For the past three years, we have been shaping Malta Festival through a female perspective under the patronage of Dominika Kulczyk. This year, we continue to expand our artistic programme with a dedicated space focused on health, relationships, and wellbeing.

At Malta Festival, we offer not only artistic experiences and emotional encounters, but also practical tools that can inspire meaningful life changes. We invite you to take part in conversations about our most important home, our own body, and about the space around us, shaped by closeness, love, and everyday choices. These are the very themes explored throughout the festival programme.

One of the most important events of this year’s Malta Festival will be Distance by Tiago Rodrigues, a moving story about a father and daughter facing an inevitable separation. Rodrigues creates a deeply affecting reflection on love, responsibility, and the conversations we too often postpone until they become conversations that come too late. This theme will serve as the starting point for the open discussion Between Closeness and Distance, organised by Kulczyk Foundation on 25 June and devoted to contemporary fatherhood and andropause. The conversation, moderated by Grzegorz Markowski, will feature Prof. Jacek Wasilewski from the University of Warsaw and actor Piotr Głowacki.

On 22 June, Kulczyk Foundation will also invite audiences to an intimate breakfast gathering, Mother and Daughter!, held at Zielona Weranda. During the meeting, Dr Agnieszka Nalewczyńska will address topics related to the body, adolescence, and emotions, issues every young girl should hear about, yet often feels too embarrassed to ask. The same day will also feature Breast Talk, during which Izabela Sakutova will discuss breast positivity and breast self-examination.

An important part of the festival’s presence in the city will be Freedom Square, where, from 21 to 28 June, Kulczyk Foundation’s symbolic gateway will stand beneath the pulsating neon installation Every One of Us Goes Through It. Naturally., designed to engage both body and senses while encouraging visitors to reflect on their own experiences.

Another key element of Malta Festival will be the 24-hour performance The Second Woman, featuring Magdalena Cielecka. Accompanying the production will be a series of discussions titled Conversations Without Taboo, presented under the patronage of Kulczyk Foundation and hosted by Odeta Moro on 24 June at the Atrium of the University of the Arts Poznań.

The programme will begin with the premiere of the campaign film Menopause Without Taboo, directed by Monika Kmita, followed by a panel discussion featuring Dr Alicja Długołęcka, Dr Katarzyna Skórzewska, and Anna Samsel. This will be followed by Couple Balance, a conversation about partnership with Mateusz Damięcki and Paulina Andrzejewska-Damięcka. Later, the discussion Couple-Pause, inspired by the book Until Hormones Do Us Part, will bring together Dr Katarzyna Skórzewska and Dr Piotr Paweł Świniarski to explore the influence of hormones on intimacy and emotions within relationships. On the final day of the festival, together with Kulczyk Foundation, we invite audiences to join an open Men’s Circle. The ten stage partners of Magdalena Cielecka, together with Dr Robert Kowalczyk, will share their reflections and experiences immediately following their participation in The Second Woman.

Another highly significant part of Malta Festival will be a special day organised in partnership with LUX MED Group on 25 June at the Festival Club. Audiences are invited to take part in a programme of expert talks and visit the LUX MED Mobile Prevention Zone, where free preventive health screenings will be available.

The programme will open with a conversation between journalist Magdalena Rosłaniec and Dr Anna Rulkiewicz, President of LUX MED Group, titled The Price of Empathy. The Power of Values in Leadership. This will be followed by the discussion Longevity. What Is Written in Our Genes and What Depends on Our Choices?, where Olympic champion Robert Korzeniowski will join Dr hab. Grzegorz Juszczyk and Dr Magdalena Kaliszewska in a conversation about conscious ageing. The day will conclude with Menopause – What Does This Change Mean? Between Personal Experience and Social Narrative, during which Dr Monika Tomaszewska and Anna Samsel will discuss the importance of challenging social stereotypes surrounding menopause.

The Malta Festival programme reminds us that true health always begins with relationships, and that spirituality is, quite simply, the art of being closer to oneself and to others. Complementing our wellbeing programme, we also invite audiences to reconnect with pure physicality through daily yoga sessions and Slavic gymnastics practices inspired by traditional women’s knowledge of the body, natural rhythms, and inner harmony.

For the love of ourselves!

Admission to all of the above events is free of charge. Registration is required only for the Mother and Daughter!breakfast and can be made at menstruacja@kulczykfoundation.org.pl due to the intimate nature of the gathering.