One Week to OFF Festival Katowice: Music, Art, Culture and More

Taking place in the beautiful green oasis of the ‘Three Lake Valley’ in Katowice from 3rd to 5th August, OFF Festival remains a way of life, one that flies in the face of current trends and with an ethos aimed at supporting art and music with the festival bringing many acts to Poland for the first time.  With something different and less mainstream on offer, OFF should be on the ‘to do list’ for any discerning festival goer.

Art of OFF

Continuing the tradition of previous years, the 2012 OFF Festival will leave a permanent mark in the city: Julian Jakub Ziółkowski is designing a mural titled Kim. The mural will be painted at ul. Plebiscytowa, on the wall of what was once the Capitol movie theater. The artist, Julian Jakub Ziółkowski (1980), is a graduate of Kraków’s Academy of Fine Arts and collaborates with the Gallery Foksal Foundation. His work has been featured in galleries around the world, from Paris and London to New York. His eclectic and psychedelic style evokes associations with Surrealism and Expressionism while drawing comparisons to Cubism as well great masters such as Hieronymus Bosch and Pablo Picasso. Some of his pieces might terrify you, others may amuse you, but no one is left unmoved.

Other artwork that will be featured on the official festival t-shirt and reproduced in large scale on a billboard by the mBank Stage: Sławomir Elsner’s “Paris Berlin Katowice.” Originally titled “Paris Berlin Warsaw,” but renamed by the author especially for the OFF Festival – is a series of three drawings depicting flaming cars. The images may evoke associations with dark, American rock’n’roll-era films, but recent events such as the rioting in the Parisian banlieues and other European cities are equally valid. Born in Wodzisław Śląski and currently based in Berlin, Sławomir Elsner is an artist first introduced to the OFF Festival last year, when he painted a mural depicting a tightrope walker at 21 Mariacka Tylna street in Katowice. Rather than charming us with its finesse, this year’s piece shocks viewers with its brutal literalness, while drawing our attention to the poetic – or even fantastical – aspects found in such a powerful theme as burning cars. 

Other Attractions

Meanwhile, BNNT is preparing to attack us with sound at the time and place we least expect it. Get ready to be bombed! BNNT was founded in Poznań in 2008 as a solo audio-performance project by Konrad Smoleński, only to soon transform into a duo with drummer Daniel Szwed. Smoleński plays the Bomb, a four-string stereo baritone guitar shaped like an aerial bomb. He uses the Bomb to perform what is known as Sound Bombing, which BNNT describe as “surprise sonic interventions in public spaces.” The police and other public authorities that often cut the Sound Bombing short likely have a different name for it. OFF Festival will also mark the premiere of BNNT’s debut album, which features guest appearances by Jakub Ziółek (Ed Wood), Wojciech Bąkowski (Niwea), Macio Moretti (Mitch&Mitch), and Tomasz Duda (Baaba).

Henry Rollins will also be making an appearance at OFF Festival, but he isn’t coming to sing. Instead, he’ll have some important things to tell us. His appearances can be as brutally painful as they are hilarious: if you’re sure you can handle the truth, don’t miss this show. Henry is an American musician, comedian, writer, and actor, Rollins is also active in charity work, which he claims helps him keep a lid on his anger. That anger first erupted in the early 80s, when Rollins took over the mike for the now legendary group Black Flag. He went on start his own act, Rollins Band, which made it onto the charts with the bitter hit “Lia”.

Lineup

Africa HiTech, AfroKolektyw, Akron/Family, Alva Noto, annb: alva noto & blixa bargeld, Andy Scott, Apteka, Atari Teenage Riot, Bardo Pond, Baroness, Battles, Baxter Dury, Beneficjenci Splendoru, Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires, Chromatics, Chrome Hoof – “Hydrozagadka”, Coldair, Colin Stetson, Connan Mockasin, Container, Converge, Cool Kids of Death, Dam FunK, Daughn Gibson, Death in Vegas, Demdike Stare, Dominique Young Unique, DOOM, Fanfarlo, Fennesz & Lillevan, Forest Swords, Group Doueh, Hanimal, Henry Rollins, High Places, Iceage, Iggy and The Stooges, Jacaszek, Josh T. Pearson, Kanal Audytywny, Kiera Is You, Kim Gordon & Ikue Mori, King Creosote & Jon Hopkins, kIRk, Kobiety, Kobiety, Kuedo, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Laureat konkursu Zrob Glosniej! na OFF Festivalu, Levity, Lona & Webber, Matthew Herbert, Mazzy Star, Megafaun, Metronomy, Mikolaj Trzaska gra ‘Roze’, Minerals, Mordy, Napszyklat, Nerwowe Wakacje, Nils Frahm, Nosowska, Obscure Sphinx, Other Lives, Papa M, Paula and Karol, Pietnastka, Pissed Jeans, Profesjonalizm, Purity Ring, Retro Stefson, Savages, Shabazz Palaces, Shangaan Electro, Sleep Party People, Snowman, Spectrum, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Swans, The Antlers, The Band of Endless Noise, The House of Love, The Shipyard, The Stubs, The Twilight Sad, The Wedding Present – “Seamonsters”, Thurston Moore, Tides from Nebula & Blinded, Ty Segall.