This year’s festival program is united by the theme of the fragility of life. It invites us to ask what it means in a world where we simultaneously create and destroy, plan for the future, and face wars and other crises. “Plartforma” this year looks back at history, the present, and what still awaits in the future.
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Layers of history and today’s fragility
The festival will open with the Swiss artist Julian Vogel’s performance “Ceramic Circus.” Visiting “Plartforma” for the first time, the creator uses ceramic objects on stage to explore the relationship between fragility and strength. His performance balances between the desire to preserve what is fragile and the almost irresistible urge to hear the sound of breaking ceramics.
Longtime festival partner – the “Šeiko Dance Theatre” – will present the performance “Indigo. Das Schliemann Projekt,” awarded three “Golden Stage Crosses.” Inspired by the 19th-century businessman, polyglot, and historical Troy discoverer Heinrich Schliemann, the performance speaks not only about history but also about today’s human efforts to understand oneself, distinguish truth from constructed image, and find one’s identity.
In the performative lecture “The Study of Witches,” creators Inga Kuznecova and Monika Klimaitė will explore the woman’s relationship with nature, the subconscious, and historical memory. The phenomenon of witches is revealed here through historical, political, and religious contexts, as well as through mythology and the human connection with nature.
Another festival veteran – Danish choreographer Palle Granhoj, participating in “Plartforma” since 2012. This year he will present the performance “This is Not Mårup Church,” telling the story of the Mårup church that once stood on the coast of Denmark. Due to the ever-approaching sea, it was dismantled stone by stone in 2007, hoping to reconstruct it in the future. However, this never happened. The performance becomes a story about longing for what is no longer there and how lost things can return through the body, music, and silence.
The themes of war, identity, exile, and alienation will be explored in the joint Polish and Ukrainian dance performance “Every Minute Motherland,” choreographed by Maciej Kuźmiński. The performance is a statement of solidarity with Ukraine and artistic resistance to war crimes, reminding that war affects not only geography but also the human body, memory, and identity.
Between everyday life and the future
The Belgian troupe “Post uit Hessdalen”‘s circus performance “Ballroom” playfully questions the routine of everyday life and work monotony. In the performance set inside a truck, balls are placed one by one into a box – an apparently meaningless action that gradually turns into visual magic and a reminder that beauty and wonder can be found even in everyday life.
The dance and shadow monologue for adults “Contours” invites an inner journey and a meeting with one’s shadow – fear, envy, anger, doubts, or disappointment. The performance director Gintarė Radvilavičiūtė states that turning inward means seeing the entire content of one’s heart – both light and darkness.
The troupe “Nuepiko” invites on a journey into inner and outer cosmos. In the performance where dance, music, light, and darkness meet, Marius Pinigis and Andrius Stakelė turn the moon into a metaphorical place to meet oneself and look into the less illuminated inner depths. Sometimes it is precisely the dream of what seems unattainable that becomes the impulse to move forward.
What next?
The 20th anniversary is an opportunity not only to look back but also to ask what lies ahead. During the festival, discussions with colleagues from other Lithuanian festivals will take place about what it means to be an international festival outside the capital and how the role of cultural events in the regions is changing today.
As every year, “Plartforma” will host an art residency. This year, creator Liepa Vozgirdaitė will develop a vision of future sounds there. A vinyl record dedicated to the festival’s 20th anniversary and Klaipėda will also be released featuring sound artists who have created in residencies.
The festival will also look to the younger generation of creators – those who no longer need to go anywhere because they create here and now. In the Herkus Kantas space, Adelė Vozgirdaitė, Liepa Vozgirdaitė, Jokūbas Sarulis, Aistis Bielkauskas, and Urtė Krutkevičiūtė will present their creative explorations.
“What next?” asks this year’s “Plartforma.” Perhaps the answer depends not only on the creators but also on the audience.
See you September 9–October 7 in Klaipėda and Western Lithuania.
The mission of the international arts festival “Plartforma” is to unite artistic experiences and creative potential of creators from different countries in a shared creative process. The festival presents creators and groups of contemporary dance, theater, new circus, and sound art. The interdisciplinary festival held in Klaipėda and Western Lithuania aims to introduce the audience to contemporary artistic expression.
“Plartforma” is a long-standing representative festival of Klaipėda city, included in the Strategic Lithuanian Festivals list in 2025. Since 2015, the festival has been awarded the European Festivals Association label “Europe for Festivals / Festivals for Europe.”
The festival is organized by the Artists’ group “Fish Eye,” funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture, Klaipėda City Municipality, Klaipėda District Municipality, and “Pro Helvetia.”
Festival program and latest information: here and on the “Menų festivalis Plartforma” Facebook page.
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