodeship Office. The parable – squeezed between low cold walls of atomic shelter – telling about longing for home, which no longer exists, because it belongs to the no man’s land zone surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. And, finally, the multimedia show in a gigantic space of K-1 Hall, focused on broken biographies of people who produced marine engines in the H. Cegielski Metal Industry Complex in Poznań, and who constructed ships in the Szczecin Shipyard. All this happened within eight days in Szczecin. With their actions, Polish and Norwegian artists specializing in activities in non-theatrical spaces, confronted the City: they listened to its rhythm, encountered its habitants, diagnosed the present moment of its development, retold its history… Hundreds of spectators, unexpected meetings and interactions, fascination with space, discussions, disputes, controversies, joyful fun till dawn… these experiences were shared by the audience and the participants of the no.thetatre.pl project, which was a part of the annual Szczecin’s festival The Bonds of Culture, organized by the Kana Theatre. The no.theatre.pl project confronted with one another various ways of thinking, and different ways of interpreting reality. It was a living, creative, and inspiring meeting, which significantly shaped the cultural image of the city. Its Norwegian participants included: Per Ananiassen (Teaterhuset Avant Garden), Knut Ove Arntzen (University of Bergen), Richard Borgström (International Festival of Performance Art Bastard), Ingri Fiksdal, Ingvild Langgård, Signe Becker (“Night Tripper” project), the fieldworks team led by Heine Avdal, the team led by Mette Edvardsen, The Happy Gorilla Dance Company, The Impure Company – the team led by Hooman Sharifi. Its Polish participants included: Jolanta Krukowska, Helena Freino, The Akademia Ruchu Theatre, Ludomir Franczak, The Strefa Ciszy Theatre, The Usta Usta Republika Theatre, The Szwalnia Theatre, The Eighth Day Theatre, and Karolina Freino. The no.theatre.pl project has re-read Szczecin in a new way. It presented it from the Other’s perspective, from a point of view of a stranger – a visitor – a guest, who can read signs stored in the structure of the urban space. In this way, it brought the city closer to its habitants, allowing them to enter the unknown sites and areas not available on daily basis. It was a real intercultural meeting, based on two voices’ exchange which turned into a dialogue.

 

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