From June 11-15, SHAPE+ returns to Warsaw for Unsound’s Ephemera festival with a programme of live performances and educational workshops.
Co-funded by the European Union and Pro Helvetia, SHAPE+ is a platform that looks to foster creativity in emerging artists with collaborative opportunities, performance invitations, commissions, and seminars.
Produced by Unsound, Ephemera is a Warsaw-based festival that collaborates with local curators, museums, theatres, and artists to celebrate collective rituals throughout various venues. On its sixth edition, the festival has become a vital part of the city’s cultural fabric.
For 2025, SHAPE+ has organised a range of live performances. The first day of the festival will see Danish sound artist Sofie Birch and Polish singer and composer Antonina Nowacka perform their collaborative project Hiraeth at Warsaw’s National Opera hall. The following day, SHAPE+ hosts a one-off collaborative performance by saxophonist/composer Marek Pospieszalski, guitarist Artur Rumiński, and percussionist Julian Sartorius.
On 14 June, supergroup Asian Dope Boys are set to play an immersive eight-hour blur performance blending theatre, concert and rave, followed by a conversation with Tianzhuo Chen.
Elsewhere on the programme, experimental collaborative research platform Machine Listening (established by artist-researchers Sean Dockray, James Parker, and Joel Stern) are set to showcase their audio performance of Environments 12, a speculative addition to cult classic series Environments, released between 1969-1979. The performance will be followed by a discussion with the artists.
The platform has also organised a series of workshops and talks with various industry professionals, including a limited workshop with dancer and practitioner of musical improvisation Bianca Scout. The workshop, which takes place on 14 June, invites 20 attendees to create a joint performance based on elements proposed by Scout. The finale of the workshop will culminate in a performance during Bianca Scout’s concert the following day.
All announced artists can be found on the Ephemera website.
Tickets are still available here, and the full programme is available here.
