Residency of Mátyás Marofka, presented by Bramat Festival in partnership with Winterwerft Festival & Istanbul Fringe Festival
The 2084 Project aimed to work on a theatre performance called 2084 – the Arrival of the Golden Age. The production is a nonverbal, movement-based performance integrating clowning, physical, and visual theatre elements directed by Matyas Marofka.
The show tells a fictional, utopian, and symbolic story of humanity and strives to react to the current challenges of climate change, demonstrating how global warming and related threats affect our present and future. Developing the structure and artistic expression of the performance, the artist visited each partner festival and worked on the production with local performers.
Participants of the workshop residencies in Goleniow and Istanbul
The festivals
At the Winterwerft Festival in Frankfurt am Main (Germany), Matyas Marofka did a research residency between 11 and 13 February 2023. This year's topic of the Winterwerft Festival was climate crises, bringing together interested artists and creations about the issue.
After the artistic research in Germany, the artist created a performance structure that can be used in different cultural contexts. During a one-week residency at the Bramat Festival in Poland (23.08-01.09) and in Turkey at the Istanbul Fringe Festival (09.09-18.09), Matyas Marofka (with an assistant from Ladder Art Company) worked on the production with local performers (4 people in Poland and 10 in Turkey) who were interested in the theme of climate change personally and movement theatre expressions artistically. The two festivals supported the artist with a studio place and organized local artists for the project.
The actors were chosen through an open call for local artists announced during the Summer for both the BRAMAT Festival and Istanbul Fringe Festival to apply for the workshop residency led by Matyas Marofka.
Workshop presentation at Bramat Festival
The 2 residencies explored the effect of climate crises in a local context in a proposed artistic framework while developing the structure of the theatre performance. Each residency resulted in a work-in-progress presentation during the festival, showing the outcome of the work to local audiences and artistic professionals - on the 31st of August in Goleniow and on the 17th of September in Istanbul.
Workshop presentation at Istanbul Fringe Festival
Personal Experience
The 2084 Project was the first international cooperation of the artist as director, working with performers in different cultural contexts and heritage. Beyond working on his artistic creation with artists from different countries, the project also supported international connections.
Working on the theme of climate change, which is a common issue for us all, this project helped the artist explore how climate crises affect different cultures and the performing art scene in different cultural environments.
Daniel Jacewicz (Theatre Brama - Bramat Festival), Matyas Marofka (Ladder Art Company), Bernhard Bub (Antagon Theatre - Winterwerft Festival)