The Centre of Independent Culture – the Szwalnia Theatre is an open space for artistic and educational activities. It is a place of exploration, collaboration and meetings of professional and amateur artists representing various domains: theatre, film, music, and visual arts. The Centre was established by Marcin Brzozowski and the “Targowa 62” Society, an association of graduates and lecturers of the Lodz Film School, initiated in 2004. The performance Bezhency / Refugees is based on talks of Svetlana Alexeyevich with residents of the Chernobyl Area. It is a story of people seeking refuge from the world within the contaminated and locked zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant – a reflection of great explosion of light, which took place there on April 25th, 1986. Bezhency: pilgrims of radioactive "now". Residents of neighborhoods of the city of Pripyat, who, despite bans fled from modern estates to their villages lost as a result of the forced resettlement actions. The group includes also people who return to the Chernobyl Area legally, once a year – on Radonitsa (ninth day after Orthodox Easter) – to visit family members’ graves, remains of their houses, or tombs, where their contaminated belongings were buried. They are nomads wandering in search of asylum; they walk again and again in the footsteps of their own past and identity – the reality that no longer exists, and, as it seems, never existed.
directed by: Marcin Brzozowski
costumes: Pauline Fowler
performers: Iwona Dróżdż, Ewelina Kudeń, Magda Drab (National Film School), Ada Janowska-Moniuszko (National Film School), Marta Jarczewska (National Film School), Marek Nędza, Antonia Brzozowska.
http://www.szwalnia.art.pl
