Black Night White Day: A journey through invisible cities, Roma poetry, and Gnostic gospels where contradiction is the starting point.

I come to you (…) so that you don’t make a black night of a white day
Papusza, Gypsy poet

The texts used in the performance come from “Invisible Cities” of Italo Calvino, poetry of Roma poet Bronislawa Wajs – Papusza, prose of Aglaja Veteranyi, diaries of Afghan refugee Zaher Rezai, poetry of Halina Poswiatowska and the Gnostic Gospels of Mary Magdalene.The performance’s main theme is the journey: meaning both a travel – a path from one city to another, from one meeting to the next one – and the internal travel of a character within the spectrum of its emotions, means of communication and expression. It is a journey that allows to discover and pass borders, cover distances and face the way we perceive the external world, its colours, its diversity and variety. The opposition of the title is the starting point of this journey. The contradiction of the world is its source. Following Dante and Marco Polo we invite the audience on a journey through “cities”, faces and music, making it a part of a colourful story in which the words connect the worlds despite all distance.

Project partners: The Grotowski Institute, MiserArt – Strefa Kultury w Labiryncie Wykluczenia, Zakład Karny Nr 1 in Wrocław

Financed by the Ministry of Culture in the Accessible Culture programme.