Malta gives us the chance to meet the stars we love and respect.

First of all, Malta will become a haven for artists who, just like the festival's organisers, believe that art and culture change reality. Tim Robbins, the Oscar-winning actor best known, among others, for "The Shawshank Redemption", will visit Poland for the first time. He will come to Poznań with the Greek vaudeville "Topsy Turvy", of which he is the director. His ensemble, the Actor's Gang, has already earned the acclaim of Los Angeles audiences, but it does not content itself with glitz. Their activities also reach out to prisoners, whom the artists regularly pay visits in US detention centres. During the dedicated meetings and after-talks with Tim Robbins scheduled for after the performances, the audience will have the opportunity to learn more about their social activism.

Malta's strength has always lied in theatre and opera, and this is not about to change.

The Malta 2024 agenda therefore features exceptional, internationally acclaimed performances that, alongside the beauty of the artistic form, push us to reflect on nature. The very first weekend of the festival will feature Anne Theresa de Keersmaeker and Raduana Mrizinga, making their return to the Malta Festival with their latest premiere (Kunstenfestivaldesarts, May 2025) based upon Vivaldi's "Four Seasons". What connected the creators was a fascination with nature, geometry and concerns about the increasingly worrying human impact on the environment. Their choreographic interpretation of the admiration for the changeability of nature's seasons, expressed through the contemplation of Vivaldi's compositions, not only encourages drawing inspiration from nature in art, but also prompts reflection on the ongoing climate crisis. In "Il Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Inventione", to be seen on September 8 and 9 in Poznań, the artists ask the following question: do we still have four seasons?

"Sun&Sea", an atmospheric opera created by Lina Lapelyte, Vaiva Grainyte and Rugile Barzdziukaite, has toured the major festivals of New York, Paris, Lisbon, London or Singapore after winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, and will finally unveil its beach in Poland as part of the Malta Festival.

"Sun&Sea" means a one-of-a-kind spectacle that the audience enjoys watching from the mezzanine floor, gazing at an artificial beach made of several tonnes of sand. As the performers sunbathe on stage, they deliver a series of engaging stories, striking a balance between the mundane and the surreal. From the extensive narrative of their lives emerges
a piercing insight into the modern world and the intricate relationship between humans and our planet. The festival audience is welcome to attend this unique performance on September 14-15 at the Poznań International Fair.

In no way could the Malta Festival be missing Krzysztof Warlikowski and the Nowy Teatr (New Theatre), which will come to Poznań with its latest premiere entitled "Elizabeth Costello. Seven Lectures and Five Moral Tales". The play pays tribute to the heroine created by Nobel laureate John Maxwell Coetzee, who, through his novels, raises important philosophical, ecological, social and existential issues, speaks and appeals to people's consciences about the fate of animals, social inequalities and the exclusion of the elderly or crippled. The premiere, of which the Malta Festival is a co-producer, will reach Poznań shortly after touring Athens, Barcelona and the Festival d'Avignon, where the performance will be showcased in the legendary courtyard of the Palace of the Popes.

Malta will spread across Poznań.

Not only does this year's Malta Festival take us by surprise with novelties, but it also returns to its roots, creating a space of joy, shared discovery and the experience of shared memories. The streets, squares and plazas of Poznań from the very first day of the festival will be full of artists and art at its finest. They will feature, among others, "Dominoes", which is a several-kilometre-long mobile installation made up of thousands of giant domino cubes that will criss-cross streets, parks, schools, shopping centres, courtyards, or the local kebab house, building a community of curiosity and responsibility for an ephemeral creation. The event will enchant the centre of Poznań on 7 September.

Plac Wolności, on the other hand, will be transformed into a giant painting studio, where Compagnie Lucamuros will set up a huge easel: the stage for the open-air, art and music performance "Gaugin's Turtle", a show preferably enjoyed with the whole family. It goes without saying that the heart of the festival will beat on the Malta River, where L.U.C. & Rebel Babel Film Orchestra, accompanied by invited artists, will play music from the film "The Peasants" and raise a toast "To Love" in outdoor settings. On the same evening the Australian duo Hollow Coves is set to perform on the same stage. There will be more open-air concerts and the music will once again engage the people of Poznań in the rhythm of the festival.

"Anyone who has visited the Malta Festival at least once is aware of the exceptional nature of the event, not only on the scale of our country. This is why I am happy and proud to carry on this remarkable initiative, which for more than 30 years has been the pride of my home town. Come to Malta!", urges Dominika Kulczyk, whose production company Dflights and the Kulczyk Foundation are the festival's main organisers.

For more, see: Malta Festival 2024 website

materials made available by the organizer: Malta Festival

• Malta Festival 2024
  
• 7 September - 15 September,
• venues across the city,
• tickets: eBilet