Over the seven days until next Wednesday, 25 musicians will give more than 30 concerts across the Japanese city and at the Polish national pavilion.
The slate includes Sub Silento, Babooshki, Aga Derlak Trio, pianist Dominik Wania, Maciej Obara Quartet, Tomasz Hiwa Quintet, EABS, Paulina Przybysz, and Hoshii.
The Artur Dutkiewicz Trio, regarded as one of Poland’s leading jazz ensembles, will perform works rooted in Polish contemporary, classical and folk traditions.
Its recognizably modern language moves between tonality and atonality with free jazz improvisation, and the set will draw on Chopin inspirations and Polish folk dances.
The LIS project, led by Jan Smoczyński with Łukasz Poprawski and Michał Miśkiewicz, blends electronic, experimental, and minimalist music accompanied by original graphics by Tomasz Biłka.
The trio RGG, known both as a premier Polish piano trio and as the last touring band of jazz legend Tomasz Stańko, will perform its “Soundscapes of Chopin,” a program aimed at renewing the sound of Chopin’s music rather than offering standard jazz arrangements.
The schedule opened on Thursday with Polish Painting Day. Near Nishikujo Station in Osaka, artists unveiled a Polish-Japanese mural by the Wallshare collective and the Japanese artist Hitch, a contemporary take on the iconic painting Indian Summer by Józef Chełmoński, a realist painter best known for vivid scenes of rural life.
The evening featured “The Peasants Dance Remixed,” an audiovisual performance that pairs a screening of The Peasants, Poland’s recent Oscar submission, with live music by Rebel Babel Orchestra, artists from the Śląsk Song and Dance Ensemble, and instrumentalists from the Warsaw Philharmonic under conductor Anna Sułkowska-Migoń, joined by dancers.
Friday is Music and Dance Day. Jazz icon Urszula Dudziak will perform outside the Polish Pavilion as part of the “Papaya at Expo” program.
Dudziak will also appear with Yuka Ebihara, a soloist of the National Theatre ballet, at the Women’s Pavilion to discuss how music and dance can serve as a bridge between generations and cultures.
Polish Literature Day on Saturday will center on the written word. In addition to a meeting with translators of Polish literature, organizers will host a National Reading designed to present the idea of the nationwide reading initiative to Expo visitors.
A reading lounge will be set up in front of the Polish Pavilion. Selections will include works by Jan Kochanowski, Nobel laureates Olga Tokarczuk and Wisława Szymborska, and children’s author Jan Brzechwa, read by Japanese narrators, Expo visitors and staff of the Polish Pavilion.
Kochanowski’s poetry will also be presented in languages other than Japanese, with Pavilion Commissioners invited to read translations in their own languages, such as Serbian and Czech, creating a cross-cultural dialogue in Osaka.
The week will also feature Polish Museum Day on September 8 and Polish Film Day on September 9.
Beyond the Polish Pavilion, Unsound, a leading Polish platform for electronic and experimental music founded in Kraków, will present its first Japanese edition in selected Osaka clubs from Thursday to Saturday with performers from Poland and Japan.
Poland’s jazz scene will appear in “Jazz From Poland in Japan 2025,” which brings nine leading groups to Japan. The highlight will be the premiere of a jazz suite composed for Expo Osaka 2025 by Nikola Kołodziejczyk.
According to the culture ministry, Poland’s presence in Osaka aims to promote Poland’s heritage and contemporary creativity while strengthening international ties.
It is built on three pillars: tradition, innovation, and relationships.
The cultural program is delivered by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, the Center for the Development of Creative Industries, the Polish Film Institute, the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute, and the Warsaw-based Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
The World Expo in Osaka, which opened in mid-April on the artificial island of Yumeshima, is expected to attract more than 28 million visitors from around the world before it closes on October 13.
The Polish pavilion has been named one of the top 25 must-see attractions at the 2025 World Expo by The New York Times.
Poland’s participation is coordinated by the Polish Investment and Trade Agency (PAIH), with cultural events funded in part by the culture ministry.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAIH