Polish Cultural Institute

Mum, Dad, I'm a Poet

Sat, 25 May 2013 16:18:00 +0200

Saturday 25 May, 7:45pm
Southbank Centre
Purcell Room
Belvedere Road
London SE1 8XX
Tickets: £10 / £5 concessions
Ticket Office: 0844 875 0073
Book online Tadeusz Różewicz is the most celebrated living Polish author, the great 'anti-poet' who has succeeded in writing poetry after Auschwitz.

We celebrate the British publication of his masterpiece Mother Departs with readings, music and film by actors, poets, critics and friends.

Featuring the acclaimed poets George Szirtes and Tom Paulin, singing maven Katy Carr, legendary actor Jan Peszek and his daughter, notorious actress/singer Maria Peszek.

The evening is chaired by writer, editor and educator Sophie Mayer. Tadeusz Różewicz (b. 1921) is Poland’s foremost living writer. Remarkable for his simultaneous mastery of poetry, prose and drama, he has been nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Tadeusz Różewicz has been translated into over forty languages. The most recent English-language volumes, recycling (2001), New Poems (2007) and Sobbing Superpower (2011), were finalists for the 2003 Popescu Prize (UK), the 2008 National Book Critics Award (USA) and the 2012 Griffin Prize (Canada) respectively. In 2007 he was awarded the European Prize for Literature.

Mother Departs (Matka odchodzi, 1999, English edition translated by Barbara Bogoczek and published by Stork Press), exploring the life of his mother Stefania, is perhaps his most personal work. It won the Nike Prize in 2000, Poland’s most prestigious literary award.
Organised by Southbank Centre in association with the Polish Cultural Institute in London and Stork Press.

An Evening of Baroque Music inspired by flowers, gardens, nature...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:40:00 +0200

Tuesday 4 June 2013, 7.30pm
Chelsea Fringe
The Music Room
165 Clapham Road
London SW9 0PU
Tickets £25 incl. wine & canapés, and discussion with the soloist afterwards.
Book by calling Terence Cooper 02078340740 (Mon-Sat 11am-7pm) or by email tcunforcuth@googlemail.com

Harpsichord recital by Pawel Siwczak FRSA, ARAM on the theme of Flowers – Fields – Nature – Gardens, with music by Byrd, Sweelinck, Froberger, Kuhnau, Forqueray, Couperin, Scarlatti and Bach.

Pawel Siwczak is one of the most distinguished young harpsichordist in the UK at the moment. He was an outstanding student winning prizes under leading teachers in academies in Warsaw and London, and he has embarked on a professional career which has taken him all over Europe performing with ensembles such as the Gabrieli Consort & Players and the King’s Consort, and orchestras such as the Britten Sinfonia and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under conductors such as William Christie, Trevor Pinnock and John Eliot Gardiner.

Pawel has also recorded for BBC Radio 3’s ‘Early Music Show’, and his CD’s include “Bach Arranging and Arraged” and Stephen Dodgson’s music for harpsichord and guitar, 2009.

Pawel has a very active career as a teacher. He began by teaching keyboard studies at the Warsaw academy, and he participated in a project by Polish National Philharmony to interest young people in Baroque dancing. Pawel is currently teaching at the Royal Academy of Music and at Morley College in London.

Pawel is always engaging with his audience, “shaking prejudices” and communicating his enjoyment of harpsichord music to contemporary listeners.

www.pawelsiwczak.com

This concert is part of the Chelsea Fringe festival, independent though acting with the support of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

http://www.chelseafringe.com/press/

The concert takes place in a Regency-style room of a private house in South-West London, so it is a chance to experience a unique atmosphere of an intimate musical and social soirée.

More info here.

Polish documentaries at Sheffield Doc Fest

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:56:00 +0200

12-16 June
Showroom/Workstation
15 Paternoster Row
Sheffield S1 2BX Drill Baby Drill 12 Jun, 3.30pm
Showroom 1 14 Jun, 10am
Showroom 4 Drill Baby Drill
Dir: Lech Kowalski
Producer: Odile Allard
France, 2013, 84 min, HDCAM, English, Polish In rural Pennsylvania, the cows are unwell. It is the heart of shale gas mining, and the farmers are belatedly realizing the devastation that the fracking has had upon their livelihoods. Filmmaker Lech Kowalski is taking careful note of what is happening in Pennsylvania – it is the harbinger of what is to come in Poland. Kowalski is on hand with his probing camera as a group of farmers in Eastern Poland awaken to the reality that Chevron is preparing to establish numerous mines on their land. Initially open to the idea, their internet research, coupled with their blackening well water, quickly sends alarm bells ringing. They mobilize to stop Chevron, but is it too late? A lack of concrete information, and the secretive nature of Chevron’s plans perpetuate an atmosphere of fear and paranoia, in this David vs. Goliath story with a surprising ending. F*ck For Forest 13 Jun 10:00
Showroom 4

F*ck For Forest
Dir. Michał Marczak
Producer(s):Michał Marczak , Mikołaj Pokromski
Poland, Germany, 2012, 90 min, DCP, Norwegian, English, Spanish, German

Berlin’s Fuck For Forest is one of the world’s most bizarre charities. Based on the idea that sex can save the world, the NGO raises money for their environmental cause by selling home-made erotic films on the internet. Meet Danny, a troubled soul, as he accidentally discovers this exuberant, neo-hippy world where sexual liberation merges with global altruism, and joins their already colourful operation. From the streets of Berlin to the depths of the Amazon, together they are on a planet-saving mission to buy a piece of forest and save the indigenous peoples from the sick, sick West. For more information please visit: http://sheffdocfest.com

Piotr Krzymowski's work featured as part of "London Seizure" and "Selected"

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:27:00 +0200

London Seizure
Thursday 23 May, 6.30 - 8.30pm
Bermondsey Project
Willow Walk
London SE1 5SF
FREE

The shape of things to come (2012) will be screened as a part of the Urban DISease programme curated by Carmen Billows in Bermondsey Project. Participating artists include: Steven Ball, Hector Castells, Alexander Costello, Claire Hope, Matthias Kispert, Rastko Novakovic, Emily Richardson, John Smith and Mike Stubbs.

London, as with many other urban centres, functions as an 'island of desire' in commonplace perception, advertising freedoms in lifestyle and self-fulfilment. But, the urban dweller must compensate for these luxuries with certain sacrifices. On the one hand seduced by the allure of the urban multitude, he has to on the other hand accept the city's pace and, often passively, a role in its systems of mediation, surveillance and control. The origins of a certain ‘urban DISease’ very often lie beyond grasp but are instead sensed as underlying and immaterial threats to the status quo. Adaptation, or a healthy sense of disregard is needed in order to adapt to an environment of constant shifts in social politics; here is it easy to unknowingly submit to the powers at play. The artists featured in Urban DISease, use processes of close observation and contemplation to engage with their immediate surroundings. They share an interest in capturing instances of disruption in everyday social or political life and give a voice to a general sense of discomfort. (Carmen Billows)

Selected
29 May
Nottingham Contemporary
02 June
Duke of York's Cinema, Brighton
05 June
Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
13 June
CCA, Glasgow
18 June
FACT, Liverpool
20 June
Whitechapel Gallery, London

In late May and throughout June Krzymowski returns with his video Boys (2012) to the third edition of „Selected“ - artists’ film and video touring programme, which will be taking place at some of the UK’s leading venues for showcasing artists’ film . Chosen by the artists shortlisted for the Jarman Award 2012, „Selected 3“ brings together some of the emerging film and video artists from the UK in an excellent and diverse programme of new artists’ moving image. The project is supported by Film London Artists’ Moving Image (FLAMIN).

The videowork shows two boys playing with a ball in a swimming pool. Repetitions flow like waves, each building on the next to carry the narrative progression. The boys stretch and leap in pursuit of the ball, with staggered pacing giving a melodious, choreographed feel to their energetic bursts of action. As a tongue-in-cheek reference to Godard's statement "All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl, Krzymowski asserts that All you need to make a video are two boys and a yellow water-polo ball. (Agnieszka Le Nart)

Other artists in the Selected 3 programme include: Emma Alonze, Sophie Beresford, Nicholas Brooks, Mat Fleming, Naheed Raza, Frances Scott, Daniel Shanken, Cheryl Simmons and Edward Thomasson.

Piotr Krzymowski, born 1989 in Poland, lives and works in London. He completed his (BA) Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Recent exhibitions include: When they meet again, 3A Project Space, Gdynia, Poland and Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2012, Liverpool Biennial and ICA London. In 2011 he was nominated by Emily Wardill and accepted for the Selected I Film Programme with screenings in Picture This, Bristol; Showroom Cinema, Sheffield; CCA, Glasgow; Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle and Whitechapel Gallery, London. In 2013 he was nominated by Karen Mirza and Brad Butler and accepted for Selected III Film Programme.

Damian Wójcik's work chosen for Creekside Open 2013 selected by Paul Noble

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:16:00 +0200

2 - 26 May, Thursday - Sunday, 12noon - 5pm
Art in Perpetuity Trust
Harold Wharf
6 Creekside
London SE8 4SA
FREE From 2318 works submitted for the Creekside Open 2013 only 125 were selected for display. Among those work by Polish artist Damian Wojcik. His work chosen for this exhibition is The Figurative Portrait. A.P.T set up the Creekside Open in 2005 and now, eight years, and seven exhibitions later, it has grown in recognition and stature and has become one of the UK's foremost open competitions for visual artists.
This year the two selectors, Ceri Hand and Paul Noble, independently viewed over two thousand images and films submitted by 777 artists. This unique format of selecting two shows from one submission gave each work two chances of being selected for exhibition. Damian Wojcik's style evolved under strong influence of street art in which Damian Wojcik was involved for over 10 years as well as through years of studing Graphic Arts at the University of Silesia in Poland where he graduated with an MA. Trough his art Damian Wojcik invites us into surreal world. A world of beauty but also the dark side of emotions and a society dominated by materialism, consumerism and sexuality. For more visit www.damianwojcik.com

This artwork The Figurative Portrait belongs to a series of creative portraits generated in Photoshop. The model is an actress Elexi Walker and the circle behind symbolises continues changes in her life constantly adjusting to new roles.

"A Dream in the Making" screens at Open City Docs Festival

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:21:00 +0200

Saturday 22 June, 7.30pm
Lightbox
University College London
14 Taviton Street
London WC1H 0BW
Tickets: £8/£6
Book online
Box office: 0207 679 4907 A Dream in the Making
dir. Bartosz M. Kowalski
2012, 50 min
UK PREMIERE We are in Warsaw's Wola district, one of the poorest and shadiest areas of the Polish capital. There we meet Bartek and Pawel, two best buddies struggling with day-to-day ordeals. Bartek has a dream of becoming a stuntman in the film industry. His vision seems reckless, but he will stop at nothing until he succeeds. His friend Pawel is his soulmate, his father figure, and his personal trainer. A Dream in the Making is a story of friendship and determination that proves everything in life is possible. Preceded by the short film: The Whistle
Grzegorz Zariczny
2012 / Poland / 17' For more details please visit: www.opencitydocsfest.com

Maciek Pysz Trio at The Forge

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:11:00 +0200

Wednesday 22 May, 8pm
The Forge
3-7 Delancey Street
London NW1 7NL
Tickets £10 online, £12 OTD
Book online

NEW ALBUM LAUNCH

An unforgettable evening of world music jazz fusion combined with heart touching melodies from guitarist Maciek Pysz and his trio.

Performers:
Maciek Pysz - acoustic/classical guitars
Asaf Sirkis - drums/percussion
Yuri Goloubev - double bass

Guitarist and composer Maciek Pysz presents his new album recorded at the highly acclaimed Artesuono Studio in Italy with ECM's sound Engineer Stefano Amerio. The album is released on 33 Jazz Records and features the extraordinary drummer Asaf Sirkis and double bass maestro Yuri Goloubev. The trio will present an exciting programme featuring new music from the album as well as some special arrangements of tunes by Ralph Towner, Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea.

Listen to a taster from Maciek Pysz's new album INSIGHT

Maciek Pysz

Polish born and London based guitarist and composer Maciek Pysz has been playing guitar since the age of 11 and is a completely self-taught musician. He has been inspired by artists such as Sylvain Luc, Pat Metheny, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Keith Jarrett, Bireli Lagrene, Chick Corea, Oregon, Ralph Towner to name a few.

Maciek mainly plays acoustic and classical guitars and his influences come from tango, flamenco, Latin, jazz, Brazilian and classical music.

Since arriving in the UK in 2003 he has quickly established himself as an up-and-coming artist and has toured the UK, USA and Europe with his project and as a sideman to some well known international artists. Maciek established his original project Maciek Pysz Trio, more recently Maciek Pysz Quartet, in 2008 and recorded his first EP Discoveries that year.

More touring and collaborations followed including appearances on Polish National TV in 2010. In 2011 Maciek plays at the prestigious Blue Note Jazz Club in Poland and Pizza Express Jazz Club in London where in November 2011 he records a live album followed by a second EP True Life in January 2012.

He is the recipient of UK's Jazz Services Recording Support Scheme for 2012 as well as National Touring Support. Along with his musical colleagues Asaf Sirkis and Yuri Goloubev Maciek will record a new album at ARTESUONO studio in Italy in February 2013 with ECM's sound engineer Stefano Amerio. The album will be released in May 2013 on 33JAZZ Records

Currently apart from a busy touring and recording schedule Maciek is actively involved in the London music scene performing, teaching, conducting workshops and composing.

More recently Maciek travels frequently to Paris and South of France where he participates in Concerts and Jazz Festivals.

He has had the opportunity to work and play with a number of amazing musicians: Asaf Sirkis, Yuri Goloubev, Hadrien Feraud, Nicolas Vicaro, Gregory Privat, Kit Downes, Shabaka Hutchings, Jay Phelps, Aimua Eghobamien, Gianluca Corona, Tim Whitehead, Maurizio Minardi and Patrick Bettison to name a few.

Maciek has performed at a number of well known venues, radio stations and festivals in the UK and around Europe, including: Royal Albert Hall, Pizza Express, Ronnie Scott’s, BBC Radio, The Spice of Life, Ray’s Jazz at Foyles and National Theatre.

www.maciekpysz.com

Co z toba? What About Me?

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:49:00 +0200

23-24 May, 7:30pm
Tara Theatre
356 Garratt Lane
Earlsfield
London SW18 4ES
Book online Personal testimony, harsh realities and heartfelt discoveries make this a unique and a relatable piece for anyone who’s ever felt like a stranger. The production of Co z toba? What About Me? is by students from South Bank University, inspired by Tara Arts' archive of theatre productions from 1977 to the present. Presented by undergraduates, Heart Line Productions, on the Creative Practice course taught by Tara Arts, the production draws from archival research, verbatum interviews, and Polish folk legend and has been inspired by Tara Arts productions Journey to the West (2002) and It's A Wonderful Place (2012) amongst others. Warning - the production contains adult language. Followed by a post show Q&A with the company. Written by Krzysztofa Balińska. Produced by Heart Line Productions.

The Body in Eastern European and Russian Cinema

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:36:00 +0200

21-22 June
University of Greenwich
Queen Anne Building
London SE10 9LS
FREE but booking essential at http://beerc.eventbrite.co.uk/
Keynote presentations:

Nebojsa Jovanovic, Department of Gender Studies, Central European University and Freelance Researcher, Sarajevo: Contesting the cinematic "totalitarian body": A case of Yugoslav cinema in socialism

Elzbieta Ostrowska, University of Alberta, Canada: title tbc

Emma Widdis, Department of Slavonic Studies, University of Cambridge: Silence, Sensation and the New Soviet Self in Early Sound Cinema Panels:

Deleuzian Bodies
Renata Sukaityte, Faculty of Communication, Vilnius University, Lithuania: Non-functional bodies and the mise-en-scene of desire in Kristina Buozyte’s films Collectress and Vanishing Waves
Elzbieta Buslowska, University of the Arts, London: ‘Give me a body then’ - Bela Tarr’s world of non-Human becoming
Calum Watt, Film Studies, King’s College London: Bela Tarr’s disastrous bodies Star Bodies
Andrea Virginas, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania: Female stars, men’s films? Romanian films from the 2000s
Paulina Kwiatkowska, Institute of Polish Culture, University of Warsaw, Poland: Actress, figure and character - Lucynna Winnicka in Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s and Grzegorz Krolikiewicz’s films Body, Affect, Senses
Malgorzata Bugaj, University of Edinburgh: Exploration of the body in Gyorgy Palfi’s Taxidermia
Agnes Petho, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania: The ‘chemistry’ of art(ifice) and life: embodied paintings in East European cinema
Olena Dmytryk, Faculty of Geography, University of Cambridge:Haptic heteronormativity? Embodiment in Soviet cinema of the 1960s-1970s
Nicholas Reyland, Music and Film Studies, Keele University: From rupture to rapture: Kieslowski’s musical bodies Bodies at the end of Communism
Izabela Kalinowska-Blackwood, Stony Brook University: Striptease and the end of Communism
Mari Laaniste, Estonian Literary Museum and Academy of Arts: A shape of one’s own: the identity issues reflected in Priit Parn’s drawn bodies
Paulina Gorlewska, Institute of Audiovisual Arts, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland: The rotten relic: Stalin’s bodily presence on the screen Embodying the Czechoslovak New Wave
Anna Koch, University of Oxford: The face of the body in Jan Nemec
Grazyna Swietochowska, Culture Studies Department, University of Gdansk, Poland: The everyday body and the ceremonial body in the Czechoslovak New Wave
Susanne Sklepek-Hatton, Department of History, University of Nottingham: Decomposing/negating the public female body: analyzing Chytilova’s Daisies (1966) and Panelstory (1979)    Body and Female Agency
Alissa Timoshkina, Film Studies, King’s College London: ‘I am an Ox, I am a Horse, I am a Woman, I am a Man’: Female body and Soviet history in The Commissar
Elma Porobic, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb, Croatia:Bodies that speak: finding voice in Begic’s Snow and Zbanic’s Grbavica
Anna Batori, University of Glasgow: The representation of female bodies in Mungiu’s 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days     Soviet Bodies
Zoe Aiano, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universitat in Berlin, Germany: The Body Politic and the Body Electric: Man and the Machine in the work of Dziga Vertov
Andrea Matosevic, Centre for Cultural and Historical Research of Socialism, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Croatia: From enthusiasm to oblivion: imagining shock workers through documentary and feature movies Srdan Atanasovski, Institute of Musicology SASA, Beograd, Serbia, and Ana Petrov, The Archives of Serbia: The body, land, and sound of Socialist Yugoslavia: voluntary youth labour actions on the screen    War Bodies
Ira Osterberg, University of Helsinki, Finland: The War Veteran genre and the body of the hero in Aleksei Balabanov’s Brother (Brat, 1997)
Alisa Voznaya, University of Oxford, and Olesya Khromeychuk, University of Cambridge: The female body in ‘male wars’: representation of Ukrainian and Chechen women in the context of war Vulnerable Bodies in Contemporary Film
Lorant Stohr, University of Theatre and Film Art, Budapest, Hungary: Conflicting forces: bodies in Kornél Mundruczó's films
Hajnal Kiraly, Centre for Comparative Studies, University of Lisbon, Portugal: Leave to live: Bodies as ‘spaces-in-between’ in contemporary Hungarian and Romanian cinema
Ilona Hongisto, Department of Media Studies, University of Turku, Finland: Vulnerable bodies, consolidating frames: documentary cinema on North Eastern Europe 1990-2010 Bodies and National Trajectories
Marija Katalanic, Institute for Historic Cultural Research, Humboldt University, Berlin: Looking at the female body in Croatian film as an attempt to understand Croatia’s view on nationhood
Adriana Stefanel, University of Bucharest, and Andreea Toma, University of Bucharest, Romania: The female body in Romanian cinema: a longitudinal analysis Metin
Cavus, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey: The struggling post-Communist body as a primary site of conflict Conference themes:   In recent decades, much attention has been paid to theories revolving around the body, the senses, and affect in cultural studies in general, and film studies in particular. After what Brian Massumi has referred to as the ‘waning of grand narratives’, and the loss of confidence in previously established categories of inquiry, there has been a growing feeling in media and film theory that the body and the senses are central to an understanding of our culture. Ideas around the body, affect and sensation do not, however, provide theorists with a new stability; rather, these aspects are configured as fluctuating entities and unfinished projects. While much research has been conducted within film studies into the representation of the body in Western European cinema, much less attention has been paid to bodies, affects and sensations in Eastern European and Russian film. Eastern European and Russian cinema provides exceptionally fertile ground for research into the body, due to its preoccupation with topics such as war trauma, the Holocaust, migration, exploitation, sex work, rape, abortion, memory, as well as the ideal Soviet bodies propagated under the regions’ Communist regimes and the dissident bodies and affects that challenged them. The purpose of this conference is to showcase and exchange views on the role of body, the senses and affect in Eastern European and Russian cinema, both in its specificity and in its similarity to the types of bodies and affects found in other international film cultures.

Time-travel to ancient Egypt with Kawalerowicz's "Pharaoh"

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:43:00 +0200

Friday 14 June, 6pm
Manchester Museum
The University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester, M13 9PL
FREE but booking essential http://pharaoh.eventbrite.co.uk/
Pharaoh (Faraon)
dir. Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Poland, 1966, 180 min In this Academy Award nominated epic story set in ancient Egypt Pharaoh Ramses XIII defies tradition by assuming command of the military, a post usually occupied by priest. His defiance leads to a battle between those loyal to Ramses XIII and the power structure of priests. The priests try to foll the people by capitalizing on a solar eclipse, but Ramses XIII realizes the event is only a natural phenomenon. Impressive battle scenes and periods costumes from ancient Egypt add to this colourful epic historical drama. The screening is organised in partnership with Polish Consulate in Manchester and Polish Cultural Institute in London.