Opportunity to Support Polish Artists Working in Hokkaido

In order to open a new horizon in art, we invite you to make a one-time donation to Polish Amareya Theatre through Hiroshi Maruyama, Director of the Centre for Environmental and Minority Policy Studies (CEMiPoS), a long-standing ally of Amareya Theatre. Projects such as  “Mówi Onna: She Speaks”, “Requiem for Ainu and Kamuy” and “Polish-Ainu Forefathers’ Eve”, (more information later in the text), are made possible by generous contributions from patrons like you. Thank you.

Hiroshi Maruyama Director, Centre for Environmental and Minority Policy Studies

Shinichiro Sakikawa Visiting Professor, Kochi University of Technology, Journalist

Atsushi Ando Professor Emeritus, Hokkaido University

Masahiro Koizumi Director, Sapporo Freedom School

Yosuke Kosaka Lecturer, Hokuseigakuen University, Former editorialist, Hokkaido Shimbun

Caitlin Coker Associate Professor, Hokkaido University

Kae Ishimoto Research Fellow, Keio University Art Center

Daisuke Tsukuda Dress Artist

Tomoaki Fujino Independent Documentary Producer

Szymon Gredzuk Lecturer, University of Gdańsk

Since its foundation in 2002, Amareya Theatre in Gdansk, Poland has produced interdisciplinary performances of music, video installation, and butoh-inspired dance that have innovated the European performing arts. Katarzyna Pastuszak, art director of the Amareya Theatre, gained a PhD from the University of Gdańsk in 2014 with a dissertation titled “Ankoku Butoh: Hijikata Tatsumi’s Body-in-Crisis Theatre”. Meanwhile, she has built a good relationship with Japanese butoh dancers and Keio University Art Centre, leading to Amareya Theatre’s success in Japan.

In 2014, Amareya Theatre produced a performance, “Nomadic Woman”, based on a real story of a Greenlandic Inuit Louis Fontain who lost her mother tongue as a result of Danish deportation of Inuit children, including herself, to Denmark from Greenland in the 1960s-70s. Shedding light on an invisible history of the colonial policy towards Greenlandic Inuit people, the performance impressed the audience deeply. Since their first meeting with Menoko Mosmos, (“Wake Up, Ainu Women” in the Ainu language), in 2017, Amareya Theatre has been influenced by the friendship between Polish, Ainu and Japanese peoples first built by legendary Polish ethnographer Bronisław Piłsudski. These friendships inspire a new art project that is brought to Japan every year. At present, they are submitting a film of their latest performance with Menoko Mosmos, “Requiem for Ainu and Kamuy”, to the 2022 Uppsala Short Film Festival.

Amareya Theatre joins Menoko Mosmos in this joint art project to struggle as an Indigenous collective for identity and survival under settler colonialism. Thus far, these partners have gained grants from the Polish Department of Culture and National Heritage. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2020 caused millions of refugees from Ukraine to flee to Poland, deeply impacting Polish society. Amareya members have been holding dance workshops for Ukrainian orphans, as well as supporting the lives of Ukrainian refugees alongside other Polish people. Although they applied to the Polish Department of Culture and National Heritage for funding as usual, their application was unsuccessful in June.

Considering this situation, Amareya and Monoko Mosmos reduced this year’s original project in Japan to two programmes. The first programme will be an exhibition tour in Hokkaido called “Mówi Onna: She Speaks”. The exhibit, which consists of joint works by several pairs of Polish artists and Ainu artisans, demonstrates haptic dialog between Polish and Ainu women. The second programme is a new project, “Polish-Ainu Forefathers’ Eve”, led by former Polish ambassador and internationally recognized researcher of Noh Japanese traditional performance, Dr. Jadwiga Rodowicz. It will be held in Sapporo in November.

Lastly, the donation is targeted for around 8000 USD. They shall be used for part of the traveling and accommodation costs of four Polish artists: three from Amareya Theatre + multimedia artist Beata Sosnowska. CEMiPoS and its allies will shoulder the rest of the costs they need to conduct the above-mentioned programmes.

Payees (you can choose one of them)

Japan Post Bank（ゆうちょ銀行）
Branch number (店番): 908
Account type: Ordinary deposit (普通預金)
Account number (口座番号): 4080350
Name (名前): マルヤマ ヒロシ

Paypal hiroshi.maruyama0401@gmail.com

Header image courtesy of Amareya Theatre.