Photo: Jacek Poręba

YES! Katowice – Temporary Cultural Action, OFF Festival

Katowice will host a five week, interdisciplinary and interactive project combining architecture, design and contemporary music, the phenomenon of Silesian culture being its pivot element. The artists taking part in workshops, exhibitions and concerts held within the framework of “YES!” will make

an attempt to define the “Silesian spirit” and “European spirit.” Artists and cultural institutions from Denmark and Cyprus have been invited to collaborate. The Presidency, together with the Polish Radio Three, will also have its own stage at the OFF Festival Katowice 2011, which is to take place in August.

YES! Katowice – Temporary Cultural Action
29th July – 2nd September

Between July and September, Katowice will host a culture club at the Round About Gallery which will act as a platform linking art, design, photography, music, literature and architecture.

The programme to be realised in the gallery and its vicinity is divided into two thematic blocks: action and presentation. Action is a series of workshops/interactions that will show how to make active use of various domains of art (design, contemporary art, comics) and how to motivate the audience to act. Presentations focus on demonstrating the diversity of modern culture (photography, architecture, music, literature) and its impact on our life.

The programme features: design workshops entitled Pimp your city, during which Silesian designers from the Wzorro group together with members of the French USIN group will try to revitalise the degraded parts of the city; children’s design workshops organised by Justyna Kucharczyk, Kamil Kunisz and Kasia Pełka; presentation of the art of cooking – Food Design – prepared by Patrycja Walter, who specialises in Silesian fusion cuisine; artistic actions, when Silesian artists will take their art outside the galleries; comics workshops put on by Michał “Śledź” Śledziński and Jacek Frąś; Urban Mission - The Sweet Kato, when a Silesian artist Matylda Sałajewska will put an installation on top of the building of the Round About Gallery, turning it into a large#scale cake; music series entitled Music Roundabout: the European and Polish sounds, which will present some interesting phenomena in European and Polish music (the following artists are invited: Hundred in the Hands - USA, Joan as Police Woman - USA, Those Dancing Days – Sweden, Thelma and Clyde - Norway, Munch Munch - UK, Crystal Fighters - Spain, and bands from Poland: Indigo Tree, Me, Myself And I, Newest Zealand, Baaba, Paula i Karol); the Boundaries - a photography exhibition presenting the works of students from Czech, Austrian, Hungarian and Polish universities; presentation about architecture of Katowice.

Radio Three Presidency Stage at the OFF Festival Katowice 2011
5th August – 7th August

OFF Festival is an international alternative music festival, held annually since 2006. During the three days of the festival, the Radio Three Presidency Stage (one of the four main stages of OFF Festival) will host performances in a variety of genres by 21 artists from Poland and abroad, inter alia, French artist Gable, electro pop trio Kamp!, band Kyst and Mazoleski Quintet.

Representatives of the major genres of alternative music will also attend the Festival, including: groups Gang Of Four and Current 93, alternative musicians such as Mogwai, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Deerhoof, Kode9, Meshuggah and Liars, rising stars such as Factory Floor and Twin Shadow, as well as representatives of Polish scene such as Lech Janerka or Kury, who re#activated the group especially for the occasion.

In collaboration with the City Hall of Katowice, Round About Gallery, Fundacja Independent