23. Mime Art Festival
The Foundation of the Warsaw Mime Center invites you to: 23rd International Mime Art Festival October 12-15, 2023. Ursynów Cultural Center "Alternatives" in Warsaw.
We will take you on a journey through the diversity of forms of contemporary pantomime theater in Europe. A theater that, despite its different roots, is united by the increasingly challenging idea of art beyond words. The original poetics, humor, surprising sensitivity and emotionality of the creators and performers make pantomime defy obvious definitions.
We will see a non-verbal interpretation of J.Kochanowski's "Lamentations", prepared together with the J.Kochanowski Museum in Czarnolas, and a beautiful spectacle from Portugal, which will close our celebration. For the first time in the history of the festival, we invite you to a family performance.
All viewers will be treated to an exhibition by photographer Maciej Zakrzewski.
This year's performances will surprise us, entertain us, move us and enchant us with the beauty of theatrical craftsmanship. It's all thanks to bands and artists from Poland, Italy and Portugal.
The organizer of the festival is the Foundation of the Warsaw Mime Center, the place of presentation of the festival of the Art of Mime and at the same time the co-organizer of the theater festival is the Ursynów Cultural Center 'Alternative'.
Bartłomiej Ostapczuk - festival director.
12.10 Thursday. 19.00 „Voyage Immobile” Teatr Warszawskiego Centrum Pantomimy
13.10 Friday 19.00 „Treny” Teatr Warszawskiego Centrum Pantomimy
14.10 Saturday. 19.00 „IMA” Komoco Company / Sofia Nappi - Włochy
15.10 Sunday. 12.00 „Pani Pani O!” Teatr Mimo
15.10 Sunday 19.00 „Une Histoire vraie” Gato SA Company - Portugalia
Voyage Immobile
Warsaw Mimę Center Company, Poland
At the end of the corridor there is a door. Crazy hope that something would happen, that space would move... But nothing, even less than nothing. A gentle shiver runs through the body of the lying man. A woman sits opposite, day after day, watching for even the slightest sigh. Both suspended in stillness, they invite us on a journey that leads through their joys and fears, laughter and tears, hopes and desires, through their lives...
After producing many joint performances and a break of several years, we are back with a new story. We share with the audience what we are always looking for: truth, life, emotions. We will try to move you and provoke reflection. We have our own bodies, sensitivity and faith in art beyond words at our disposal.
Is it possible for the viewer to experience the emotions that the character experiences? If so, let's call it a theater miracle.
Lionel Menard
Screenplay, director: Lionel Menard
Performers: Paulina Staniaszek, Bartłomiej Ostapczuk
Scenography: Agnieszka Magiera, Lionel Menard
Costumes: Agnieszka Magiera
Music: Jagoda Stanicka
Object animation: Aleksandra Błażejczyk
Lighting director: Jędrzej Skajster
Props, mannequin: Michał Lach
Scenography construction: Kamil Malinowski
Video projections desing: Aleksander Neander
Production: Warsaw Mime Center Foundation, Bartłomiej Ostapczuk
Duration: 65 minutes
The Warsaw Mime Center Theater is a group created by actors who have been associated with the activities of the Warsaw Mime Center for years. The theater's performances are performed by international pantomime creators. By combining the skills of the actors and the imagination and experience of the invited artists, the theater tries to show how much the art of mime has to offer to the modern viewer for whom, despite many years of tradition, Pantomime can often be a wonderful artistic discovery.
Treny
Warsaw Mimę Center Company, Poland
Is it possible to present poetry beyond verbal narrative? Will what is the essence of lyric poetry resonate in the theater, where the actor's conscious silence is the basis of his action? The performance Treny by the Warsaw Mime Center is a meeting of the poetry of words and the poetry of the body, inspired by the work of Jan Kochanowski. It is also a story about a man who, setting out on a journey in search of a lost person, meets himself.
Idea: Ireneusz Domański
Adaptation, script, director: Bartłomiej Ostapczuk
Music: Jagoda Stanicka
Scenography: Bartłomiej Ostapczuk, Kamil Malinowski
Costumes: Anka Jankowska-Wiśnios
Making the scenography more plastic, puppets: Aleksandra Błażejczyk
Starring: Paulina Szczęsna, Aleksandra Błażejczyk, Amanda Nabiałczyk, Aleksandra Gąska, Łukasz Krypa
Fragments of the laments read by: Krzysztof GosztyłaProduction: Jan Kochanowski Museum in Czarnolesie. Co-production: Warsaw Pantomime Center Foundation
Duration: 50 minutes
The Warsaw Mime Center Company is a group created by actors who have been associated with the Warsaw Mime Center for years. The theater's performances are performed by international pantomime creators. By combining the skills of the actors and the imagination and experience of the invited artists, the theater tries to show how much the art of mime has to offer to the modern viewer for whom, despite many years of tradition, Pantomime can often be a wonderful artistic discovery.
IMA
Komoco Theatre / Sofia Nappi, Włochy
IMA
Old people dance happily and a little clumsily, they look like peasants from the countryside in their waistcoats and suspenders. They wear large mask heads, Sofia Nappi's piece irritates by juxtaposing the wrinkled, kind faces and the amazing agility of the bodies to which they belong. Why do we feel like puppets in our own lives sometimes? "IMA" is about the masks behind which our feelings wither away, it is about the baggage we carry with us, which we unpack to sort it again and again, like in a ritual. In the involuntary loneliness of the last years, the young Italian choreographer felt even more intensely how ambitiously we plan for the future, how stubbornly we cling to the past - and how we rarely stand in the midst of the moment. It is precisely this living in the now that her young bodies with the old heads are looking for, these strange figures that seem to come from a far away land, freeing themselves from masks and memories to unite with themselves in the physical sensation of dancing. The masks fall only when we accept ourselves and when we are open to life happening now, to what is new.
In her idiosyncratic style, often sparkling with subtle irony, Nappi places virtuoso punchlines in the increasing dynamics; in her penchant for the grotesque, she draws inspiration both from the gaga nonchalance of Israeli dance and from the rustic gnarliness of the Northern choreographers. "IMA" means the moment in Japanese, in Hebrew the word also stands for mother, associated with birth and renewal. Already with her first works, Sofia Nappi won several awards, most recently the first prize at the International Competition for Choreographers in Hanover, Germany in 2021. "IMA" was commissioned in 2020 by Marie Chouinard as dance director of the Venice Biennale, the full-length version premiered at the Colours International Dance Festival in Stuttgart in 2022.
KOMOCO / SOFIA NAPPI
The international choreographer and dancer from Italy trained at the Ailey School in New York and deepened her studies internationally. The close contact with the Hofesh Shechter Dance Company and her involvement with Ohad Naharin's Gaga language had a particular influence on her work.
Sofia Nappi is artistic director and co-founder of KOMOCO, supported by the contemporary dance collective Sosta Palmizi in Turin and her first muses Adriano Popolo Rubbio and Paolo Piancastelli. Already with her first pieces for KOMOCO / Sofia Nappi, she won the Introdans Partner Award 2021 at the Rotterdam International Duet Choreography Competition 2021 as well as the First Prize, the Critics' Prize and the Production Prize of the Tanja-Liedtke-Stiftung at the 35th International Competition for Choreography Hannover 2021. KOMOCO / Sofia Nappi has performed in Germany, Austria, the USA, Italy, the Netherlands, Israel, France, Albania, Spain, the Canary Islands, Mexico, Kosovo, Belgium and Hungary as well as at numerous Italian and international festivals and dance platforms, including La Biennale Di Venezia, the Albania Meeting Dance Festival, the RomaEuropa Festival, MASDANZA, the COLOURS International Dance Festival in Stuttgart and the Teatro del Canal Madrid.
Concept, choreography: Sofia Nappi
Performed by: Arthur Bouilliol, Leonardo de Santis, Glenda Gheller, India Guanzini, Paolo Piancastelli
Choreographer’s assistant: Adriano Popolo Rubbio
Lights: Alessandro Caso
Costumes: Luigi Formicola
Production: Sosta Palmizi, Komoco/Sofia Nappi
Duration: 50 min
Pan i pani O!
Mimę Theatre , Polska
Mr. O lives on an island made of dreams, memories and forgotten stories. Dreaming about love, he mainly stares at the horizon. He thinks he is alone in the world. Mrs. O lives somewhere far away. Dreaming about love, she mainly stares at the sky. She is convinced that she is alone in the world. One letter received, one moment changes everything. On stage we observe their common events, sometimes funny, sometimes a bit less so. The place where the meeting took place turns out to have its own idea for this couple. It draws the characters into a whirlwind of events that can only lead in one direction. Will they go there together? Mr. and Mrs. Oh! is a visual comedy without words that feeds on the humor and ridiculousness of everyday life.
Script, set design, direction: Bartłomiej Ostapczuk
Music: Mateusz Kacprzak
Costumes: Paulina Staniaszek
Performers: Paulina Szczęsna and Bartłomiej Ostapczuk
Production: Warsaw Pantomime Center Foundation Duration: 45 minutes
Mimo Pantomime Theater was established in 2002.
Founded by Bartłomiej Ostapczuk as a one-actor theater, it quickly transformed into a group. The artistic explorations of the Mimo Theater actors resulted in the development of a characteristic theatrical language in which the artists try to combine the most important elements of the art of key creators and reformers of contemporary pantomime. In their theatrical work, they try to express the essence of feelings and emotions through movement and gesture, without avoiding a bit of absurdity. While maintaining the principles of mime art, they want the only limits to be the limits of their imagination.
Since 2002, the theater has presented 14 premieres. Since 2010, the theater has been staging outdoor performances, believing that the art of pantomime can also fully exist in spaces other than the theater stage. The theater's performances are presented at theater festivals in Poland and abroad. The theater is part of the Warsaw Mime Center.
Une Histoire vraie
Gato SA Company, Portugalia
SYNOPSIS
Pauline returns to her childhood home moved by a distressing question that has been with her for a long time. She revisits the places she keeps in his memory and finds disturbingly revealing signs about her origins. In recent years, she has done a lot of research, looking for clues and now childhood memories merge with factual findings, reports and omens. Piece by piece, Pauline reconstructs the story of her life and sees her greatest fears confirmed; however, she also discovers that, beneath the unnerving image of the Tenardier couple, who raised her as a daughter, there is a hidden and moving manifestation of love. In the end she will have to make a brave decision. Will Pauline be able to avenge her parents' memory and do the justice she claims?
Gato SA
34 years of theatrical activity led GATO, through various paths, to the exploration and discovery of different techniques and expressive languages. However, the importance given to non-verbal communication and the fusion of body expression with dance has always been dominant in most of our shows. The group was already doing physical theater even before knowing that what they were doing could have that name.
“Vai Vem”, staged in 2015, under the direction of the Colombian director Juan Carlos Agudelo, enriched the company's repertoire with a more technical and “silent” proposal, in a country where this language has few followers. This play opened doors to the company's internationalization and created a network of contacts that we want to reinforce with this new production, which, being also a physical theatre without text, now bets on a concrete story and a more narrative process.
The proposal to create a new show presented to the French director Lionel Ménad resulted from admiration for his five previous creations that we staged in Portugal. Three of them were performed by the Warsaw Pantomime Center Theater, and the remaining two with the Czech band of Lenka Vagnerova and the German band Bodecker & Neander Company. The latter won the LITORAL EmCena audience award in 2021. Lionel Ménard, creator of performances with powerful and unforgettable images, took up the challenge by proposing a theme, methodology and process.
The entire project started in Poland a few years ago on the initiative of Bartłomiej Ostapczuk, and is currently being implemented in the Portuguese Santo André thanks to AJAGATO, whose director Mário Primo was like a father to me - kind, encouraging and uncompromising.
Lionel Menard.
Writer and directed by Lionel Ménard
Dramaturgical support : Mário Primo
Cast: Helena Rosa, Mafalda Marafusta, Marina Leonardo, Raul Oliveira,
Rogério Bruno, Tomás Porto
Lights design: Rui Senos
Musical selection: Lionel Menárd
Sound design: João Martinho
Props: Zespół.
Scenography: Helena Rosa, Lionel Ménard, Rita Carrilho
Sceneography carpentry: Natália Terlecka, Pedro Mira
Costumes: Florbela Santos
Production: Ajagato
Additional events:
Mime theater workshops
14/10 Sat. 11.00-14.00
Mime art workshops are a tradition of our festival.
This year, during the 23rd edition of our festival, there will be workshop meetings with Lionel Menard from France. As every year, such meetings show various forms and ways of thinking in the art of theater beyond words.
The workshops are dedicated to people who have been practicing the art of physical theater for years and people who would like to experience the art of mime for the first time.
Place: Ursynów Cultural Center "Alternatives"
Free entrance.
Registration: warsztaty@mimowie.pl
It is possible to participate in the workshops only after receiving e-mail confirmation from the Warsaw Mime Center. The order of applications is decisive. The number of places is limited! Workshops intended for people aged 16 and over.
The language used during classes will be English. 14/10 Sat 17.00
Meetings with Pantomime - on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Marcel Marceau
Free entrance.
Duration approximately 70 minutes.
The idea of the meetings organized every few years is to present the profiles of the most important creators of the art of pantomime theater. We make this possible by talking to actors of theaters that were founded by the heroes of our meetings, students of the schools they ran and theater experts. Invited guests present the concepts of pantomime art developed around the world and share their own experiences of working with masters, often with very large artistic achievements of their own.
Our guest will be Lionel Menard - a French creator of mime theater and visual theater, whose performances can be seen during this year's edition of the festival. You can also take part in theater workshops prepared especially for you.
In 1987, Lionel discovers the figure and art of Marcel Marceau. She spends ten years studying at his school, and later performing in the band and serving as the master's assistant in subsequent theater productions. He spends a week with Michael Jackson and Marcel Marceau preparing "Childhood" for HBO. He joins Philippe Genty's band, with which he gives performances for years to come. He's writing an outline for a Philippe Glass evening at Carnegie Hall. As a choreographer, he works for Jean Paul Gouda and Lea Seydoux. He creates "Bonjour Monsieur Satie" at the Konzerthaus in Berlin and writes and directs performances with the Bodecker & Neander Company from Germany. He is invited to write "performances for the youngest" at the Luxembourg Philharmonic, for which he has been creating various types of performances for many years. In 2013, in Dresden, he met Bartłomiej Ostapczuk, which was a prelude to a long artistic cooperation, which is manifested in 7 completed performances, countless joint workshops and creative activities.
The common feature of all these meetings is that Lionel travels to all four corners of the world. However, the play, which he is very proud of, was performed only once... but he will tell you about it himself.
The talks will be enriched with projections of photos and video recordings from the Lionel Menard archive.
Hosted by Bartłomiej Ostapczuk.
Theater photography exhibition.
12-15/10. 2023 Foyer UCK "Alternatives"
Free entrance.
Maciej Zakrzewski - Photographer, actor, musician, teacher. In particular and most willingly, he photographs theater, dance and broadly understood performative activities. Collaborating with many theaters and cultural institutions throughout the country. Winner of the Medal of Young Art of Głos Wielkopolski 2018, five-time finalist and winner of the Theater Photography Competition organized by the Theater Institute. Zbigniew Raszewski in Warsaw. Member of the international jury of the theater photography competition in Iran (Fadjr Interantional Theater Festival 2018).
Bartłomiej Ostapczuk
Director of the International Mime Art Festival. Actor-mime, director of pantomime theater performances, author of choreography, stage movement, pantomime teacher. Originator and founder of the Warsaw Pantomime Center, Mimo Pantomime Theatre. Manages, implements and creates artistic projects and productions in the field of pantomime theater, visual theater and theater education. Since 2005, he has been running a Pantomime Studio in Warsaw. He is a guest teacher of pantomime theater at theater schools in Poland and abroad. In the years 1998-2001, an actor of the Warsaw Mime Theater and the Mime Studio. He studied theater art in Poland, the USA and Spain.
He has performed on theater stages in Japan, Puerto Rico, the United States, England, Germany, China, Lithuania, Russia, France, Poland, Israel, South Korea, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Spain, New Zealand, Portugal, Luxembourg, Sweden and Norway.
Winner of theater awards and distinctions in Poland and around the world, including:
Grand Prix of the One Actor Theater Festival (W-wa 2003).
Best script and direction - Komediada Festival. Ukraine/Odessia (2014).
In 2020 received the medal of the Mayor of Lublin "in recognition of his achievements in artistic work and for his contribution to the development of the Polish theater scene."
In 2022 winner of the Pro Mazovia medal "For outstanding contributions and overall activity for the Masovian Voivodeship"
In 2023 He was awarded the bronze Medal for Merit to Culture Gloria Artis, awarded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.
Mime Theatre Studio of Bartłomiej Ostapczuk
The classes are based on the contemporary form of mime art, including classical pantomime, elements of the technique of E. Decroux, M. Marceau, comedy and body drama, composition, acting tasks, improvisation, physical theater from the point of view of contemporary mime theater and selected elements of working with props and a broad range of understood as visual theatre.
Studio classes consist of exercises divided into various categories.
From the basic grammar of the body, through its various forms that have appeared over the last few decades, to the completely modern form of pantomime theater.
The work during classes involves, among other things, analyzing movement, our emotional states and the way we show them. The art of pantomime theater is not theater without words, it is theater that functions beyond words, thus giving the actor unlimited possibilities of expression.
People most involved in the Studio's activities are invited to participate in projects implemented by the Warsaw Mime Center.
The Pantomime Studio offers classes for people of various levels of advancement. We also invite people who have not had any contact with pantomime theater before.
Additional events
14.10 g.11.00-14.00 Workshops on the art of mime with Lionel Menard - France14.10 g. 17.00 Meetings with Pantomime/ 100th anniversary of the birth of Marcel Marceau - Lionel Menard
12-15.10 Exhibition of pantomime theater photographs - Maciej Zakrzewski
More details: