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Malta Festival Poznań, Poland
October 2014
In the second month after I came to Poznań, two activities took place here including Nostalgia Festival Poznań 2014 held from 23 to 25 October and Atelier for Young Festival Managers from 20 to 27 October.
Nostalgia Festival Poznań used to be held in October each year when days become shorter and nights are bitterly cold, foggy and often with rain or drizzle. At this time of the year, it is more comfortable to stay indoor to enjoy lovely music programmes. Usually the musical performances in Poland are focused on Chopin. But in the festivals held in Poznań and Nostalgia, there are many other great musical expressions worthwhile to be familiar with and to know about. This year, Nostalgia festival presented two contrasting kinds of music, one from an American composer, Elliott Carter and the other from a composer from Armenia, Tigran Mansurian. The intercultural ideas were displayed through three chamber music concerts on strings, piano and orchestra; three meetings among the composers and performers and six movies shows in three days.
Pic 1: Meeting with the composer and performers Pic 2: Movie time
Pic 3: Concert in the church with Nostalgia festival colour
Atelier for Young Festival Managers was held in the same week with Nostalgia Festival. Programmes organized by the Festival Academy and European Festival Association (EFA), were intensively held within the week including various meetings and discussions. 41 young international festival managers from 23 countries including UK, Denmark, Finland, Australia, Canada, Turkey, South Africa, Singapore, South Korea etc. met five experienced mentors in Poznań, namely, Hugo De Greef (Atelier coordinator and former EFA Secretary General), Robyn Archer (Artistic Director, The Light in Winter Melbourne), Mark Ball (Artistic Director, London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT)), Nele Hertling (Vice-Chair Academy of Arts Berlin), Michal Merczynaki (Director, Malta Festival Poznań and Nostalgia Festival Poznań) to share their rich experience, knowledge, ideas and visions. Moreover, the topics on creation of culture in Poznań were also touched. There were also other guest speakers from Polish culture sectors including the Managing Director from Gdansk Shakespearean Theatre and many others.
Pic 4: Atelier circle during sharing Pic 5: Sharing during drinks and snacks time
Pic 6: Sharing by Mark Ball (Artistic Director, London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT))
The highlights of the Atelier programme were not only centered on the discussions and workshops but also the evening study visits in major cultural and art venues and institutions in Poznań. The visits were well arranged every evening whereby the participants could visit the directors and founders in various venues including Art Stations Foundation where there is a contemporary art exhibition installation, ABC Gallery, School of Form which is a design school and Concordia Design. The participants also had the chance to visit different cultural venues including theatres and galleries where they could share views with the directors.
Indeed, this is really a precious opportunity for me to be an observer for the whole Atelier programme through which I could meet and learn from the mentors and festival managers. The open sharing sessions included reflection, inspiration and re-discovery. The topics for the discussions are mostly connected with programming, fund-raising, audience development, marketing, international collaboration, festival sustainability, community participation and so on. Certainly, these topics are crucial areas for everyone working in the art festivals or events to learn and equip. I believe that every participant would leave with new approaches and strategies. They also build up friendship during this week and will get support from each other in case of need in future. The Atelier week ended up with the Silent Disco which is a concept of listening to music in silence on wireless headphones. Everyone danced in relaxation and this is really a perfect completion of the whole week.
Pic 7: One of the participants with one of the Pic 8: Atelier Silent Disco
installations in Art Stations Foundation
Lastly, I have the interest to put up two open questions from the Atelier discussions as below:
Q: What would my city gain from this festival?
Q: A festival should be unique to where it takes place and not be transferrable to another location, but how do we make this happen?