Unfolding Visions for the Future
Montréal/Tio’tia:ke, October 13, 2021 – Following the success of FTA Respirations, launched in the fall of 2020, Festival TransAmériques reasserts a determination to foster artistic creation and encourage experimentation. Created in solidarity with a community that has been heavily affected by the pandemic, Respirations is here to stay as a research and development lab for artistic practices. In 2021-2022, FTA will provide $230,000 in funding for 34 projects from Montréal/Tio’tia:ke and elsewhere through the Respirations programme. In total, over 100 artists and cultural workers will benefit from FTA Respirations this year. This is FTA’s active contribution to reviving the arts and to bolstering an ecosystem that is fragile, yet essential to all citizens.
As part of its commitment to the dance and theatre communities, FTA usually invests since 2007 an average of $100,000 annually in coproducing nearly a dozen stage performances. On top of this, Respirations will support creators during the research phase and early stages of their process.
“Respirations allows us to expand the pool of artists we cooperate with and to adopt better practices by compensating them for the invisible work that happens early on in their work process. Respirations seeks to better understand and to pay attention to the various contexts in which artworks are created, particularly those of Indigenous artists and artists of colour. It allows us to build pathways between FTA and artistic communities that are underrepresented on stage. Visionary practices and new knowledge need space and flexibility in order to unfold. By maintaining Respirations, the Festival acquires a powerful tool for change and, in the long run, will be all the richer for it.”
— Martine Dennewald and Jessie Mill, co-artistic directors of FTA
FTA Respirations 2021-2022 supports 34 projects by 57 artists from Quebec and Canada, including Ivanie Aubin-Malo and Natasha Kanapé Fontaine + Noémie Avidar (Grand Barachois) + Catherine Bourgeois / Joe Jack et John + Kim-Sanh Châu + Création Dans la chambre / Julie Basse, Félix-Antoine Boutin, Odile Gamache and Gabriel Plante + Alix Dufresne and Étienne Lepage + Burcu Emeç + Yohayna Hernández + Hanako Hoshimi-Caines + Lorrie Jean-Louis + Dorian Nuskind-Oder and Simon Poirier / le Radeau + Lindsay Katsitsakatste Delaronde (Victoria) + Adam Kinner and Christopher Willes + Lara Kramer + Michel F Côté and Catherine Lavoie-Marcus + Pierre Lefebvre and Benoît Vermeulen + Emilie Monnet + Atom Cianfarani and Alexis O’Hara (Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson) + PME-ART + Théâtre À tour de rôle (Carleton-sur-Mer) + Bianca Richard and Gabriel Robichaud (Moncton) + Enora Rivière + Francis Tanguay-Durocher + Andrew Tay (Toronto) and Stephen Thompson (Nice) + Théâtre de la Sentinelle / Lyndz Dantiste, Philippe Racine and Tatiana Zinga Botao + Brian Solomon (Shebahonaning) + Katie Ward + Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory (Iqaluit)
To make this research and creation lab possible, FTA relies on strong relationships with its artistic partners. Residencies are organised at l’Écart, a contemporary art centre in Rouyn-Noranda, and at the Théâtre Aux Écuries. Two participants to the Labo ELAN 2021-2024, a project at Récréâtrales de Ouagadougou, will benefit from dramaturgic support. Furthermore, FTA is beginning to reflect on audio description in collaboration with Danse-Cité, and supports Brazilian performing arts by contributing to the coproduction fund Panorama Raft at Panorama dance festival in Rio de Janeiro. For a second year in a row, the Festival is proud to partner with the Nomadic Residencies organized by LA SERRE – arts vivants, where eight artists are invited to engage with the nature parks of Montreal. Finally, Respirations supports the development of the first Dramaturgical Clinics in Flanders by Les Enfants du garage, a theatre company headed by Sara Vanderieck.
FTA would like to thank its public partners for allowing it to be there for artists when they most need it: the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Direction de la culture et du patrimoine de la Ville de Montréal, Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts de Montréal.
The Festival wishes to express its heartfelt gratitude to donors who took part in its annual campaign in 2021. Their generous donations have allowed us to raise $44,515 for the FTA Respirations.
