Nikodem Karolak is the Director of InlanDimensions International Arts Festival, Chairman of Bridges Foundation, a film/theatre producer, an artist manager, a literary translator/interpreter, a laureate of prestigious PhD scholarship of The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology at Waseda University in Tokyo, and a laureate of Adam Mickiewicz University Foundation for the best PhD researchers in 2018. In 2016-2018 he curated Avant Art Festival in Wroclaw and supervised various international festivals as a translator and interpreter, such as The Theatre Olympics (2016), Malta Festival Poznań, Konfrontacje Theatre Festival, Five Flavours Film Festival. In 2019, he translated Chijin no ai (Naomi) by Tanizaki Jun'ichirō from Japanese into Polish, curated the New Horizons International Film Festival. In October 2019, he launched InlanDimensions International Arts Festival with support from three strategic partners in Poland – The Gdansk Shakespeare Theatre, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan and The Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw, opening up a new connection between Japan and Poland. In November & December 2019, he co-organized a Terayama Shūji film retrospective and stage performances of Nuhikun – Directions to Servants at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre (13-14.12.2019) in collaboration with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. In 2020 co-produced Aoba Ichiko European tour. Currently producer of Krzysztof Warlikowski's We are Leaving at the Hong Kong Cultural Center and many other international projects
We speak with him about how InlanDimensions started, including theater, music and cinema and the difficulties such an endeavor poses, the theater scene in Japan and many other topics.
How did InlanDimensions International Arts Festival begin?
The whole story started in 2012, when I was in Japan for the first time for a one-year scholarship by the Ministry of Education. That was the time I got familiar with Shuji Terayama, his plays, movies and art, and it was also the first time I saw his play “Nuhikun – Directions to Servants” in Theater Tram (Tokyo, Setagaya Ward). At the time, I only knew of his movies, which I had seen previously in Poland and I was really impressed by the play, because it is was only about the acting and physical expressions, but also about the props and the whole machinery designed by Nobutaka Kotake, who is also one of the former members of Tenjo Sajiki. There I also got acquainted with Keitoku Takata who was an actor and also co-director of the show. I remember I met those guys after the play and I made a promise to myself and them (I was just 20 years old at the time). I told them that if I become a curator or a festival producer in the future, I will definitely bring the show to Poland. It all started then with a promise, eventually fulfilled seven year later.
The same year, in May, I visited Shuji Terayama's grave for his death anniversary. I did not know how and when to go, what hour to meet the people. I went by early train to Tokyo, and just by chance, the former members of the Tenjo Sajiki and Kyoko Kujo, who was still alive at the time, and Terayama's adopted stepbrother, Terayama-Morisaki Henrikku, came the moment I came. That is how we got acquainted with each other, and this is how I got involved with Tenjo Sajiki and avant-garde, essentially through Shuji Terayama.
Then I went to Poland and I really tried to do this show, “Nuhikun – Directions to Servants”, as I promised, but no festival really wanted to talk with a young greenhorn, who had no experience and just spoke Japanese. It took me years to get the knack of how to be a curator of a festival and an interpreter/translator, so I joined many festivals in theater and film in these capacities or even as a helper. Then I finally decided that I had this whole experience, and that it was about time to start my own gig, my own festival. I got the partners, who already knew me, The Gdansk Shakespeare Theatre and The Grotowski Institute that formed this kind of union in 2019, which was also the 100th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Japan and Poland. So, there was an agenda to do this, and this is basically how it all started. However, from the very beginning, I thought that, if we are doing this, why not do it as a big festival and not just a one gig show.
Then, out of the blue, Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Department |came on board, as they were interested in the same show, “Nuhikun – Directions to Servants”. Thus, in the same year – just before the pandemic – we staged it at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and combined it with Shuji Terayama's film retrospective. You could imagine what was the atmosphere as we were doing Terayama during the political turmoil in the city! Like Anpo in the 60s in Japan. In other words: Hong Kong when it sizzles. One could say that Terayama, who has been deceased for so many years, was in fact the mastermind of this whole operation, as if he was still alive.
Why did you decide to make it multidisciplinary, with theater, music, and cinema?
This is also based on Shuji Terayama's concept that, basically, you cannot lock art into one genre only. If you want to present contemporary Japanese art to the audience, it is not separately just film, music, manga, only literature, only dance. I decided to combine different arts and actually, not many festivals in Europe do this, there are many (Asian) film festivals and theater festivals but they only focus on one genre. InlanDimensions might be also the sole Festival that bluntly says: Asia does not exist! In Japan, one of the festivals that I really admire, and I think it could be the prototype of InlanDimensions is Kyoto Experimental Festival, which takes place once a year in Autumn in Kyoto, and is multidisciplinary. It is also one of these festivals that launch co-productions with different countries and just present them under their own agenda. I think this is really innovative and also brings forth a whole new spectrum and this type of theatrical/performance art,, but at the same time it can be also film, or it can be film but the actors are jumping out of the screen or something similar. This is the core of the festival, this kind of happening that involves the audience, not just that you sit and drink and watch a movie.
Since you mentioned the audience, how are the reactions so far to InlanDimensions program?
The reactions are great, people are really impressed and many who came to the festival did not actually expect what would happen. The festival has an English name, InlanDimensions, which they possibly could not associate with anything maybe apart from David Lynch's “Inland Empire”. Then the festival launched just before the pandemic, so no one was expecting anything grand to happen. We have very good reviews, very positive opinions, but I think it will take a lot of time to build up a solid trademark.
What is your impression of this year's festival?
I am very impressed with the theater part, which is, essentially, the main core this year. It has always been the main core actually, but this year we have such big names that it grew up to the level of The Theatre Olympics. We have not only Danny Yung for the grand opening, but also Hirata Oriza from Seinendan Theatre Company, one of the most important names of the contemporary Japanese theater, we have Chiten Theatre Company – Motoi Miura, one of the best polyphonic theater performances I have ever seen in Japan – “The Gambler” based on Dostoyevsky. For the first time in 40 years, there is a great comeback of the already deceased Ota Shogo – “The Water Station”, directed by Kim Seil. And also Shinjuku Ryozanpaku, which is one of the most important avant garde theater groups that apart from the famous Red Tent, does also shows in Japan in big venues, such as the Bunkamura Theatre Cocoon. We have a wonderful lineup, which is combined with the film retrospective and this issue with Korean and Japanese identity that is linked though the cinema and the theater, giving a broader spectrum on the issue.
I am really looking forward to developing the festival even more, and linking all those different genres into one particular line up. But the problem with theater is that you never really know until March/April next year what would be the results. So you could build your program, for a retrospective for example, but then two of the shows do not receive a grant and it all falls apart, especially during the pandemic.
The festival is taking place in three cities and includes music, theater and cinema. How hard is it organizing such a huge endeavor?
The preparations are very painstaking. I tend to watch about three theater plays per week in Japan, some of which I pay from my own pocket, but basically I have to foresee what will happen in one or two years ahead. So when I am programming this year, I am also thinking what I should do next year, and if, for example, this group does not receive the grant or something else happens, maybe we could have them next year. It takes a lot of time and the same applies to the preparations for grant application, which sometimes I even write by myself in Japanese. Essentially, the whole burden lies with me in the end.
It is also a challenge to find the right staff to be with me in Japan all the time and help with the programming, because there are probably no other Polish people with a specialization in contemporary Japanese theater. Were there any, they would be in Tokyo watching all those plays, but I have not met anybody so far. What I am trying to do for next year is definitely find coordinators from Japan who also have command of the English language, to help out with the management.. The programming will probably stay with me, but there is always the problem with logistics, that small details, such as booking a bus or picking up somebody from the airport, there are also technical problems in each venue and you need extra people to fill the gap.
There are many technical issues during the whole programming process. Japanese are not really familiar with the concept of the technical rider. They do a show in a particular venue in Japan but they do not have everything written up neatly, for example the technical requirements for the stage, for the lighting, for the sound etc. It is very difficult to explain to them that they need to get a technical rider written up in English, because otherwise, the theater staff abroad do not know what to prepare in advance. And sometimes they do prepare it, but two or three weeks before the festival, they say that they need something else, which is just too late. There is always a struggle with time and essentially explaining to everybody that if you don't follow the rules, then you either fall out or you pay from your own pocket, because we have not been prepared for this. We had this kind of situation many times and by some divine intervention, we managed to scrape through, however obviously it does not always go that way. One has to be very meticulous about planning each show, as each show is a separate brainchild.
What is the situation with the theater scene in Japan?
It is so diverse that you plunge in the theater ocean just in Tokyo. You have so many theatrical venues and you have throngs of theater ensambles. From independent ones who cultivate the tradition of sho-gekijo up to the established ones, such as the aforementioned Seinendan. But you also have the completely non-established layout, which you cannot even count. I know many people who are in small theater troupes and also work in pubs or restaurants, who do theater as a hobby. They are very glad about it, they are not unhappy that they are basically poor and they do not even have time for their family or friends, because they always have to work. As soon as they finish their job they go to the theater.
There are also names in the theater who are the new generation, in their 20s and 30s and are appearing now. Big names such as Takuya Kato for instance, who has also just shot the movie “Grown-ups” and absolute prodigy Satoko Ishihara, who did the modern adaptation of the Greek tragedy “The Bacchae”, only taking the basic idea and changing the whole thing completely and won the Kishida Award which is the most significant theater award in Japan. For a very long time, in the contemporary theater, there has been only one person known to Europe from Japan, Toshiki Okada, the leader of chelfitsch. He came to Europe many times, in different festivals, especially in 2016. Now he is also quite known because he is doing co-productions with Thalia Theater (Hamburg) and in Oslo. I think now it is time for the younger generation to appear and they are going to be known in Europe probably very soon, so I am looking forward to this. But the whole scene is so diverse, that there could be a whole encyclopedia on how theater works just in Tokyo. And the same applies to venues, each one has its own rules and you easily see, for example, that this superintendent from Tokyo Metropolitan Theater just moved to Setagaya Public Theater. And you can see that suddenly there is a major change in the programming of both theaters. Or for instance Sai-no-Kuni Saitama Arts Theater where they are doing a lot of Shakespeare stuff because of Yukio Ninagawa's legacy. You go to each venue and you find a different cosmos.
How is the financial situation of InlanDimensions?
It is mainly based on grants from abroad. We have a lot of sponsors this year that really saved our neck, such The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office and The Government of Hong Kong itself, through the good offices of Zuni Icosahedron. We always have The Agency For Cultural Affairs from Japan, which is in fact The Ministry of Culture; The Japan Foundation that has always been supportive and The EU–Japan Fest Committee, last but not least, since they support Wroclaw, as it was The Cultural Capital of Europe in 2016. The main problem is that there is no real support from the Polish Ministry of Culture, so The Grotowski Institute and The Gdansk Shakespeare Theatre are doing this out of their own good will. Fortunately, these are so-called impresario venues, so they are open minded to foreign productions. Usually in Poland, theaters hire actors so they have to play all the time to make a living. Therefore, you would have to pay each theater venue along with the actors if you wanted to book a theater. If you want the theater for two or three weeks, you'd have to pay everybody and tell them that you are taking the theater for one month or so. You can then only imagine how much it would cost. What basically saves us is that there are still impresario theaters and huge support from abroad.
Sometimes, theater groups are so eager to come to Poland and to the festival, because they see how it developed. For example, “The Water Station” just comes without any governmental support – it is The Art Management Centre Fukuoka that paid for all the flights, accommodation and remuneration, so it is basically private money coming from an institution. I must admit it is a miracle that so many people trusted me and helped me out, especially Terayama Morisaki-Henrikku who gave me shelter at his house in Tokyo for the past four years. All these people combined with the audience are the real Dimensions that live Inland!
What is your vision regarding the future of the festival?
Finally after the pandemic, I hope that the festival will work as a platform for producing co-productions. We are working on that step at the moment, as we are going to have the first co-production between Koike Hiroshi Bridge Project and The Grotowski Institute. It is a theater production that consists of Japanese and Polish actors and is directed by Hiroshi Koike, based on Witold Gombrowicz's “Cosmos”. The premiere is already scheduled for February next year and we have the Japanese and Polish actors already chosen, as Mr. Koike came to InlanDimensions this year to finish the selection. He will then come again in the winter and then the directing process will start in Poland. Hopefully the play will go to other festivals and will also be staged in Japan.
We also have plans for another Gombrowicz theater adaptation with Chiten Theater Company, Motoi Miura being the director. I think this is a major step-up, embarking on these co-productions between different artists, mixing them together, being a matchmaker, but in the art field. As for music, for example, Wacław Zimpel, who has just been on stage impromptu with Kaguramuso band will be doing music for Hiroshi Koike and now Motoi Miura wants him also on stage. The new chapter is about to unfold and we will be witnessing a whole spectrum of Eurasian theater productions that are about to come.
I am thinking of doing something similar in the movie industry, but the planning is at an early stage at the moment. Hopefully, I will continue working as an agent for selected artists, not only theater, but film directors, actors and musicians, in order to link them with each other, through my language abilities. Then these productions will be all under the aegis of InlanDimensions. Each edition of the festival shall have its own motto and an ambassador. For the future plans, I am thinking ero guro nansensu focus and maybe one day we can go back in time to the ritual theater to see how shamanism and religion influenced it and how Jerzy Grotowski portrayed it.
