Tag: festival

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

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!

‘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