Judges of the 21th edition of the INTERPRETATIONS National Festival of Directing 2022 in Katowice
Katarzyna Kozyra – A sculptor, photographer, author of performances, films, video installations and artistic actions, she is a graduate of the Faculty of Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and a representative of critical art. Even her graduation artwork Pyramid of Animals (1993) provoked plenty of discussions in the mainstream media. Her subsequent works such as Olympia (1996), Blood Ties (1995), the series W sztuce marzenia stają się rzeczywistością (2003–2008) and the project Looking for Jesus delivered in 2012 make audiences confront death, illness, the body, gender, age, social norms and faith. In 1999, she represented Poland at the 48th Art Biennale in Venice, where she received an honourary mention for her video installation Men’s Bathhouse. For thirty years following her debut, her artworks have been shown in museums and institutions around the world. She is working with galleries: Żak Branicka (Berlin), Postmasters (Nowy Jork), Capsule (Shanghai) and Christophe Galliard Gallery (Paris). In 2012, she founded the Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation to support women’s cultural and artistic activities. Since 2021, she has taught at the Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. She has also designed the stage and costumes for the play Orlando. Biographies, directed by Agnieszka Błońska and having premiered in June this year at the Powszechny Theatre.
Lech Majewski – A film, theatre and opera director as well as a writer, poet and painter originating from Katowice. He has created his own language of artistic expression, in which the universe of myths is constantly present. He uncompromisingly emphasizes the importance of artistic creation within many dimensions of human existence. Since his film debut in 1980, he has created a universe largely based on the hidden language of symbols, which he has lectured about at a number of universities. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums such as MoMA of New York, the Louvre and the Venice Biennale. He has been gaining stage work experience since the early 1980s and the famous London staging of Odyssey by Homer, staged on a barge on the Thames. Subsequent important productions, including operas such as Penderecki’s Ubu Rex and The Roe’s Room to his own libretto, helped him establish his position in the theatrical space. Lech Majewski remains an iconic figure to this day, and the followers of his works, and therefore his vision of the world, live on every continent.
Maria Anna Potocka – A curator, art critic and theoretician, doctor of humanities and member of
international associations of artists and art critics Internationale Künstler Gremium, AICA and ICON, since 2010 she has headed the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków. She founded four art galleries between 1972 and 2010 (Galeria PI – the first private cultural institution in Poland, Galeria Pawilon, Galeria Foto‑Video and Galeria Potocka). Between 1973 and 2010, she built up a private international collection of contemporary art, featuring 1000 works by more than 100 artists. The collection was transferred to MOCAK in 2010. She used to head the Museum of Modern Art in Niepołomice, was the deputy director for the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw and the director of the Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Gallery in Kraków, which she has managed again since 2019 (simultaneously with MOCAK). She has organized several conferences, including: AICA International Conference of Art Critics, Warsaw (2000), and Art in Public Space, Kunsthalle Vienna (2002), and has penned several books, including 150 lat malarstwa polskiego (2019), Edward Dwurnik. Malarstwo (2020), Skuteczność prawicy (2020), Malarstwo. Rzeźba (2020), Łempicka. Malarstwo (2021), Pogrzeby lwowskie (2021) Fabryka Oskara Schindlera. Historia przed i po (2021).
Tadeusz Słobodzianek – A playwright, theatre critic, director, literary manager and theatre manager. A winner of many prizes and honourary mentions, including Fringe First at the festival in Edinburgh in 1993 and 1995, Polityka Passport (1993), Kościelski Award (1994), Stanisław Piętak Award (1995) and Stanisław Bieniasz Award (2002 and 2018). In 2010, he was awarded the Nike Award for the drama Nasza klasa. Historia w XIV lekcjach. The only drama to have ever been recognized with that award has seen over 60 stagings around the world. He had studied theatre studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków under professor Jan Błoński, and between 1978 and 1981 wrote theatre reviews under the pseudonym Jan Koniecpolski, first for Student and then for Polityka weekly. Between 2010 and 2012, he headed Teatr Na Woli im. T. Łomnickiego and Teatr Dramatyczny in Warsaw in 2012–2022. He is the founder of Laboratorium Dramatu, the Open Dialogue Foundation and Szkoła Dramatu, and a co‑founder of Teatr Wierszalin.
Rudolf Zioło – A theatre director working with the Słowacki Theatre of Kraków between 1982 and 1986, where he made his stage debut by adapting the novel A Dog’s Heart by Mikhail Bulgakov. In 1986, he started his 12‑year journey at the Stary Theatre in Kraków, where he staged Republika marzeń by Brunon Schulz (1987), Księżniczka Turandot by Carlo Gozzi (1990), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1992) and Tempest (1997) by William Shakespeare and Narodny Malakhiy (Reformator) by Mykola Kulish (1995). He subsequently worked with Teatr Powszechny in Warsaw, where he directed both classics, including Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov and Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky, as well as contemporary literature, including Inne rozkosze by Jerzy Pilch. He was keen to explore the contemporary repertoire while working with the company of Teatr Wybrzeże in Gdańsk, delivering among others: Knives in Hens (2003), Bash by Neil La Bute (2004) and The Titanic Orchestra by Hristo Boytchev (2007). He also directed Stanisław Wyspiański’s The Wedding at Teatr Wybrzeże (2005) and collaborated with other Polish theatres such as Bogusławski Theatre in Kalisz, Teatr Polski in Wrocław, Teatr Śląski in Katowice and Kraków Opera. He has shared his experience and knowledge with students he taught at the Faculty of Directing at the State Higher School of Theatre in Kraków. He is an author of dramas such as: Car Mikołaj, Obywatel Pekosiewicz, Turlajgroszek, Prorok Ilja, Merlin, Kowal Malambo, Sen pluskwy, Młody Stalin, Śmierć proroka, Historia Jakuba, Niedźwiedź Wojtek, Fatalista and the series Kwartety otwockie, comprising: Geniusz, Sztuka intonacji, Powrót Orfeusza. Krzew gorejący, Helsinki and Cerber z Beaubourg. His dramas have been translated into English, German, Hebrew, French, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Brazilian, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Serbian, Hungarian, Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Persian, Mongolian, Japanese and Chinese.