TZADIK POZNAŃ FESTIVAL 17-19 LIPCA 2009
This is, already, the third edition of the Tzadik Poznań Festival. I should, in fact, say only the third, because we have just emerged from infancy. Nevertheless, I do hope the Festival has already managed to clearly establish its identity.
By referring to certain symbols that were shaped by history, we are trying to show the complete face of Jewish culture both the culture whose chapters have already been written, as well as those which are happening now; both those created in the Diaspora, as well as those formed in modern-day Israel.
The symbols that mutually define the scope of this culture are diverse. They include places (the first edition of the Festival was held in a very special place, the building of the former synagogue which the Nazis converted into an indoor swimming pool that operates to date); books (the poetical performance Word Sacred, Word Damned, featuring Ewa Lipska, Ryszard Krynicki, Piotr Matywiecki and the musicians Mateusz and Marek Pospieszalski; a meeting with Agnieszka Sabor, the author of the book Sztetl. Śladami żydowskich miasteczek); images (two parts of Yossi Lamels exhibition: Yossi Lamel, Retrospecitve and Heart of Mine (Serce moje) at the National Museum; film screenings that have accompanied the Festival from the very beginning: the first edition presented films with John Zorns music and the second showed a review of movies awarded at the 5th Jewish Motifs Film Festival) and, finally, music which constitutes the fundament of the Festivals programme. For the first edition of the Festival, John Zorn, one of the greatest personalities in music of the 20th and the 21st century, created a premiere project called the Masada Quintet (a quartet featuring Uri Caine as the guest star). Poznań has also staged the shows of musicians from the USA, Israel, the UK, and France, as well as, of course, Poland, who comprise the modern neo-klezmer genre. For many of them this was their first visit in Poland and some of them came here with their most recent projects.
It is here in Poznań that one can explicitly see a group of strongly involved Polish people who do not want to assent to the lowering of cultural standards. These peoples seek authentic and powerful artistic encounters that often go completely unnoticed in the media. Their fascination with the world stems from the Jagiellonian traditions of Poland, an ethnically open country.
Tomasz Konwent, Festival Curator