Tag: festival

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FESTIVAL ACCÈS ASIE CELEBRATES ITS 30TH ANNIVERSARY!

A word from Ziya Tabassian – new artistic director

Ziya Tabassian – Artistic Director Festival Accès Asie – © Noushin Bahr

“For 30 years, Festival Accès Asie has been celebrating the richness and diversity of artistic expressions from Asian communities and their dialogues with other cultural traditions. Interdisciplinary and inclusive, it provides an essential platform for diaspora artists, fostering exchanges and collaborations through a program that reflects the vibrancy of the contemporary arts scene. By weaving connections between generations and disciplines, the festival has established itself as a space for discovery and transmission, highlighting unique artistic journeys and bold creations.

To mark this milestone anniversary, this special edition, presented throughout Asian Heritage Month in Canada, pays tribute to three decades of artistic engagement and innovation. It reflects the festival’s unwavering commitment to amplifying Asian voices in all their diversity. Through a rich and diverse program, it showcases the festival’s impact on the cultural landscape and its role in fostering new artistic perspectives. More than just an event, Festival Accès Asie is an invitation to explore narratives, aesthetics, and sensibilities that help shape an ever-evolving and open artistic scene.

This year, I have the honor of presenting the festival as Artistic Director. Most of the programming was curated by my predecessor, Nayla Naoufal, to whom I pay tribute for her outstanding work. I have added my own touch, bringing in new nuances and inspirations. With a passionate and dedicated team, along with the support of the Board of Directors, we are committed to offering you a memorable edition.

May this celebration of Asian heritage be a moment of sharing, discovery, and emotion. Wishing you all a wonderful festival!”

Ziya Tabassian – Artistic Director of Festival Accès Asie

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Ziya Tabassian as Artistic Director: A New Era for FAA’s 30th Anniversary

Ziya Tabassian – Artistic Director – © Noush Bahr

A Message from Our New Artistic Director:

It is with immense pleasure, great honor, and profound humility that I accept the position of Artistic Director of Festival Accès Asie, following in the footsteps of Janet Lumb, Khosro Berahmandi, and Nayla Naoufal, whose contributions have profoundly shaped the festival’s history as well as the cultural landscape of Montreal and Canada over the past 30 years.

Having had the privilege of participating in several editions of Festival Accès Asie as an artist, I am now thrilled to join this dedicated team to serve the community in this new role.

My vision for the festival is to continue its noble mission by actively supporting the career development of artists of Asian origin, while enhancing their visibility and prominence on the artistic stages of Montreal, Quebec, and Canada. Festival Accès Asie has always been a space of friendship and solidarity, bringing together not only diverse Asian communities but also other cultural communities.

I also aspire to foster international exchanges to broaden the festival’s horizons and better reflect the richness and diversity of Asian cultures from a global perspective.

To me, Festival Accès Asie is much more than a festival. It is a vibrant community and a space for dialogue where Asian voices can express themselves freely and brilliantly. I am committed to bringing my skills, experience, and passion to this remarkable organization, contributing to its growth and impact.

Ziya Tabassian – Artistic Director of Festival Accès Asie

For more information, visit Ziya Tabassian’s website.

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Feedback on Festival Accès Asie’s 29th edition

Thank you for participating in the festival during the months of may and june 2024! To celebrate the end of a wonderful season, you can find below some articles and interviews that are going to bring you right back to our 29th edition! 

 Opening

Mountain Lake PBS | FESTIVAL ACCÈS ASIE celebrates Diversity and Creativity at its 29th edition ! | May 8 2024

Interview with Nayla Naoufal

Le Devoir | Les multiples identités asiatiques à l’affiche du Festival Accès Asie tout le mois de mai  | Article by Marco Fortier, May 2 2024

Ghosts Within – les fantômes qui nous habitent et Jiā 

Sors-tu? | Festival Accès Asie 2024 | Anqi Sun et la dépression politique | Interview with Anqi Sun by Noémie Rochefort, April 24 2024

Les ArtsZé | Voyage culturel: Explorer les horizons artistiques asiatiques | Review by Jacqueline van de Geer, May 13 2024

If My Body had a Name

atuvu.ca | Entrevue avec Hoor Malas | If My Body had a Name, un solo intime qui questionne | Interview with Hoor Malas, May 3 2024

KinoCulture Montréal | Hoor Malas @ Agora de la danse  | Review by Élie Castiel, May 16 2024

Les ArtsZé | Si mon corps avait un nom | Review by Jacqueline van de Geer, May 16 2024

Radios & Podcasts

CIBL – Sous le radar | Interview with Nayla Naoufal and Hoor Malas, by Ariane Monzerolle | May 10 2024

Canal M-Aux Quotidiens | Interview with Nayla Naoufal by Hélène Denis | May 15 2024

CKUT UpStage | Interview with Andrew Tay by Xander Chung | May 16 2024

CKUT Lesbo sons |Interview with Kama by Nathalie Di Palma | May 20 2024

CKUT Lesbo sons | Interview with Nayla Naoufal by Nathalie Di Palma | May 20 2024

CKUT UpStage | Interview with Hoor Malas by Xander Chung | May 9 2024

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Call for volunteers

© Kathy Poire and Maureen Pasquier

Become a volunteer for Festival Accès Asie ! 

For this 29th edition, we need motivated volunteers to help us with the opening cocktail on Thursday May 2, 2024, from 3 to 9 pm!

Through performances, exhibitions, concerts, and workshops, the Festival showcases artists from Asian communities and collaborations with artists from other communities. It builds bridges between Asian artists and the rest of society, and offers cultural mediation activities.

On the program for this evening: Indian choreographer Amrita Choudhury and Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk) dance artist Barbara Kaneratonni Diabo will come together to celebrate the festival’s launch through a sacred ritual, followed by Indian classical Odissi, Indigenous Fancy Shawl (a powwow dance), and the rhythms of folk  Bollywood. Afterwards, DJ Ziad Nawfal will have the audience dancing to the beats of the Middle East.

Interested?
Register before April 23, 2024 at [email protected]

In the meantime, find the full schedule of the Accès Asie Festival on our website accesasie.com/ and follow us on Instagram (@festivalaccesasie) and Facebook (Festival Accès Asie).

We hope to see you there!

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For this 29th edition : a message from Artistic Director, Nayla Naoufal

Nayla Naoufal – Artistic Director of Festival Accès Asie – © Caroline Tabet

As we continue to mourn the devastating loss of life and territory caused by genocide, war, and the massive displacement of communities, we turn to art. Not to forget, but to keep breathing, to be together, to listen, to observe.

The artists presented by Festival Accès Asie in May 2024 are generous, daring, attentive, bold, and sensitive. They decompartmentalize practices and imaginations, reinvent forms and narratives, or push them to their limits. 

This 29th edition features artists and curators from across the Asian diaspora, as well as their collaborators. On this Indigenous land where we are guests, this intersectional and embracive program celebrates hope, solidarity, and hospitality. Some of the works examine the memory of bodies and landscapes, while others focus on stories told by the living, waterways, and islands. But all celebrate the joy of being oneself and make room for different ways of seeing the world.

Hand in hand with Festival Accès Asie’s board of directors and team, I wish you a beautiful Asian Heritage Month!

Nayla Naoufal – Artistic Director of Festival Accès Asie

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Read our Artistic Director, Nayla Naoufal’s message!

Nayla Naoufal – Artistic Director of Festival Accès Asie – © Caroline Tabet

‘Imagination is a factory where hope is manufactured. If the counternarrative to violence is care, then that’s where you will find me’ Sundus Abdul Hadi.

As the 28th program of the Festival Accès Asie (FAA) is unveiled, I pay tribute to my predecessor Khosro Berahmandi, the architect of this vibrant line up and the recipient of the Charles Biddle Prize in 2022 for his contribution to Quebec’s cultural and artistic development. Khosro has been carefully weaving interconnections within the arts ecosystem and valuing the voices of artists from the Asian diaspora.

This edition emphasizes collaborations between artists from various fields, from different regions of Asia, from different Canadian provinces, as well as projects involving emerging artists and established artists… These collaborations underscore the relations of care and hospitality patiently cultivated by Asian artists within society.

One of the challenges of the FAA is to build a unifying space where artists from diverse Asian diaspora communities can exchange, build solidarity, create together, and reach out to their audiences. We rise to the challenge with this year’s program, which takes place on unceded Indigenous territory, of which the Kanien’kehá:ka nation is the guardian and protector. We are grateful to live in Tiohtiá:ke – which means “where the currents meet” in the Kanien’kehá:ka language – also called Mooniyang – “hollow place” in Anishinaabemowin. We are thankful for the opportunity to highlight, on this territory, the vitality and effervescence of Asian diaspora artists’ practices, from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea to Japan and the Philippines, from Kazakhstan to India.

Hand in hand with Festival Accès Asie’s board of directors and team, I wish you a beautiful Asian Heritage Month!

Nayla Naoufal – Artistic Director of Festival Accès Asie

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Fleur de lys, fleur de thé is coming to Saguenay!

Fleur de lys, fleur de thé is back! This year, we bring the regional component of Festival Accès Asie to Saguenay to present seven activities and shows for the whole family! The Festival team, accompanied by 10 exceptional Asian artists, will be at the Centre des arts et de la culture of Chicoutimi from August 11th to 14th to present the best of our programming to the Saguenay public! As you know, Fleur de lys, fleur de thé offers the opportunity to artists of Asian origin, whose activities are mostly based in the metropolis, to present their works and their artistic disciplines regionally, and allows a cultural sharing with the public and the artists of a particular region of Quebec. This component is an essential part of our mission as an organization, as it allows us to present our work to an audience that would not otherwise be exposed to Asian arts, to build relationships across the province, and to increase understanding of our communities in order to combat stereotypes through exposure and dialogue. We hope to see you there in large numbers; all the activities of this edition are free and suitable for an audience of all ages! Discover our program in detail here. See you soon, Chicoutimi!

Program Summary

Thursday, August 11, 2022

5 P.M. – OPENING OF VOMITING FLOWERS | Multimedia art installation

7:30 P.M. – BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES | Movie screening 

Friday, August 12, 2022

7:30 P.M. – DOUBLE TIGERS | Contemporary dance

Saturday, August 13, 2022

2 P.M. – SHADOW THEATRE WORKSHOP | Workshop for kids

7:30 P.M. – PERSIAN-ARABIC RITE | Persian music concert

Sunday, August 14, 2022

2 P.M. – APPROCHEZ, JE VOUS RACONTERAI CE QUE J’AI OUBLIÉ | Immersive new media performance

4:30 P.M. – CULTURAL MEDIATION | Round table with featured artists

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Khosro Berahmandi is retiring as Artistic Director

As some of you already know, our dear Khosro Berahmandi will be retiring as Artistic Director of Festival Accès Asie in January after more than 25 years of service! He intends to take this opportunity to work on his personal artistic projects and enjoy some well-deserved rest. We are sad to see him go, but the Festival is a big family, and we are sure to see him again very soon in visual arts exhibitions across Montreal! We will not soon forget Khosro’s incredible contribution to Montreal’s cultural landscape, his significant addition to the artistic representation of the entire continent of Asia, and of course, his memorable hair and inimitable style! Thank you so much for your wonderful work and your contagious energy dear Khosro! Happy retirement, you’re cool like cucumber!  

Of course, if Khosro retires, this means that his position is vacant! We are therefore looking for a dynamic person to fill the role of Artistic Director! We are searching for someone who ideally has experience in multidisciplinary programming in the Montreal cultural scene and who has an expert knowledge of Asian arts and cultures. The position will start on November 14th for transferring knowledge before Khosro’s official departure in January 2023. All details on our Career page! 

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Thank you for more than 4,000 spectators!

Another edition of Festival Accès Asie has come to an end! In total, 4097 of you attended this year’s events! This edition was fraught with difficulties due to the current sanitary circumstances, but all in all, the team is very satisfied with the festival’s in-person return after two years of virtual programming.

We would like to thank the wonderful artists in our program, all of our collaborators and our loyal audience for their unwavering support! Thank you all for participating, and we’ll see you next year for a new edition more vibrant than ever!

Our stats for this 27th edition:

  • 20 events,
  • 13 Montreal venues,
  • More than 70 artists,
  • …And more than 4,000 spectators! 🎉
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Launching of our 2022 program!

You’ve all been waiting for it: our 2022 program has finally been revealed! 🎉 Discover below the 19 events that will make up our 27th edition. This year, we will finally be able to meet in person after two years of online shows, and celebrate Asian Heritage Month together in different Montreal venues. All the details of the events can be found on our Program page.

  • May 5 at 5 p.m | Opening cocktail | Conseil des arts de Montréal (Free) [FR/EN]
  • From May 5 to May 29 | Origami Workshop | Online (Free) / Workshop for kids [FR]
  • May 6 at 8 p.m. | From Tokyo to Montréal | Gesù ($10) / Cinema [EN]
  • From May 7 to May 29 | Asian Horror & Cynicism | Maison de la culture Janine-Sutto (Free) / Visual Arts [FR/EN] [Opening on May 7 at 2 p.m. Round table on May 8 at 2 p.m.]
  • From May 11 to June 12 | Terre Fertile | Maison de la culture de Côte-des-Neiges (Free) / Visual Arts [FR/EN] [Opening on May 11 at 5 p.m.]
  • May 12 at 8 p.m. | Pendulum in the Mirror | Jeunesses Musicales du Canada ($20) / Music [FR/EN]
  • May 13 at 8 p.m. | Fireworks Play Readings – Never Walk Alone | Gesù ($10) / Theatre [EN]
  • May 14 at 2 p.m. | Water and Dreams | OBORO (Free) / New media [FR/EN]
  • May 14 at 8 p.m.| Fireworks Play Readings – Lady Sunrise | Gesù ($10) / Theatre [EN]
  • May 14 at 8 p.m. | Mystic Music from Pakistan | Auditorium of the Grande Bibliothèque BAnQ ($30) / Music [FR/EN]
  • May 15 at 2 p.m. | Delight your taste buds: Mongolian cuisine | Om Restaurant ($20) / Culinary Mediation [FR]
  • May 19 and May 20 at 8 p.m. | PANJ | MAI ($20) / Multidisciplinary [EN]
  • May 20 at 9 p.m. | Blue Move$ with Transpacific Express | Centre Phi ($20) / Music [FR/EN]
  • May 21 starting at 8 a.m. (available for 24 hours) | The Path of Dreams | Online (Free) / Theatre [FR]
  • May 22 at 9 p.m. | Suoni Per Il Popolo visits Festival Accès Asie | Sala Rossa ($10) / Music [FR/EN]
  • May 26 at 7:30 p.m. | Od-Sor & Double Tigers | Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique de Montréal ($25) / Dance [FR/EN]
  • May 27 at 7:30 p.m. | Unexpected Path | Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique de Montréal ($25) / Dance [FR/EN]
  • May 28 at 8 p.m. (EST) | On the Move: National Asian Heritage Celebration | Online (Free) / Multidisciplinary [FR/EN]
  • May 29 at 2 p.m. | Closing show | Lahaie Park (Free) / Dance, Music & Workshop [FR/EN]


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