Tag: festival accès asie

News

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

News

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.

News

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

News

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

News

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