Due to its ongoing remodelling, Święty Marcin is a street that most Poznań dwellers steer clear of and only visit when absolutely necessary. Its intersection with al. Niepodległości will not be restored to full functionality any time soon. For the time being though, we suggest you ignore what you see and shift your focus to what you can hear, and specifically to violin music, which once again will resound in Poznań as the city turns into the world capital of violin.
Fifteen years ago, the Ukrainian Spring Festival of Culture would only draw Eastern scholars, students of Ukrainian philology and members of the small local Ukrainian community. With every successive edition, audiences grew more numerous as more Ukrainian people settled in Poland. This year's edition, set to begin seven months after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, marks another watershed.
Poznań Design Festival organisers see design as a way of thinking and creatively solving social and environmental problems. This attracts the attention of people interested in design. The festival's upcoming edition is scheduled to take place in late September and early October.
Poznań's I.J. Paderewski Academy of Music will hold its fifth edition of the International Piano Competition in memory of Halina Czerny-Stefańska. The event will coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of the competition's patron who is esteemed as an iconic Polish pianist.
An unmistakeable element of perversity comes across in the title of an exhibition coming on view in the Zamek (Castle) Cultural Centre on 10 September. It has been named The Triumph of Colour: French graphic masterpieces from the late 19th and early 20th centuries from the collection of the National Museum in Kraków. Although the predominance of colour identifies more readily with paintings than graphics from that period, colour, of all things, is what has become the focal point of this latest display curated by Krystyna Kulig-Janarek.
Hans von Bülow, conductor, pianist, and composer, and, in his personal life, Richard Wagner's father-in-law, described Verdi's Messa da Requiem as "an opera disguised in liturgical vestments", accusing the author of utterly corrupting the Italian style. In stark contrast to von Bülow, Brahms regarded Verdi's composition as a work of genius.
Whenever reggae and ragga blend with acoustic rock, funk and hip-hop, wonders tend to happen. The kind that today, in times so trying for our eastern neighbours, are desperately needed. This is no news to one of them, Sergiy Babkin, a singer, guitarist, actor, and co-founder of the popular 5'nizza duo, who will take the stage at the Zamek (Castle) Cultural Centre to sing the songs he recorded with Andrei Zaporozhets and especially his solo pieces.
Poznań Old Jazz Festival will convince even the most sceptical that jazz can grow on everyone.
Looming ahead is the sixth edition of the Music in a Well series of old (Renaissance and Baroque) music concerts held in townhouses and townhouse courtyards in the Wilda district of Poznań by youth city's musicians specialising in historical renditions.
The last holiday weekend of the summer is a major celebration for Poznań's fortification buffs. All sorts of military facilities will made available to the public morning to evening.
Decorative lamps in front of the Warsaw building of the Zachęta National Gallery of Art, bars for the windows of the Poznań Ballet School, the City Hall and the Arsenal Gallery, and an abstract geometric composition called Victory in the Citadel Park are just a few of the many examples of Julian Boss-Gosławski's art. The sculptor's works, including pieces from his Epidemic series, the sculptures Hiroshima and County Battleship, and items from the National Museum of Poznań and private collections will be on display in the Piekary Gallery starting on 19 August.
A feast of folk costume colours always makes the audiences smile involuntarily. Many opportunities to smile and savour traditions and folklore from different parts of the world will be provided during the 20th anniversary edition of the Integrations World Folklore Review.
Her name comes up in all consequential studies on the Polish avant-garde alongside those of such greats as Katarzyna Kobro, Władysław Strzemiński, and Henryk Stażewski. And yet, the work of Maria Nicz-Borowiakowa has never been recognised in a dedicated all-encompassing debate or presentation.
In October 1979, Władysław Rut set out to shoot a series of photographs portraying Poland's mountains in autumn. He traveled the trails of the Pieniny and Tatra Mountains from a base camp in Nowy Targ. He had a companion, his teenage granddaughter Anna, who would later, in 2021, submit the stereo photographs as she answer a call from the Posnania Municipal Publishing House whose Poznań Fotoplastykon was collecting material for its "Making an exhibition together" project. The resulting collection is currently on view at the Fotoplastykon's venue.
I will always be fond of Bamber Day. It was during one of the Bamber Day events that I met the future protagonists of my photo exhibition, who were folklore enthusiasts and with whom I have remained in touch to this day. This year's Bamber Day will be part of a bigger Poznań Traditions Festival scheduled for 5-7 August.
By all indications, this summer in Wielkopolska is going to abound in cultural events. More plentiful than usual, they promise to satisfy a public culture-deprived by covid.
This year's edition of Animator promises to feature more than 300 animated films in its competitions and various other sections. The festival will offer meetings with artists, animation workshops for kids, and a visit to Spain. The dates of this celebration of Polish and world animation, to be held in Poznań for the 15th time, is fast approaching.
It is hard to even imagine spending the holiday season in Poznań without the #NaFalach series of free outdoor concerts. The previous editions, which have been held since 2019 but skipped 2020 due to covid, featured numerous events that showed that, far from being a cultural dead season, summer in Poznań offers hosts of possibilities to delve into the world of music in your off time and to do it outdoors. This year's July concerts by Luxtorpeda, Sorry Boys, LemON and Happysad will be no exception.
As it does every summer, the time has come to enjoy the Letnie Brzmienia (Summer Sounds) event held in Stary Browar (Old Brewery) Park and its outdoor concerts by Poland's top artists of recent years. The upcoming July line-up features Tymek, Brodka, Natalia Przybysz, Mery Spolsky and Sanah. And this is not all - the list of stars scheduled to appear in Poznań this year goes on and on.
"The festival has no direct impact on the world: it does not work on a state border or fight on the frontlines in a war, but, like most of us, it can make a difference from behind the scenes", say the organisers of this year's Malta festival in their programme statement. They encourage us all to join ranks with them behind the scenes.
