The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute (AMI), supported by the Polish Institute in Bucharest, along with the Romanian Ministry of Culture and the Romanian Cultural Institute, are organising a joint cultural season for the first time in history, which will last from June 2024 to October 2025.
The programme will be inaugurated on 21st June 2024, with the opening of the exhibition “The Tatras: Wróblewski, Karłowicz, Wyczółkowski” at the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu. Minister of Culture and National Heritage Hanna Wróblewska and AMI Director Olga Wysocka will attend the ceremony. The exhibition, prepared by the Andrzej Wróblewski Foundation and the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology, features paintings, graphics and photographs by artists who significantly influenced Polish culture and art during the 19th and 20th centuries.
The opening of the POLAND-ROMANIA Cultural Season 2024-2025 is a unique opportunity to celebrate our shared heritage and strengthen the bonds between our nations. We believe that the rich programme of events will inspire new generations to collaborate further and increase our mutual understanding. The season's motto, “We Share the Same Language”, refers to the language of culture, which allows for deep understanding and connection across diverse forms, means of expression, and traditions.
- Olga Wysocka, AMI Director
CULTURAL THEATRE SEASON
Part of the first weekend of the season is at the FITS Sibiu International Theatre Festival, where we will present the play “The Employees”. The production, on the border between drama and visual arts, is directed by Łukasz Twarkowski and based on STUDIO theatregallery’s Olga Ravn's Booker Prize-nominated novel. It will be shown on both 21st and 22nd June. This intimate sci-fi drama exploring the relationships between humanoid robots and humans has received awards at major Polish theatre festivals. Meanwhile, on 25th June, we will present a minimalist outdoor production of “Arcadia” by KTO Theatre and Jerzy Zoń, one of the leading creators of Polish theatre.
In September 2024, during the National Theatre Festival in Bucharest, the Romanian audience will be introduced to the drama “The Last Days of Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu” by Julia Holewińska, directed by Wojciech Faruga and performed by the ensemble of the Polish Theatre in Bydgoszcz. The play is an elegy on the death of a dictator and a reminder that no tyranny deserves to be forgotten.
MUSIC – THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
The season's motto, “We Share The Same Language”, is most fully realised through music. During 11th to 14th July 2024 at the Gărâna Jazz Festival in southwestern Romania, Kinga Głyk will be performing. This rising star of jazz blues, and winner of the 2021 Polish Music Coryphaeus Award, is considered one of the best Polish bassists of the younger generation. The jazz-rock aficionados Pilichowski Band will also be performing.
In September, the Polish folk music band Dikanda will perform at the Balkanik Festival in Bucharest. Polish artists will also be participating in the Jazz in the Park Festival and the George Enescu Classical Music Festival in Bucharest in 2025.
FILM AND VISUAL ARTS
Romanian audiences will also have a unique opportunity to admire the works of Tadeusz Kantor from the collection of the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow. The exhibition will begin in October 2024 at the National Museum of Art in Bucharest and will run until the end of February 2025.
For 2025, numerous exhibitions, concerts, screenings and festivals are being planned. The Romanian audience at the Museum of Art in Cluj-Napoca will have the chance to see works by the renowned Polish painter, poster artist and sculptor Wojciech Fangor from the National Museum in Gdańsk, and an exhibition of paintings by Jerzy Nowosielski from the National Museum in Kraków at the Palace of Culture in Iași. Polish creatives will also be participating in Romanian Design Week, the TIFF Transylvania International Film Festival, and the Literature and Translation Festival in Iași.
HAMLET AND GRIGORESCU – ROMANIAN ART IN POLAND
The POLAND-ROMANIA Cultural Season 2024-2025 also includes cultural events organised by the Romanian side throughout Poland. On the last weekend of July, the season will be inaugurated in Poland with the exhibition “Nicolae Grigorescu, Painter of the Romanian Ethos” at the National Museum in Gdańsk, and a performance of “Hamlet” (directed by Declan Donnelan) by the Marin Sorescu National Theatre from Craiova at the Shakespeare Festival in Gdańsk.
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