From 4th to 13th October 2024, the Marek Edelman Dialogue Centre in Łódź invites you to the Łódź of Many Cultures Festival. The festival is the most important celebration of urban culture in Łódź. The 23rd edition will be held in a new form – under a changed name and in a formula based on a broad understanding of what the contemporary multiculturalism of Łódź is. This year's Festival will be inaugurated by a concert of the World Orchestra. Grzech Piotrowski "WE", which is a strong voice of artists from all over the globe carrying a message of peace beyond divisions.
The Łódź of Many Cultures Festival (since 2002 the Dialogue of Four Cultures Festival and in the years 2009-2023 the Łódź of Four Cultures Festival) came into being almost a quarter of a century ago – at a time when Łódź was recovering from the economic and social crisis caused by the painful process of transformation. The festival restored the citizens' pride in their city and proved to the visitors that Łódź is a unique place whose original culture is still waiting to be discovered and appreciated. He recalled that the history of Łódź was created by Jews, Germans, Poles, Russians and representatives of many other nations. It was a celebration of diversity and intercultural dialogue.
For more than two decades of the Festival, the character of the urban community in Lodz has been changing – the streets are becoming multilingual again, as they were a century ago. Other hitherto marginalized communities are asking for a voice and visibility in the democratic polis.
At the same time, our understanding of culture is changing as the world changes. Today, cultural identity cannot be associated only with a sense of belonging to an ethnic, national or religious community. That is why the organizers want to present contemporary Łódź as a space where not only Ukrainian, Polish and Roma cultures coexist and intermingle, but also feminist, queer, folk, people with disabilities, ecological, children's and youth culture.
As every year, the Festival will be a place of meeting and collaboration for artistic people representing a wide spectrum of creative disciplines: from theater, performance, film, literature, through music, visual arts, to various forms of artistic activism. Large cultural institutions, local non-profit organizations will open their doors to festival audiences, as well as places that are not obvious for the presentation of cultural events. It will be an opportunity to meet artists of international renown as well as people important for their work in the Lodz community.
The substantive and artistic shape of the Łódź of Many Cultures 2024 Festival is supervised by a programme team consisting of: Agata Siwiak, Jarosław Suchan, Marcin Tercjak, Joanna Podolska-Płocka, Kamila Majchrzycka-Szymańska, Aleksandra Shaya, Karolina Krauze-Strzelec, Anna Mrozińska-Szmajda. The author of the new graphic identity is the Fajne Chłopaki graphic studio from Łódź.
"WE" World Orchestra. Grzech Piotrowski - opening concert of the Łódź of Many Cultures Festival
On the 4th of October at 8.00 p.m. in Klub Wytwórnia (ul. Łąkowa 29) we will hear the concert of the "WE" World Orchestra. Grzech Piotrowski. World Orchestra is an international music project which is a collision of world music with symphony orchestra, jazz, folk and film music. The orchestra, whose originator and leader is Grzech Piotrowski, is made up of several dozen people of different nationalities, who are often virtuosos of unusual instruments.
The Łódź of Many Cultures Festival is the time for the reactivation of the World Orchestra in a new format under the meaningful title 'WE'. The 'WE' project, which is being created especially for the Festival, will be a strong voice of artists from around the globe carrying a message of peace across divides. The matter that Grzech Piotrowski will tackle oscillates around the growing problems of the contemporary world. That is why the WE project is in line with the Festival's assumptions related to building a community of reflective and feeling people, co-responsible for the future of our planet.
On the stage in Łódź's Wytwórnia we will see several dozen world-renowned musicians representing many cultures (also from regions affected by conflicts and warfare), among others from Norway, Hungary, Poland, Brazil, Germany, Palestine, Israel, Ukraine, Kuwait and the Czech Republic.
More information about 'WORLD ORCHESTRA. Grzech Piotrowski" can be found at: www.worldorchestra.com. Pre-sale tickets for the concert can be purchased until 5 May 2024 at: https://www.bilety24.pl/koncert/1143-world-orchestra-grzech-piotrowski-we-koncert-otwarcia-festiwalu-lodz-wielu-kultur-103380?id=576113
------------------------
The Łódź of Many Cultures Festival is co-financed by a grant from the City of Łódź in the amount of PLN 620,000 and subsidized by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Fund for the Promotion of Culture - a state purpose fund in the amount of: Music - PLN 300,000 / Visual Arts - PLN 209,000 / Small Łódź of Many Cultures Festival - PLN 275,000 / Theater PLN 70,000 as well as grants from Partners including the University of Business and Health Sciences.