We Do Festival in Oslo, 21–25 October. Five days of Polish music, cinema and art

Since 2019, We Do Festival has introduced Oslo residents to contemporary Polish culture. The event was initiated by Żaneta Kruszelnicka, its founder and artistic director. The festival offers an opportunity to meet artists and work with them — the outcomes of the workshops become part of the final programme.

This year’s edition is accompanied by the slogan “Loop the Moment”. Sounds, images, memories and everyday materials will serve as the starting point, as artists and participants give them new forms.

On the very first day, the “Noise Orchestra” sound workshop with Dawid Dąbrowski will begin. Participants will listen to Oslo and record its everyday sounds, then transform them into a shared composition. Their work will use, among other things, electronic music-making tools, cassette tapes and Walkmans. No previous experience is required.

The first group of Patrycja Mastej’s textile workshops, “Looping Emotions in Textiles”, will also start that day. Fabrics, threads, textures and touch will be used to create soft objects designed for hugging. The sessions will combine handwork with body awareness and movement inspired by butoh dance.

The official festival opening is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Factory Tøyen. The Wrocław-based quartet Bad Ritual will perform a concert created especially for the occasion. Their dark, guitar-driven sound will be combined with images and sound excerpts from older Polish cinema.

On the second day, Michalina Kostecka’s “Taste, Transform, Loop” workshop will join the programme. Here, food ingredients will be used to create colours, textures and artistic forms.

Participants will use natural products, ancient grain varieties and fermentation processes. The result will be an edible installation that the audience will experience during the festival finale. No previous artistic or culinary experience is needed.

On Thursday, the sound and textile workshops will continue as well. A second group of participants will join Patrycja Mastej’s sessions.

Friday will be another day of work for the three workshop groups. The collected sounds of Oslo will begin to form musical compositions, textile objects will take shape, and food ingredients will turn into elements of edible art.

Creating together is a key part of We Do. Participants develop their ideas under the guidance of artists and later present the results to the festival audience.

On Saturday, literature lovers will be able to take part in “Welcome to the Sanatorium”, a workshop inspired by Olga Tokarczuk’s “The Empusium”.

The session will combine shared readings of excerpts from the novel with singing, sensory experiences and artistic activities. It will be led by Julia Aagenæs Wiedlocha, the Norwegian translator of the book, and Agata Żelechowska, a music researcher who also works with voice and body.

The workshop will take place from 12:00 to 4:30 p.m. at NSKI Høyskole, in the Black Box room.

Saturday will also be the final day of the sound and textile workshops, as well as work on the edible installation, before Sunday’s presentation.

To conclude, the audience will see, hear and taste what was created during the festival sessions. Presentations of the workshop outcomes will be preceded by a concert by SW@DA x NICZOS.

The duo consists of producer Wiktor “Sw@da” Szczygieł and vocalist Nika “Niczos” Jurczuk. They combine the language and musical traditions of Podlasie with contemporary electronic music and club rhythms. They describe their style as Podlasie Bounce.

The finale starts at 6:00 p.m. at Høymagasinet, Myntgata 7, Oslo.

The film section of this year’s We Do Festival is being developed in curatorial collaboration with Millennium Docs Against Gravity and with the participation of MIRAGE Festival. The programme comprises four Polish documentaries about time, memory and relationships.

On 22 October, Kunstnernes Hus KINO will screen Maciej Cuske’s “Death Candidates”, about a long-standing friendship, growing up and making films together, and Michał Marczak’s “Endless”, a reflective family film for parents and young adults about a father searching for his missing son.

On 24 October, audiences at Chateau Neuf will see Emilia Śniegoska’s “Kumotry”, the story of a friendship between two women living in the Romanian Carpathians, and Jakub Piątek’s “Pianoforte”, about young pianists competing in the Chopin Competition.

The films are presented in Polish with English subtitles. Registration is required for individual screenings.

All We Do Festival events are free of charge. Registration is required for workshops and other events with limited capacity. Some sessions run over several consecutive days, so it is worth checking the schedule of the selected group before registering.

The festival website lists 5 October as the application deadline for workshops. Current participation rules and availability can be found at wedo.no.

A film from the previous edition captures the atmosphere of the event:

Organiser’s programme and updates:

• Website: wedo.no
• Facebook: facebook.com/wedofestival
• YouTube: youtube.com/@wedofestival6932

This article was prepared on the basis of the organiser’s press materials and information on the We Do Festival website.