The KINOTEKA Polish Film Festival closes its twelfth edition at the Union Chapel on 30 May with the UK premiere of avant-garde film-makersStephen and Timothy Quay’s latest film Kwartet Smyczkovy, alongside their award-winning piece In Absentia. Produced by the Barbican and the Polish Cultural Institute in London, this film and music event will feature live musical accompaniment from the Arditti Quartet.
Commissioned by the BBC in 1999 and inspired by Karlheinz Stockhausen’s composition Two Couples (1992/1999), In Absentia combines live action and animation to convey the mindscape of a lost, mad woman writing letters from a bleak asylum cell. Meanwhile, The Quay Brothers’ new film Kwartet Smyczkovy, based on Peter Handke’s play The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other, features late Polish composer WitoldLutosławski’s only string quartet, composed in 1964. The Arditti Quartet will be performing these pieces live, in dialogue with the films.
In Absentia (19′, 2000) from …El Exilio…y…El Viaje… on Vimeo.
The event opens with a live performance by Skalpel, a Polish DJ/producer duo from Wrocław formed by Marcin Cichy and Igor Pudło (akaIgor Boxx). Skalpel’s trademark is sampling Polish jazz of the 1960s and 1970s, constructing their own original vision of contemporary sound; combining jazz, hip hop and club music. The duo will also present their unique interpretation of Lutosławski and Andrzej Panufnik’s music to mark these Polish composers’ joint centenaries.
Arditti Quartet & Skalpel
Fri 30 May / Union Chapel / 8pm
Tickets £15
