Category: arts and disability
Morgue Polonaise
Upcoming show: 18 April 2026, Grotowski Institute, Wrocław (PL) The community needs its dead to connect with the land. We find them in various places: in cemeteries, in street names, history textbooks, costume dramas, or as patrons of schools. A Polish-sounding surname on a foreign gravestone catches our eye: further proof of the country’s existence.…
Freak show – film
Premiere – 9 May 2026, Millenium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival, Warsaw What happens when the ‘freaks’ take centre stage? A group of young artists with disabilities, invited by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, are creating a provocative “freak show” for the opening of the museum’s new premises. Their original reinterpretation of the…
Can you help me?
“His grandmother’s recollections of how Pawlak learned to crawl as a child are not a tearful account of a childhood burdened by disability, but rather a spirited tale. The actor, however, is constantly playing with the audience. Will he strike a chord? Or won’t he? He does both. And much more besides.” Anna Szamotuła, Kultura…
Freak show – performance
Is it possible to express sadness against the dominant ideologies of bodypositive and inspiration porn? How to build pride in what is socially accepted as an image of failure? And – how to skilfully ‘mutilate’ popular cultural clichés that set the social optics against all otherness? Freak show or performative mutilation of culture. But not…
Brakarki (Workers of lack)
Upcoming show: 18 November 2026, Culture Centre Zamek Poznań Producer: Central Muzeum of Textile in Łódź The hum of the machinery of the Łódź textile mills is history, the new era is that of knowledge-based industry. Looms have been replaced by computers. In our performance, however, we return to the tradition of hard body work…
Crip networking / KPO Scholarship
Project Professionalisation and artistic development of the Polish sector of artists with disabilities in the performing arts. A series of meetings and workshops for the Polish community of artists with disabilities working in the field of performing arts, aimed at professionalising their activities, increasing the internationalisation of their artistic practice but also enhancing their professional…
Do what you want
Producer: Theatre21/ Centre for Inclusive Arts Warsaw, Poland The performance Do What You Want is Filip Pawlak’s attempt, based on his own history, to find an explanation of what alternative motorics is – a concept popularised by the choreographer Rafał Urbacki and still in circulation today. In his search, the artist delves into the archives…
Where do we go from here?
Production: Foreningen for Integreret Moderne Dans i Danmark (FIMD) / Dansekapellet Copenhagen Where do we go from here? took the audience on a physical walk in an audience costume where the audience was tied together. The audience started at Bispebjerg Cemetery and walked through Dansekapellet, where studios and corners of the building take the form of…
Learning Journeys – Europe Beyond Access
Europe Beyond Access’ Learning Journeys are a digital series of toolkits and educational resources specifically for disabled artists, producers and promoters, and funders and policymakers. These Learning Journeys include a series of new films, discussions, podcasts, creative tasks, reports and more to support professional development. Films are hosted on YouTube and many have translated subtitles…
Gatunki Chronione (Protected species)
Authors: Rafał Urbacki, Anu Czerwiński Four dancers in the unusual space of the Silesian Masuria. The choice of location is not accidental, a nature reserve, species that have to be protected by the state in order to survive, and young people with alternative motor skills. The choreography, composed for the dancers involved in the project,…
