The beginning of summer was dominated by discussions about record-breaking, historic temperatures. Do you still remember them? How can one fully grasp a statement like this: “The hydrological situation in the country: Level 3 heat warnings are in effect for most provinces. A hydrological drought persists in the basins of most rivers.” This is a government announcement—as dry as the hydrological drought itself, and just as severe.
Think about it: no one in the history of this planet has ever experienced such heat along the Vistula as we have this year. At the same time, this is likely to be the coolest summer of the rest of our lives. How can we make sense of these facts? Can they be embodied? Can we touch this knowledge while standing as human bodies on the banks of a great river?
WISŁA is an outdoor choreographic performance involving the audience, which develops a physical and emotional relationship with the river. The performance is guided by a narrative and a sound composition based on field recordings of the Vistula, listened to through headphones in a silent disco setup. The movements of the performers, the participants, and the river itself intertwine in an open choreography, the course of which is co-created by the audience’s decisions and the changing conditions of the environment. At the heart of the performance is the question of whether a deepened somatic awareness can strengthen the sense of interdependence with the river. Can the body be not only a site of experience, but also a way of thinking, imagining, and understanding the world?
Organizational information for the audience:
The event is open to people ages 12 to 99. It begins in the Pavilion building—entrance through the Paloma bistro—and then moves outdoors.
We do not provide chairs. A limited number of lounge chairs and towels to sit on will be available on site. We encourage you to bring your own blanket or towel.
During the performance, the performers will invite the audience to move and participate. Participation in these activities is voluntary. During the performance, the audience will use silent disco headphones, which must be returned after the event. You are free to move around as long as you remain within signal range and close to the performers. An English audio track will also be available.
Please wear comfortable clothing appropriate for the weather. In case of rain, the event will take place in the Pavilion.
If you have any questions, please contact the staff.
A discussion with the artists will take place after the event on September 5 (Saturday).
Think about it: no one in the history of this planet has ever experienced such heat along the Vistula as we have this year. At the same time, this is likely to be the coolest summer of the rest of our lives. How can we make sense of these facts? Can they be embodied? Can we touch this knowledge while standing as human bodies on the banks of a great river?
WISŁA is an outdoor choreographic performance involving the audience, which develops a physical and emotional relationship with the river. The performance is guided by a narrative and a sound composition based on field recordings of the Vistula, listened to through headphones in a silent disco setup. The movements of the performers, the participants, and the river itself intertwine in an open choreography, the course of which is co-created by the audience’s decisions and the changing conditions of the environment. At the heart of the performance is the question of whether a deepened somatic awareness can strengthen the sense of interdependence with the river. Can the body be not only a site of experience, but also a way of thinking, imagining, and understanding the world?
Organizational information for the audience:
The event is open to people ages 12 to 99. It begins in the Pavilion building—entrance through the Paloma bistro—and then moves outdoors.
We do not provide chairs. A limited number of lounge chairs and towels to sit on will be available on site. We encourage you to bring your own blanket or towel.
During the performance, the performers will invite the audience to move and participate. Participation in these activities is voluntary. During the performance, the audience will use silent disco headphones, which must be returned after the event. You are free to move around as long as you remain within signal range and close to the performers. An English audio track will also be available.
Please wear comfortable clothing appropriate for the weather. In case of rain, the event will take place in the Pavilion.
If you have any questions, please contact the staff.
A discussion with the artists will take place after the event on September 5 (Saturday).
Duration: approx. 70 min.
performance for ages 12 and up
COMPANY
Choreography: Weronika Pelczyńska
Choreographic collaboration: Angelika Mizińska
Dramaturgical consultation: Teresa Fazan
Performance: Chór w Ruchu, featuring Beata Akbaş, Elżbieta Balano, Barbara Baranowska, Małgorzata Janina Berwid, Maria Bonarowska, Ewa Chomicka, Teresa Fazan, Urszula Iwińska, Adrianna Kitkowska, Aleksandra Mirecka, Angelika Mizińska, Teona Moz, Joanna Organiściak, Justyna Orlińska, Katarzyna Pawluk, Weronika Pelczyńska, Iwona Piechocka, Viktoria Polazava, Dagmara Siwczyk, Urszula Szwed-Strych, Natalia Trybuła, Kinga Wołoszyn-Kowanda, Agnieszka Żechowska
Sound design and musical composition: Michał Zygmunt
Composition about the tributaries of the Vistula: zosza chabiera
Narration recording and sound design collaboration: Anna Rok
Recording mix and mastering: Jurek Zagórski
Audio narration text: Angelika Mizińska, Weronika Pelczyńska, Teresa Fazan
Voices in the audio narration: zosza chabiera, Chór w Ruchu (singers), Angelika Mizińska, Weronika Pelczyńska (readers)
Costumes: Zofia Urszula Komasa
Costume designer’s assistant: Bartłomiej Bielan
Consultations regarding the Vistula River: Magdalena Siemaszko, Dzielnica Wisła
Production: Joanna Waśko
Choreographic collaboration: Angelika Mizińska
Dramaturgical consultation: Teresa Fazan
Performance: Chór w Ruchu, featuring Beata Akbaş, Elżbieta Balano, Barbara Baranowska, Małgorzata Janina Berwid, Maria Bonarowska, Ewa Chomicka, Teresa Fazan, Urszula Iwińska, Adrianna Kitkowska, Aleksandra Mirecka, Angelika Mizińska, Teona Moz, Joanna Organiściak, Justyna Orlińska, Katarzyna Pawluk, Weronika Pelczyńska, Iwona Piechocka, Viktoria Polazava, Dagmara Siwczyk, Urszula Szwed-Strych, Natalia Trybuła, Kinga Wołoszyn-Kowanda, Agnieszka Żechowska
Sound design and musical composition: Michał Zygmunt
Composition about the tributaries of the Vistula: zosza chabiera
Narration recording and sound design collaboration: Anna Rok
Recording mix and mastering: Jurek Zagórski
Audio narration text: Angelika Mizińska, Weronika Pelczyńska, Teresa Fazan
Voices in the audio narration: zosza chabiera, Chór w Ruchu (singers), Angelika Mizińska, Weronika Pelczyńska (readers)
Costumes: Zofia Urszula Komasa
Costume designer’s assistant: Bartłomiej Bielan
Consultations regarding the Vistula River: Magdalena Siemaszko, Dzielnica Wisła
Production: Joanna Waśko
Weronika Pelczyńska
A choreographer, dancer, and dance educator based in Warsaw. In her practice, she explores choreography as a tool for building relationships, working with memory, and fostering a sense of community. She is interested in the body as a space for storing history, social tensions, and forms of care. She creates works at the intersection of performance, theater, film, and site-specific projects. She graduated from SEAD in Salzburg, as well as from the Warsaw University of Technology and the University of Warsaw. She teaches at the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theater Academy in Warsaw and as a visiting lecturer at SWPS and the Institute of Performing Arts at the University of Warsaw. From 2013 to 2025, she co-founded Centrum w Ruchu. Since 2019, she has been developing a practice centered on memory as an act of care and the idea of sisterhood. She is the author and co-author of the works *Europa. Śledztwo*, *Still Standing*, and *Rzeźbiary*.
Angelika Mizińska
An artist working at the intersection of choreography, dance, and somatic education. In her practice, she explores the relationships between the body, community, and the environment, treating movement, improvisation, and choreography as tools for understanding and coexistence. She creates processes based on mindfulness, experimentation, and process-oriented work, in which choreography becomes a relational practice—a way of listening, negotiating, and co-creating reality. Inspired by nature’s strategies, she uses movement to seek models of coexistence based on dignity, diversity, and regeneration. She works in theatrical and site-specific spaces, initiating artistic and educational projects. Her current research focuses on ecosomatics as a practice of embodied relationality.She studied in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Estonia. She is a certified Body-Mind Centering® somatic movement educator (Germany, 2024) and is continuing on the Practitioner track.
Teresa Fazan
Writer, researcher, editor, playwright. A graduate of Gender Studies (Central European University in Vienna) and Philosophy (University of Warsaw). As a playwright, she has collaborated with, among others, Marta Ziółek, Jäckie Rydz, Ana Szopa, the PL_ur collective, and Monika Błaszczak. Her work has appeared in *Dialog*, *Didaskalia*, *Teatr*, and on dwutygodnik.com, among others. She is a doctoral candidate at the Doctoral School of Humanities at the University of Warsaw. She is the editor of *Machina Myśli*, an online philosophical magazine.
Magdalena Siemaszko
Researcher, artist, and social activist. A medium and mediator between the natural and human worlds, a friend of the Vistula and Narew rivers. She is interested in areas of friction between nature and culture, coexistence, change, and the relationships of care and power between different bodies and communities, as well as practices of resistance, regeneration, and pleasure. She works in an interdisciplinary manner, drawing on various types of knowledge: both scientific (she holds degrees in Cultural Anthropology and Biology from the University of Warsaw) and grassroots, field-based, somatic, and creative (she holds a degree in Choreography from the Center in Motion and the KEM School of Performance). She develops tools for artistic research, the practice of slow-dwelling, and attunement, utilizing dance, ethnography, visual documentation, action research, and choreography. She supports collective processes, among other things, as a co-founder of the House of Nature and Culture Association in Teremiski; she co-founded the Wypuszczone collective, the Queer Academy of Movement, and the SQUIR group. She lived and worked in the Białowieża Forest for many years, and for the past few years has been working primarily with rivers and wetlands. She is the author of the nationwide project “Let’s Remember the Wetlands” at the Wetlands Conservation Center (pamietajmy.bagna.pl) and co-author of the Water Cycle Diaries (powody.pl). She currently works at the WWF Poland Foundation as a river intervention specialist with the River Guardians.
Choir in Motion
A community-based, experimental, new choir (with a history) that brings together people seeking unconventional means of expression at the intersection of music, performance art, visual arts, and spatial art. It was founded in 2024 as a grassroots, itinerant initiative open to diverse activities and possibilities. Since then, it has carried out projects with Komuna Warszawa (“Song of the Future: A Concert for a Building and a Choir,” dir. Grzegorz Laszuk), Zachęta—National Gallery of Art (“Rebellion of the Deaf. Renewal” dir. Bogna Burska), the Royal Łazienki Park (“All Women’s Victories,” comp. Maria Ka), the Old Town Cultural Center (“Poems by Vasyl Stus for Choir and Music,” comp. Emilia Gołos, arr. Natalia Kordiak), Radio Kapitał (four series of “Przesileń”—music by Edka Jarząb, Halszka Sokołowska, Olga Mysłowska, and Rafał Ryterski; choreography by Weronika Pelczyńska, Monika Jarosińska, and Lama Szydłowska). The choir performs as a vocal-and-signing ensemble in "Liquid Tongues", an audio-video installation by Bogna Burska and Daniel Kotowski at this year’s Venice Art Biennale.
Michał Zygmunt
Musician, composer, and creator of professional field recordings of nature. Creator of dozens of albums and releases, co-founder of initiatives such as Odra Sound Design and the Odra Sound Trail—a network of acoustic lenses designed for listening to the river’s soundscape—as well as the Odra Guitars series. Creator of soundscapes for the Polish Pavilion at Expo Osaka 2025. He has been featured in the following documentaries: “I Bring You Wildness” (dir. Dyba Lach), “To the Last Drop” (dir. Ewa Ewart), and “Wodra” (dir. Ewa Dobrołowicz).
Anna Rok
Documentary filmmaker and sound engineer. She really enjoys listening to people and works primarily in documentary film. She holds a Master II Pro degree in documentary film directing from the school in Lussas, France (2014) and a degree from the Department of Theater Studies at the Theater Academy in Warsaw (2013). She has worked on over 40 documentary films, including *Komunia*, directed by Anna Zamęcka (award at Locarno, European Film Award 2016), and *Pianoforte*, directed by Jakub Piątek, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023. She is interested in social projects, radio, psychology, and nature.
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