Maria Magdalena Kozłowska
Maker
Director, singer, and performer Maria Magdalena Kozłowska (PL/NL) explores the connective and revolutionary potential of the human voice in her work. Using classical singing, music, video, visual art, and live performance, she creates works and interventions that bridge the gap between individual and society, tradition and transition, past, present, and future. Previously at Frascati Producties, she created COMMUNE (2021), Dead Skin (2022), and The Polish Project Part 1 (2025). During Julidans 2025, her latest performance will premiere: The Polish Project.
Biography
Maria Magdalena Kozłowska (PL/NL) studied philosophy in Warsaw. She began her artistic career in Poland, where she worked for 12 years. She graduated in 2020 from DAS Theatre at the Amsterdam Academy of Theatre and Dance. Her work was and is shown at various European venues and art institutions, including KW Institute of Contemporary Art (Berlin), Museum of Modern Art (Warsaw), the Venice Biennale, Come Together (Amsterdam), Belluard Bollwerk Festival (Frijburg), Gessnerallee (Zurich) and the European Cultural Foundation Princess Margriet Award for Culture (Amsterdam). An overview of her video work was shown at the International Film Festival New Horizons in Wroclaw.
Nothing is as personal and intimate as the human voice. At the same time, it is our voice which we use to express ourselves, to connect with others, to share our thoughts and emotions, to put the past into words, to engage in politics, and to make imaginable what is not yet so. This versatility is a leitmotif in Maria Magdalena's work.
Earlier this season, in collaboration with theatre-maker Pankaj Tiwari, Maria Magdalena brought the ‘elitist’ art form of opera to the public space of Amsterdam’s canals with the floating performance Opera to the People (2021). For European Songs (2019), a performance about the history and future of Europe, Maria Magdalena developed a new European language as a starting point for a utopian communication strategy. In the mini-opera Meditation on the Archive, she raised critical questions about ‘archiving strategies’ and the collective European memory.
In previous works, Maria Magdalena focused on the interaction between changing economic relations, identity, and (family) traditions in Poland (I’ve Had Enough (2019)) and on whether rituals and spirituality still have a role to play in the current capitalist system (Sirota or how to be forgotten (2018), Working Songs (2017)). She also did an impressive solo about changing notions of success and failure in Adolf Hitler’s monumental former study room (Speech (2017)).
Since 2021, Maria Magdalena is associated with Frascati Producties. Her first Frascati production, COMMUNE (2021), was a musical tribute to protesting women, inspired by the women’s strike in Poland, Pussy Riot, hydrofeminism, and contemporary opera. After its Dutch premiere, COMMUNE was performed at Santarcangelo Festival 2022 in Italy. In December 2022, she premiered her second work with Frascati Producties, Dead Skin: a dark, explosive, and musical trip through the landfill of her own fashion addiction. For Holland Festival 2023, she collaborated with Pankaj Tiwari on an adaptation of Jérôme Bel. In 2024, she created The Polish Project part 1, an exploration of the hidden stories of migrant workers whose lives often revolve around labour.
At Julidans 2025, her new performance will have its world premiere, co-produced by Frascati Producties: The Polish Project. Building on the research begun in The Polish Project part 1, this is a raw and poetic performance in which art and labour merge into a musical and visual universe full of rhythm and physicality. Through opera, choreography, and video, she brings the voices and stories of Polish migrant workers to life, blurring the lines between documentation and imagination. The performance is an ode to invisible labour, to human resilience, and to the fragile balance between dedication and exhaustion in both work and art.
Press
"I work with the directness and intrusiveness of voice and music. It can reach the emotional, even spiritual level of our being, whether we like it or not. It’s very visceral."
Glamcult in conversation with Maria Magdalena Kosłowska about Dead Skin
"...overall intelligent commentary and tribute to the feminist movements in Poland."
Movement Exposed about COMMUNE
"COMMUNE is a body-positive, emancipatory opera."
Interview with Gargarin Magazine (IT) about COMMUNE
Productions
