The Grand Theatre in Poznań, Poland, will premiere “Art of War / Sztuka wojny,” a new opera with music by Maciej Henel-Celis and a libretto by Beniamin Bukowski, on Nov. 20, 2026.

Tobiasz Sebastian Berg directs and choreographs the production, which is built around the concept of war as a contemporary art exhibition. A perpetrator of violence appears as the Artist and War itself as the Curator, with acts of destruction presented as artistic achievements. The audience gradually discovers that it has become part of a system that turns violence into something to be admired.

The creative team invited 30 young people from Poland and Ukraine to take part in several months of artistic laboratories on dramaturgy, movement, music and their own perceptions of war. Their input shaped the artistic language and structure of the work. The team also recently returned from 10 days of documentary research and workshops in Kyiv with Ukrainian war veterans, young people, students and members of artistic and social communities, including people associated with the Theatre of Veterans in Kyiv and the Kyiv National Operetta.

“We began with a fundamental question: Why are young people, who will live with the consequences of today’s wars for decades, so rarely invited to participate in public conversations about them?” Berg said in correspondence with OperaWire.

The audience sits on two sides of a narrow performance space resembling a military tent, an art gallery and a runway.