Idea

International Theatre Festival Retroperspektywy 2021

Meeting / Community / Celebration

20th - 29th of August 2021

CHOREA Theatre / Art Factory / LODZ / POLAND

 

International Theatre Festival Retroperspektywy 2021: Meeting / Community / Celebration, is going to take place between 20th and 29th August 2021, in one of the key venues on the cultural map of the city of Łódź i.e. revitalised factory premises of Fabryka Sztuki / Art Factory.

The theme of the year 2021 edition of the Festival will be the formation of artistic community, the question of the artist’s responsibility in relation to the digitalisation of our life and human relations, finally the need of celebration and participation in the gatherings as being still alive and conveying the original theatre function. 

There have been theatrical groups and performative arts representatives invited to participate in the development process of this year's edition, for whom the artistic ensemble, theatrical group, creative collective constituting the community of interacting creations, anxiety, questions and concerns of human being of today is the essence of their artistry and a basic tool of communication among one another and the audience. 

The festival program list is also a representation of the deliberations on the obligatory isolation, “the artificialisation” of our relationships and “the pixelisation” of the sensitivity, as well as uncertainty and the fear which is the opposite to celebration. It is a search for and development of new ways which will allow us to maintain creativity, vitality and passion.  

We invited the creators who through their artistry refer to the oldest function of performative arts - celebration - in the meaning of something extraordinary and pleasing - a meeting or holiday time. It is a celebration bringing new reality to the viewers - happiness and hope rather than chaos and destruction. 

We are inviting the participants of our events to create islands - communities, at least for the duration of the festival. We encourage them to find the sense and lodestars together. It is only now - in the face of the real threat of human existence on this planet - that these themes start to be clearly visible in the art of 21st century and have been dominant in our research for the past decade. 

We are based in Fabryka Sztuki / Art Factory in Lodz which is an excellent venue proven to offer best meeting space for the mentioned groups and creators. The entire time of CHOREA Theatre’s activity to date has been an evidence of them being consequent in their search of values, sense and hope the in art itself.

 

 

The International Theatre Festival Retroperspektywy (RPS) is held cyclically since 2010 in Fabryka Sztuki at 3 Tymienieckiego Street in Lodz. Having the form of a festival, it offers the most attractive theatre and dance proposals from Poland and other parts of the world. The event can be charaterized by high professionalism of performers, uniqueness and coherence of the programme, availability to a wide and diversified audience, rich offer of workshops and meetings with eminent authors of theatre arts.  

During last 11 years (throughout 7 editions of the Retroperspektywy Festival and 2 editions of the Perspektywy Festival) more then 100 performances and concerts as well as 40 workshops took place. 350 invited guests from more than 15 countries (including USA, India, Sweden, Great Britain, Norway, Portugal, Belarus) showed up at our venue along with 30.000 spectators and participants. We want to consistently continue with our development, which has been occurring for a couple of years now, and organize yet another edition of the international festival to invite outstanding artists with their theatre, dance and music performances. We will make it possible for the audience to take part in the World of Theatre whose main aim is a discourse on contemporary reality as well as a search for original means of artistic expression. Long-time consistency of getting through to various social groups (intellectuals, people from underserved communities, elderlies, students, youth, families with children) and building festival audience development contributed to the event being popular and widely recognized on the cultural map of Lodz. Festival goes beyond regular undertakings of CHOREA Theatre and it allows to put on performances by Polish and international artists who deal with the art of theatre and dance. It is an excuse and an extraordinary chance for performances that CHOREA Theatre co-creates with international theatres and artists. An important idea, that promotes the festival from the very beginning, is creating a bridge between searching novices and stage masters, between tradition and avant-garde.