Duchy Teatru / The Spirits of the Theatre

opens: midday, 8 December

For the celebration of 250 years of public theatre in Poland, the Łaźnia Nowa Theatre proposes a project on Duchy Teatru / The Spirits of the Theatre, providing a particular tale of the people hidden in the wings of the theatre, and the products of their craft.

The exhibition held during the Boska Komedia / Divine Comedy Festival crowns the reflection about those without whom the magic of the theatre could not come to be: technicians, sound engineers, technicians, costume supervisors, and many other people participating in the complex processes of building the play. We show what is frequently inaccessible to theatregoers, we present those who usually remain invisible, we ‘return to the things themselves’ trying to portray the different lives of objects that in the theatre are common to the point of transparency.

The interactive exhibition composed of a multimedia installation, 3-D projections, photo collages and the phonosphere is more than just an attempt at showing how fascinating an organism theatre is but it is also an invitation to experience it together, following Merleau-Ponty’s idea that ‘perception is not a question of intellectual contemplation, but of active connection to things’.

Curator: Bartosz Szydłowski

Concept and arrangement: Małgorzata Szydłowska

3-D videos: Przemysław Fik, camera operator Paweł Labe, editing: Przemek Celiński

Photographs: Małgorzata Szydłowska, Tomasz Wiech

Video animations: Dawid Kozłowski

Time-lapse film production: Alek Trafas

Interactive installation: Małgorzata Szydłowska, Bartosz Szydłowski

Lighting design: Sławomir Matysik

Sound editing: Rafał Szumny

Visual design: Zbyszek Prokop

The photo sessions were conducted in the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków, Groteska Theatre, Łaźnia Nowa Theatre, Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, the Polski Theatre in Bydgoszcz, and the Wybrzeże Theatre in Gdańsk.

Dramas recorded in time-lapse technique:

Klątwa, odcinki z czasu beznadziei / Curse, Episodes from the Time of Helplessness dir. by Monika Strzępka – The Łaźnia Nowa Theatre / IMKA Theatre

Klub Miłośników Filmu Misja / The Mission Fan Club, dir. by Bartosz Szydłowski – The Łaźnia Nowa Theatre

Koncert życzeń / Request Concert, dir. by Yana Ross – The Łaźnia Nowa Theatre / Divine Comedy / TR Warszawa

Wejście smoka. Trailer / Enter the Dragon. Trailer., dir. by Bartosz Szydłowski – The Łaźnia Nowa Theatre