International project of the Art Factory in Łódź

Mutual knowledge, searching for creative inspiration and what we have in common despite cultural differences. In cooperation with Norway and Iceland, the Art Factory in Łódź invites for a dozen events in the fields of theatre, music and audiovisual arts.

ACT IN_OUT is the first such far-reaching and international project of the Art Factory in Łódź. Its partners are prestigious institutions – the Sláturhúsið Art Institute (MMF) in Egilsstaðir, the National Dance Theatre from Bergen and the Visjoner Theatre in Oslo. The curators of the project have created a multidisciplinary, rich program of events – concerts of independent groups, literary and musical shows and spectacles, seminars for music and theatre managers and producers as well as training activities. The first events took place in Iceland. The Mengi club in Reykjavik hosted the Distort Visual band with its RENDER project, and Jacek Doroszenko and Rafał Kołacki, i.e. Mammoth Ulthana, performed in Seyðisfjörður in the East Fjords. Stefan Kornacki has also embarked on an artistic journey through Iceland. This multidisciplinary artist has created an archive of emotions of the inhabitants of Egilsstaðir. The video installation entitled “Stock for Future: Emotions” can be viewed on the following website www.actinout.pl.

Portion of art for the summer

The Icelandic artists will arrive in Łódź already this summer. In August, the Polish audience will have an opportunity to participate in a project, which is the result of a stay of the Icelandic duo Unfiled. Atli Bollason and Guðmundur Úlfarsson experiment and improvise together by performing audiovisual and static interpretations of pieces of music. Their intention in the Art Factory will be to further develop creative processes in order to end up with an audiovisual composition to be performed live. Thematically, their work focuses on information overload and breakdown of the process of meaning. Signs and symbols are torn apart as a result of manipulating the signal chain to hide the traditional meaning or to reveal hidden associations. The final effect of their stay will be an audiovisual installation referring to the post-industrial architecture of the Art Factory.

The first event in the theatre section will be the première of the “Ragnarok” play directed by Adrian Bartczak, associated with the Norwegian Carte Blanche Dance Company; it’s a story about a perfect non-ideality of a human being living in the perfect world. The dynamics of the modern world, mutual connections, intertwining of values and the ongoing globalisation processes provoke the authors of the performance to ask questions about identity, understood as a diversified individual and collective process. In their work, standing on the border of an end and a new beginning, they are looking for those, who go further, draw new maps and indicate new directions. The performance will be an opening of the RETROPERSPEKTYWY International Theatre Festival, 19 August 2022, the Art_Inkubator stage, the Art Factory in Łódź.

Thanks to ACT IN_OUT and LDZ Alternatywa joining forces, this summer we will have the opportunity to listen to the best Icelandic artists, who will come and play on an open-air scene at ul. Tymienieckiego 3 in Łódź. The first one will be the already mentioned Atli Bolltarson, who will play a concert on 4 August. Another artist is K.óla, i.e. Katrín Helga Ólafsdóttir. The 24-year-old artist from Hafnarfjörður in Iceland is a member of the Post-dreifing art collective. She has released two albums with her dream-pop band named Milkhouse Baratís í Paradís and two own albums. In 2016, she created a soundtrack for a theatrical play based on a dystopian book of George Orwell – “1984”, and an album entitled “Glasmanía”. Costumes, graphics and playing with sound – all this is to make a meeting with the artist not only a dose of excellent musical impressions, but also a great entertainment. Her concert in the Art Factory in Łódź is scheduled for July. In the first half of August, the ACT IN_OUT musical scene will also host Countess Malaise. Thanks to her well-established presence on the underground Icelandic rap scene, this artist is invited to alternative and queer places all around Europe and performs on such events as Sónar Reykjavík. In her creations, Malaise puts a strong emphasis on audiovisual consistency and on lyrical, performative and visual elements. Despite this, her performances are far from shallow aesthetics; they very often touch topics generally considered as taboo, such as the unsparing criticism of the culture of rape.

In September, another Polish band will perform in Iceland. An electro-acoustic duo T’ien Lai created by Łukasz Jędrzejczak and Kuba Ziołek, who have performed in the Art Factory on several occassions, e.g. alongside Innercity Ensamble and Alameda 5, will perform in Reykjavik. During the concert in September, the band will be accompanied by one of the most interesting improvising drummers of the middle-aged generation, Jakub Janicki, associated with the band of Wojtek Mazolewski. Other artists will also begin their stay in Iceland: Arszyn (Krzysztof Topolski) – drummer, electro-acoustic improviser and author of soudart projects, and Joanna Skowrońska, who will conduct an open-throat singing workshop.

ACT IN_OUT 2023

In 2023, actors of the CHOREA Theatre in Łódź will travel to Norway, where they will show an awarded performance entitled “Szczelina” directed by Tomasz Rodowicz. In the third theatrical module in 2023, the Art Factory in Łódź will host a new international production of its partner from Bergen – a small performance of the dance theatre. At the same time, during the RETROSPEKTYWY festival the Visioner Theater from Oslo will present the result of a two-year cooperation between outstanding jazz musicians from Norway, traditional musicians from those cultural circles as well as Polish jazz musicians and singers of the CHOREA theatre. The original music composed by Tomasz Krzyżanowski will build a space for the meeting of poetry of two most prominent poets from Poland and Norway: our Nobel Prize winner Wisława Szymborska and Olaf Hauge. The whole will be professionally registered in a studio in Łódź and re-performed in a form of a concert in Oslo in autumn 2023.

But this is not all. The effect of implementation of the ACT IN_OUT project will be a publication of a common catalogue of the Art Factory and Sláturhúsið, referring to the post-industrial past of both places, which have gained a new culture-making function. Learning activities for children and teenagers as well as seminars for music and theatre managers and producers are also planned for the next and subsequent years.

Detailed information about the events and activities can be found on the website of the project – www.actinout.pl.

The ACT IN_OUT project is financed by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway as part of the EOG and Norwegian funds. Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Co-financed by the City of Łódź Office.

Watch the movie “Stock For Future”, the result of a 17-day artistic residency as part of the ACT IN_OUT project: https://fb.watch/euCgpqfwkW/