In December, another part of the cultural project Niepodległa bez granic: Pol(s)ka w Japonii 2021 (Poland Without Borders: Poland in Japan 2021) will premiere online on December 18 and 28, 2021.
Niepodległa bez granic: Pol(s)ka w Japonii has been created thanks to the long-term cooperation of the Amareya Theatre&Guests team with the Japanese artistic and academic community, as well as with Polish institutions, organizations and representatives of art and culture.
It is a project initiated in 2019 by dr Katarzyna Pastuszak, from the Performing Arts Research Unit of the Institute of English and American Studies of the Faculty of Philology of the University of Gdańsk. Its aim is an artistic and cultural dialogue between Poland and Japan.
- 'The project is also a space for personal narratives touching upon the themes of identity, nomadism and rootedness, as well as a place for exchanging experiences in the field of engaged art and the presence of women in culture,' - explains dr Katarzyna Pastuszak, who is responsible, together with mgr Natalia Chylińska, a graduate of Cultural Studies UG, for the artistic concept and coordination of the project.
The project Niepodległa bez granic: Pol(s)ka w Japonii is a continuation of the scientific and artistic experiments of dr Katarzyna Pastuszak. Her doctoral dissertation entitled AnkokubutōHijikataTatsumi - body theatre-in-crisis, devoted to contemporary phenomena in Japanese performing arts was published in 2014 by Universitas Publishing House. The next year 2022, its chapter on the artistic strategies and practices of Amareya Theatre&Guests will be published in DecolonizingFutures - Collaborations for New IndigenousHorizons edited by prof. Hiroshi Maruyama- the main partner of the project.
This year's edition of the project - Niepodległa bez granic: Pol(s)ka w Japonii 2021 included two theatre premieres (Anatomie, which took place on December 12, and Requiem for Ajnu and Kamui), as well as a nomadic intermedia exhibition entitled Mówi ONNA and accompanying events.
18.12.2021 / Opening of the nomadic exhibition ‘Mówi ONNA’
18.00 (JAP) / 10.00 (PL): online exhibition opening
The starting point from which the first thought about ‘Mówi ONNA’ emerged were the herstories of women from the Ainu minority.
19.00 (JAP) / 11.00 (PL): a conversation with the artists transmitted online on Facebook and Youtube.
Moderated by: Sylwia Chutnik. Artists: Joanna Borof, Natalia Chylinska, Karolina Jóźwiak, KyōkoKagaya, Tsugumi
Matsudaira, KimikoNaraki, Katarzyna Pastuszak, Beata Sosnowska, YoshikoSaitō, Aleksandra Śliwińska, RyōkoTahara.
www.mowionna.com (website will be activated on the opening day of the exhibition).
28.12.2021 / Requiem for Ajnu and Kamui:
Requiem for Ajnu and Kamui are stretched in time performativenesite interventions
specific in a collective, intercontinental ritual.
In their actions, Ajnu women will excavate fragments of the history of AinuMosir (literally: Land of
people), erased from the landscape as a result of colonisation efforts undertaken by the
Japanese.
19.00 (JAP) / 11.00 (PL): - online premiere of video recording of site-specific performance
Concept: Amareya Theatre, prof. Hiroshi Maruyama, MenokoMosmos (Association of Ajnu Women)
Directed by: Katarzyna Pastuszak, Natalia Chylińska. Portraits of Ajnu women: Beata Sosnowska. Video and editing: Tomoaki Fujino, Piotr Nykowski. Performances: Natalia Chylinska, Kyōko Kagaya, Tsugumi Matsudaira, Kimiko Naraki,Katarzyna Pastuszak, Yoshiko Saitō, Aleksandra Sliwinska, Ryōko Tahara. Music: Natalia Chylinska (white singing, Polish songs in a contemporary arrangement),traditional songs of the Ainu with the use of traditional instruments: Kyōko Kagaya,Tsugumi Matsudaira, Kimiko Naraki, Yoshiko Saitō.
The premiere of the video recording of the activities will be presented online on Youtube.
The entire project is carried out in collaboration with Japanese art institutions and centres: Centre for Environmental and Minority Policy Studies (Sapporo), Yokohama International Performing Arts Meeting (Tokyo), Hokkaido-Poland CultureAssociation (Sapporo), Sapporo Freedom School (Sapporo), Hokkaido University (Sapporo), TokyoBabylonTheatre (Tokyo), AinuWomenAssociation (Sapporo).
Honorary patronage: Mayor of Gdańsk, Marshall of Pomeranian Voivodship. Media patronage: TVP Kultura, Notes Na 6 Tygodni, Didaskalia, Kultura Enter, TORII
Subsidised under the 2017-2022 NIEPODLEGŁA Multiannual Programme, as part of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute's ‘Kulturalne pomosty’ grant programme.
Amareya Theatre was founded in 2003 in Gdańsk and has operated under the name AmareyaTheatre&Guests since 2012. The core of the company consists of Katarzyna Pastuszak, Natalia Chylińska, Aleksandra Śliwińska. The theatre's most important productions are: ‘Anatomie’ (2021, N. Chylińska, K. Pastuszak), ‘Dom-Bieg-Dom’ (2020, N. Chylinska, K. Pastuszak) ‘(Po)głosy: Pomosty między Polską i Japonią’ (2019, dir. K. Pastuszak, music: Natalia Chylińska), ‘Four’ (2018, directed by M. Herich, co-produced by Teatr A Part and Teatr Amareya), ‘Kantor_Tropy: COLLAGE’ (2016, dir. K. Pastuszak, music: J. Duda), ‘Nomadka’ (2012; dir. K. Pastuszak). Amareya's productions are regularly presented at festivals in Poland and abroad, and their common feature is a critical interest in the body as a subject and object of performative activities and a carrier of meanings. Since 2017, Amareya Theatre has continued its collaboration with the Ajnu Women's Association (Sapporo) and the Centre for Environmental and Minority Policy Studies - CEMiPoS led by prof. Hiroshi Maruyama (Sapporo), creating performances with the participation of Ajnu women and working to support minorities.
