The 27th edition of Malta Festival Poznań will take place from 16 to 25 June, the BALKANS PLATFORM idiom will introduce the audience to the subject of the Balkans. The journey through the meanders of social and cultural meanings, in all their ethnic and political complexity, will be steered far away from stereotypes about the countries of Former Yugoslavia. The “Balkans Platform” idiom, curated by Oliver Frljić – a Croatian theatrical director and Goran Injac – the artistic director of the Slovenian Youth Theatre, is aimed at deconstructing and disenchanting the historical phantasms and our imaginary Balkans.
We tried to construct a conceptual program, to limit theatricality to the minimum. We are playing with stereotypes, acting as counterpoint to the received preconceptions about the Balkans. In 1990s there was a strong discourse of Balkans as a bad place. Balkans started being perceived as a place you don’t want to be in, opposed to the so called positive political identity of the West. (…) I grew up in 1990s, in the heyday of the nationalist movement, which had previously destroyed my country. I saw what people do in the name of love of a nation, and it made me revolt deeply against these types of ideas. Goran Injac
The title “The Balkans Platform “ may be read as a warning against the negative aspects of balkanisation. (…) Our program is very risky. It is to make you discover new things, and not to confirm something you already know, or you think you know. The work which will be presented on this year’s Malta festival will prove that the the Balkans may also be a sort of incubator for the revision of thinking about social, artistic and political reality around us. Oliver Frljić
The invited artists will present the festival audience with modern art created by artists originating from Former Yugoslavia. The program will feature a play by the curator Oliver Frljić “Turbofolk”, inspired by the combination of folk melodies with techno and dance. Soldiers listened to it during the war, and the lyrics fuelled nationalism. We will also see “The Republic of Slovenia” which takes us back to the Balkan wars when the political mafia with its hands deep in the illegal arms trade loomed large in the region, as well as the performative presentation of the works of the Janez Janša collective.
The Balkan performative and theatrical program will be supplemented by screenings of films of the Yugoslavian cinema avant-garde, the so called “black wave” of 1960s and 70s. For the first time in Poland we will get to watch films by the Serbian director Želimir Žilnik.
Moreover, for the fifth time a row the heart of the festival will be beating on Liberty Square. Malta Generator will feature and extensive program of open air plays and concerts, silent disco evenings, workshops and meetings.
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