Łódź of Four Cultures Festival

The Łódź of Four Cultures Festival is a continuation of the Dialogue of Four Cultures Festival, established on the initiative of Witold Knychalski in 2002, an event, referring to multicultural roots of the city which has been for many years the pot of many cultures and nationalities, a place where four cultures encountered – Polish, Russian, Jewish, and German, a multinational industrial centre in the very heart of Poland.

This most Łódź-related of all the festivals in Łódź offers versatile and multidisciplinary programme, prepared by a group of curators. The audience should expect outdoor and indoor concerts, artistic performances within the urban space, original shows, exhibitions, meetings, and premieres.

As usual, all artistic exploration will be accompanied by the spirit of understanding between different cultures, the present and the past, modernity and tradition, high art and pop culture, artists and audience. Ten-day programme includes events dedicated to a wide range of different recipients. Artists from Poland and abroad, presenting different styles related not only to the multicultural history, but also to the metropolitan fascinating present days of Łódź, have been invited.

The motto of the newest edition of the festival is Coexistence.

FŁ4K 2019: COEXISTENCE

Noisy, powerful nineteenth-century crucible of cultures driven by steam and ambitions. But also today's Lodz, metropolitan with bustling Piotrkowska, woonerfs, glass houses and dark backyards of tenement houses. Always diverse. Never homogeneous. The idea of the Łódź of Four Cultures Festival is based on the ethnic diversity of the city - one of the few in Poland in which before the war there was a modern industrial society. Side by side: urban bourgeoisie and working class, Rotarians and socialists, artists and workers. The coexistence of the new inhabitants of Łódź, settlers - seduced by the vision of the promised land, different in terms of language, traditions, customs, material status, was rough, but could be grinded by the everyday life of neighborly ties. Religious, political and national communities have learned to coexist. Sometimes in neutral, sometimes in friendly and sometimes hostile relationships - but always watching and inspiring each other. Radical changes that took place in the 20th century meant that the former ethnic differences ceased to be a distinguishing feature of the city, but it was this diverse canvas that served its development. In today's Lodz, we have a beautiful factory architecture in which modern city spaces grow. Various memories are still intersecting here and various human groups coexist. Changes are taking place quickly, new cultural centers are created, new "forums" and well-liked places. It is a city of many speeds and many identities, in which the problems of the present are reflected in the lens. In this year's edition of the festival, we want to focus on the present day. We will look at the diversity of strategies adopted for it, the techniques of coexistence and conflicts. From this perspective, we want to look at global dilemmas that become our everyday reality. Through artistic activities, those consonant and those coexisting in contrast, through different forms of expression and different languages, we will ask if we can consciously coexist? We will check whether we can see and accept other distorted by the perspective of information bubbles generated by social media algorithms. We will talk about the possibility of dialogue and coexistence despite generational differences, different views, a different view of art. Coexistence is the understanding of "them" and recognition of the causes of discrepancies. In turn, this space "between" is a good starting point for cooperation, unusual, non-obvious collaborations and inspirations. Between generations, cultures, languages, there is a field for experiment, for work on consonance. Not always harmonious. Often innovative and interesting.