We are beginning the 57th edition of the International Theatre Festival KONTRAPUNKT. This year’s edition is absolutely special to us. We are delighted that the largest and oldest theatre festival in the region is returning after a two-year break! For the first time, two city theatres – the Pleciuga Theatre and the Współczesny Theatre in Szczecin – stages of different profiles: the former – puppetry, and the latter – drama, will act as organisers. This is the first edition to be conceived in the form of a biennial, which has given the festival more possibilities, opening it up to international productions. It is also the first time that the KONTRAPUNKT will last a month and a half, making the spring in Szczecin a theatre time!
We are combining our experiences, as well as a completely different characters, to show the most interesting Polish and international productions focused on form – yet not ‘small form’. During this year’s KONTRAPUNKT we will see productions representing various faces of theatre: from puppet theatre, through performances in public space, visual arts to dramatic theatre. We want to appreciate diversity while making sure that everyone can find something on stage that moves them – which is why this year’s KONTRAPUNKT will be launched with the call: “Find your point of view!”.
Also for the first time, we decided to divide the festival into sections: The International Form Competition, to which, with curatorial support from Agata Kołacz and Henryk Mazurkiewicz, we invited eight performances (four from Poland and four from abroad). Thematically, they revolve around themes of departing, passing away, but also of the body and its condition, including corporeality beyond the normative canons. In making our selection, we considered how the performances were made, who and what they represent, who and what they stand for. Each of them expresses a different way of thinking about what theatre is. We will confront Polish theatre, for which the word is the most important thing, with international productions that reduce verbal expression. We will check how this affects the form. The performances will be judged by five artists representing various points of view: not only theatre, but also literature, visual arts and film. The jury’s public deliberations will become a kind of performance of sorts - an open debate with a mediator.
The performances will then be seen in two sections: “Punkt Wyjścia” [Starting Point] and “Punkt Zwrotny” [Turning Point]. The “Punkt Wyjścia” will feature performances aimed at children and young people: an audience that is particularly important to us because it is one that we want to fall in love with theatre. The “Punkt Zwrotny” will include performances that have revolutionised thinking about contemporary theatre. This year’s protagonist of this section is director and set designer Philippe Quesne, one of Europe’s most eminent theatre artists and founder of the legendary Vivarium Studio.
Theatre is the place where openness, freedom of expression, but also a willingness to dialogue are most important. That is why we have prepared a series of free events addressed to the citizens of Szczecin which will take place in the urban space. We would like to invite everyone to a social opening, inspired by Caravaggio’s painting Seven Acts of Mercy, with which we will enliven Szczecin in six different surprising locations.
More than fifty events are ahead of us: performances, concerts and exhibitions. We are convinced that magnificent and moving theatre will fill the city with beauty and hope.
See you in the auditoriums of Szczecin’s stages!
Tomasz Lewandowski and Jakub Skrzywanek
Directors of the 57th International Theatre Festival KONTRAPUNKT
International Form Competition Jury
Inga Iwasiów
Prose writer, literary critic, publicist, activist, columnist, professor of literary studies, works at the Institute of Literature and New Media at the University of Szczecin. Member of the Council for Scientific Excellence for the first term and of the Committee on Literature of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Co-editor-in-chief (with Jerzy Madejski) of the journal „Autobiografia. Literature. Culture. Media”. A columnist for „Duży Format” in Gazeta Wyborcza. Juror of competitions, including twice the Nike Literary Award, currently the Poznań Literary Award.
Author of essays: „Gender for the Moderately Advanced. Szczecin Lectures”; „Paraphrases and reinterpretations. Lectures on the theory and practice of reading”; „Reinventions. A woman reading today”; „Defrosting. Literature in Need”. Author of prose: „Tastes and Touches”, „Bambino”, „Towards the Sun”, „For a Short Time”, „In the Air”, „Fifty, Chronicles of Resistance and Love”, „Late Life”; a collection of columns „Blogotony”; an autobiographical book „He died. A Notebook of Mourning”.
Katarzyna Kozyra
Sculptor, photographer, author of performances, films, video installations and art actions. Born 1963, lives and works in Warsaw.
Graduated from the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and postgraduate studies at the Department of New Media at the Hochschule fur Graphik und Buchkunst in Leipzig.
In her works, she touches on the most pertinent issues: identity and passing, life and death, or religion and gender. She moves in the area of cultural taboos and stereotypes of behavior encoded in social life. Her works appear at major festivals and exhibitions at home and abroad.
For the past 10 years, she has been running the Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation, which focuses on supporting women's activities in the field of culture and art.
Anna Smolar
Theatre director, playwright, translator. Graduate of the Sorbonne University in Paris and the Sudden Theatre acting school. She proposes original theatre, created in close collaboration with an ensemble of actors. Such collective works include the productions „Henrietta Lacks”, „Thriller” and „Erasmus/Erasmus” at the Nowy Theatre, „Dybbuk” at the Polski Theatre in Bydgoszcz, „The End of Eddie” at the Studio Theatre, „Halka” and „Yoga” at the Stary Theatre in Krakow, „Melodrama” at the Powszechny Theatre.
Her more famous works also include „Cinderella” based on a play by Joel Pommerat at the National Old Theatre in Krakow, „Jewish Actors” by Michał Buszewicz at the Jewish Theatre, „Cowboys” at the Osterwa Theatre in Lublin, „Slow motion” at the National Theatre in Vilnius, „Hungry ghosts” at the Kammerspiele in Munich.
Winner of the 2016 Polityka's Passport Award in the Theatre category for 'intimate and empathetic theatre, tackling marginalised subjects with panache and humour, for consistently broadening the theatrical field and for her willingness and ability to dialogue with every audience'. She is the author of the French translation of Grazyna Jagielska's book „Love from Stone”. From 2018 to 2021, she taught in the departments of Theatre Pedagogy and Social Arts at IKP. In 2022, she curated the season of „Tough Love” at Komuna//Warsaw. In 2023/2024 she curates the season of „Hosts” at TR Warszawa.
Piotr Jacoń
Journalist at TVN 24, author of the book 'We, trans' and reports „All about my child” and „All about my country”. In 2021, finalist of the Andrzej Woyciechowski Radio Zet Award, in 2022 honoured by the KPH with the Crown of Equality and awarded the Freedom of Speech Medal by the Grand Press Foundation. A Polish scholar by education. Teaches journalism at the University of Gdańsk. Lives in Gdynia.
Marek Waszkiel
Professor of humanities, lecturer at Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in Warsaw and Białystok, theatre historian, critic, pedagogue (www.marekwaszkiel.pl). Over the years he has been associated with the editorial board of Pamiętnik Teatralny and the Art Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, he was, among others, pro-rector of the Warsaw AT (for the Department of Puppetry Arts), director of the Białystok Puppet Theatre and the Poznań Animation Theatre, artistic consultant of the Amber Theatre in Shenzhen (China), a long-standing member of the UNIMA-International authorities and president of various UNIMA committees.
He is the author of many publications on Polish and world puppetry. Collaborates with puppet theatres, festivals, theatre institutions and puppetry schools around the world. An expert on puppet theatre.
Jury deliberations of the International Form Competition will be held in the presence of a mediator.
Konrad Sobczyk
Mediator, facilitator, supervisor, conflict resolution skills trainer. Mediated and supervised in Berlin and Heidelberg. Has been co-leading the mediation centre Mediatorzy.pl for twenty years. He specialises in working with companies, organisations and families.
At the centre of his work is dialogue and helping people to move from mutual accusations to mutual understanding and an acceptable agreement for all. For several years he has been working with the New Community Foundation, where he leads community dialogues.
VERDICT OF THE JURY OF THE 57TH INTERNATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL
The International Form Competition held within the 57th KONTRAPUNKT International Theatre Festival came to an end on 28 April 2024.
According to the rules of the competition, each Juror could cast a vote to award one performance, and the Grand Prix prize could be awarded to a performance that received a minimum of 3 votes.
On 28.04.2024, in open deliberations broadcast live on the festival's social media, by the votes of three jurors: Anna Smolar, Katarzyna Kozyra and Inga Iwasiów, the Grand Prix of the 57th KONTRAPUNKT International Theatre Festival was awarded to the performance THE MAKING OF PINOCCHIO by the duo Rosana Cade and Ivor MacAskill. THE MAKING OF PINOCCHIO was awarded the Grand Prix statuette and a cash prize of PLN 30,000.
Piotr Jacoń cast his vote, and thus awarded the prize of PLN 10,000 to the performance SCORES THAT SHAPED OUR FRIENDSHIP (Lucy Wilke, Paweł Duduś, Kim Ramona Ranalter), and with the vote of Marek Waszkiel, the prize of PLN 10,000 was awarded to the performance CZARNOKSIĘŻNIK OZ (directed by Konrad Dworakowski).
Sponsor of the Jury prizes of the 57th International Theatre Festival KONTRAPUNKT
The Audience Award is sponsored by the Marshall of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship
