Editorial

ARTISTIC’S DIRECTOR MESSAGE

“When a noise bothers you, listen to it.” More than ever, that precept of John Cage resonates perfectly with the spirit of the Festival TransAmériques. How indeed can one remain deaf to the echoes of a world that with each passing day grows increasingly dissonant, a bit more discordant? 

Voices are raised, more numerous and more frequent, to courageously defend the profound values of humanity and of life – the voices of millions of anonymous citizens on every continent, as well as the voices of artists whose work resists alienation, indoctrination, stale sound bites and catch phrases, or the dictatorship of what is currently fashionable. They ask basic questions of their art form, of their society, of their contemporaries. Sometimes they also place a soothing balm of beauty and hope on the gaping wounds of war, injustice or the voracious greed of an economic structure that nothing, not even common sense, seems able to stop. Rarely have dance and theatre pieces been so directly attuned to reality as in this 6^th edition.

Regardless of where they come from or their culture, their struggles or their dreams, these artists assert their uniqueness and frankly proclaim their differences. The profusion of forms, affirmations and aesthetics in this Festival presents a wonderful opportunity to slip from the clutches of the everyday and to plunge into the world of myriad possibilities offered by contemporary theatre and dance. The works range from calls for change to explosions of excess, burning desire and quests for identity. They are expressions of anger, humour, compassion, faith, doubt and impelling hope, but they are also moments of suspension, silence, contemplation. The Festival portrays both the liberating power of free expression not afraid to shock, and the fierce beauty of truth delivered in frank, forthright fashion. 

This Festival is not the preserve of a single voice, a single body, a single generation. It is a forum for openness and dialogue, for the clash of ideas and imaginations, for emergence, transition, transmission. It is a place of celebration, subversion and freethinking.

Enjoy the festival!

Marie-Hélène Falcon
Co-general manager and artistic director