Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Forum, Good for Business, Latvia, Technology, Transport

At the heart of the project is the idea of connecting people, beyond historical, cultural and linguistic differences. The European railway infrastructure becomes a stream promoting dialogue and equality. Cosmic Underground is a logistically complex operation which rose above all technical difficulties to show that Europe has no borders.  The on-board exhibition and show will be presented in thirteen cities in five countries – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Portugal. The price of the Ticket is one hour of your time. In return, you become involved in an unforgettable experience of knowledge and imagination, both cosmic… and underground.

Director and concept by Jan Świerkowski (Poland), Curated by Mário Caeiro (Portugal).

Jan Świerkowski graduated astronomy at Nicolaus Copernicus University in 2010. CEO of the Plato Foundation, the organizer of Cosmic Underground. He is the founder and the director of Institute B61, a symbiotic performance group consisting of artists and scientists. Since 2009 he has directed over 10 B61 events in Toruń, Gdańsk, Łódź, Warsaw and Poznań. In 2011 he was a guest speaker in Lux Scientia, an experimental art and science project in Toruń, Tallinn, Durham and London.

Mário Caeiro is a teacher, cultural programmer, curator and researcher in Public Art, Socio-urbanism and the City. PhD in visual arts and intermedia. He is particularly interested in the transdisciplinary approach of cultural production, as one might infer from urban art projects such as Lisbon, Capital of Nothing (2001-2002) and Luzboa – International Biennale on the Theme of Light (2004/2006). Curator of Skyway Festival 2009 – 2012.

THE SPECTACLE : The story of the LOST HOUR – synopsis

Every year in the summer we are losing one hour thanks to the Daylight Saving Time. Nobody knows where the hour is before it comes back. Nobody … except a group of scientists from a top secret science agenda Institute B61 who actually takes it away and conducts experiments on those exceptional 60 minutes.

If You were thinking that Daylight Saving Time is only here to complicate timekeeping, disrupt meetings, travel, billing, recordkeeping, medical devices or heavy equipment you were totally wrong. For more than over 100 hundred years each summer one hour of hour time is ‘kidnaped’ and held in a special laboratory called – Cosmic Underground, where the most complicated and crucial experiments concerning time take place. Before it comes back, it has to undertake 10 test  which will decide if the time is still worthy of flowing or if the current order has expired.  

So have You ever dreamed of time travelling, bring back your childhood or slowing the flow of the time? That’s all included in Cosmic Underground laboratory. There are also things that one could never imagine. Like for example the Time Pollution Museum or the Simple Gravitational Time Curving System. And You also never fed the algae did You?

For the first time in the history of mankind, regular people will be allowed to go inside this amazing lab. The adventure will begin in the train station … but where will it end?

Director: Jan Świerkowski

Script : Jan Świerkowski, Łukasz Ignasiński, Maciej Cegłowski, Radosław Smużny, Krystian Wieczyński

Performance: Łukasz Ignasiński, Maciej Cegłowski, Radosław Smużny, Krystian Wieczyński

THE 10 EXPERIMENTS in the TRAIN

1. Experiment Collecting & breeding human time

Artists: L.U.C, Dominik Smużny (Poland)

L.U.C is the alias of Łukasz Rostkowski (born 16 September 1981 in Zielona Góra), a Polish rapper and producer who works in Wrocław. He is the founder, vocalist and co-producer of musical project Kanał Audytywny, and currently works through his solo albums.

Dominik Smużny (born 1976) is a sculptor and a performance artist. He creates scenography for film and theatre sets. Co-founder of Institute B61 in which he creates cognitive metaphors inspired by contemporary science.

2. Experiment Dream of Freedom

Artists: Eva Tallo & Elo Liiv (Estonia)

Elo Liiv has a MA in Fine Arts. Member of Estonian Artists Association and the Union of Sculptors in Estonia. Has been art teacher and lecturer since 2003 and assistant professor at the Art Academy of Estonia between 2005 and 2010. Had several solo and group exhibitions in Estonia and abroad (Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Finland, France, Cyprus, Sweden, Latvia, Azerbaijan). Works with different kinds of sculptural media and in monumental works, light installations, flying sculptures and site specific interventions.

Eva Tallo is a lighting designer, who has worked with light in a variety of ways for over a decade. She holds an MBA degree, in addition to lighting design, electrical installation and interior decoration. She is the co-founder of Light Club and coordinator of events like “Guerilla Lighting”,  “Light changes public places”, light and sound shows at interactive LED façade in Tallinn on Metro Plaza

3. Experiment You will not see me, You will not hear me

Artists: Andre Banha/Tomasz Cebo/Łukasz Milewski (Portugal/Poland)

André Banha was born in Santarém, in 1980. Lives and works in Coruche. Graduate in Plastic Arts by the Escola Superior de Arte e Design – Caldas da Rainha. Individual shows (selection): Segurei-te o pôr-do-sol, VPF cream art gallery, 2008; A casa das duas portas, Biblioteca da FCT/Unl, Caparica Campus, 2010. Currently represented by VPF – cream art gallery, Lisbon.

Tomasz Cebo is a performer and painter (MA ASP Poznań 2005). He is interested in sound installations based on experiments with human voice. Art director of eNeRDe club in Toruń. In 2011 his life act performance became one of the most memorable moments of the TV series Must Be The Music.

Łukasz Milewski graduate sound engineering at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań. Founder of the eNeRDe Records. He collaborated with theater and film productions. Founder and member of many underground music groups.

4. Experiment Algae sculpture, grown by the exhaled CO2

Artists: Gints Gabrans (Latvia) created in collaboration with Jānis Liepiņš and Kaspars Groševs

Gints Gabrāns (1970) is a well-known contemporary Latvian artist who mainly works with installations researching science, new technologies and new media art. He represented Latvia at 26th São Paulo Biennial in 2004, at the Venice Biennale in 2007, at 4th Moscow Biennale in 2011, won the Baltic Hansabank Art Award in 2005.

5. Experiment I____WAR – be prepared!

Artists: Stefan Kornacki (Poland)

Stefan Kornacki is a graphic designer, author of installations, videos, theatrical activities, performances and poet. He graduate of multimedia graphics at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun. In the previous actions he performed, amongst others, together with trumpeter Tomasz Stanko. His works and project was shown in  European countries.  Laureate of Polish Radio Awards – "Talenty Trójki 2012"

6. Experiment INCOMPLETE

Artists: Mariusz Lubomski/Tomasz Cebo/Łukasz Milewski (Poland)

Mariusz Lubomski a musician and painter, Mariusz Lubomski ranks among the most emitent singer-songwriters in Poland. He composes a unique sort of songs with a characteristic acoustic sound. Lives in Toruń, but is strongly connected with the Stage Song Festival in Wrocław.

Tomasz Cebo is a performer and a painter (MA ASP Poznań 2005). He is interested in sound installations based on experiments with human voice. Art director of eNeRDe club in Toruń. In 2011 his life act performance became one of the most memorable moments of the TV series Must Be The Music.

Łukasz Milewski graduate sound engineering at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań. Founder of the eNeRDe Records. He collaborated with theater and film productions. Founder and member of many underground music groups.

7. Experiment Maelstrom

Artists: Raoul Kurvitz (Estonia)

Raoul Kurvitz is an important Estonian artist who affirmed his language in the 80's, managing to create his own performative approach of social sculpture. Critic Andres Härm recently noted, not with some astonishing, that Kurvitz is both an esoteric, rhizoidal and social artist. It is this rare multilayered and intrincate essence of this artist's approach of communication that led Cosmic Underground to invite him to select a significant piece in his career to travel across Europe.

8. Experiment Invisibility of Deportation

Artists: Elina Cerpa/Dominik Smużny (Latvia/Poland) created in collaboration with Nayi Sinan and Alexander Hopster

Elīna Cērpa is an artist working in documentary theatre and performance, as well as an amateur photographer. She graduated from Dasarts 2011, with Masters in Theatre, majoring in experimental theatre and performance art. Among her teachers however, she counts goat shepherds from deserts of Israel, a toilet cleaner of Amsterdam central station, theatre maker Robert Wilson and many other good and confused people. For the last three years she makes performance that is a fusion of theater, photography and politics.

Dominik Smużny (born 1976) is a sculptor and performance artist. He creates scenography for film and theatre sets. Co-founder of Institute B61 in which he creates cognitive metaphors inspired by contemporary science.

9. Experiment Bilocation 2129

Artists: Justyna Ptaszyńska/Tomasz Wojtaniec/Grzegorz Pleszyński/Adam Dronowski (Poland)

Curated by Olga Marcinkiewicz

Justyna Ptaszyńska is a dancer and choreographer, lives and works in Bydgoszcz.

Tomasz Wojtaniec is a film director and editor, lives and works in Bydgoszcz and Warsaw

Grzegorz Pleszyński is an author of installations, born 1955, lives and works in Bydgoszcz and Berlin

Adam Dornowski is a composer and sound producer 1983, lives and works in Bydgoszcz, Poznań

10. Experiment So Far, So Good

Artists: SOFA, Joachim Sługocki, Jan Świerkowski, Tomasz Cebo (Poland)

SOFA is a music group founded at the beginning of 2003 in Torun, Poland. The group has been playing live shows in Poland and other parts of Europe for the past 5 years now. When seeing this collective of six personalities on stage, one gets a very energetic & naturally eclectic mixture, which is hard to ignore.

Joachim Sługocki is a painter and an author of installations. Student at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun. His works deal with specific types of photoluminescence both UV and phosphorescence.

Jan Świerkowski graduated astronomy at Nicolaus Copernicus University in 2010. CEO of the Plato Foundation, the organizer of Cosmic Underground. He is the founder and the director of Institute B61, a symbiotic performance group consisting of artists and scientists. Since 2009 he has directed over 10 B61 events in Toruń, Gdańsk, Łódź, Warsaw and Poznań. In 2011 he was a guest speaker in Lux Scientia, an experimental art and science project in Toruń, Tallinn, Durham and London.

Tomasz Cebo is a performer and a painter (MA ASP Poznań 2005). He is interested in sound installations based on experiments with human voice. Art director of eNeRDe club in Toruń. In 2011 his life act performance became one of the most memorable moments of the TV series Must Be The Music.

Actors

Maciej Cegłowski – PhD student of astronomy at Nicolaus Copernicus University, an actor in Teatr Wróbli, key figure for Institute B61 group

Łukasz Ignasiński – graduated from PWST Kraków, an actor for Teatr im. Wilama Horzycy in Toruń, key figure in Institute B61 group. 

Radosław Smużny –  an actor and a performer, key figure for the polish Teatr Wiczy

Krystian Wieczyński – an actor and a performer, key figure for the polish Teatr Wiczy

The ROUTE