The National Theater and Concert Hall (NTCH) and Avignon Festival signed a partnership agreement in Taipei yesterday to cultivate young artists for the festival’s project, making the arts center in Taipei the French festival’s first and only partner in Asia.
NTCH general and artistic director Liu Yi-ruu (劉怡汝) and Avignon Festival director Tiago Rodrigues signed a three-year pact to collaborate on projects including the first edition of “Transmission Impossible Project” set to be held during the French festival next year.
“We were very interested in taking part in the project when Tiago first brought up the idea, because Taiwan needs to put in every effort to reach out to the world, and gain all kinds of ‘energy’ from the world for our artists to enrich their source of creation,” Liu said about the newly formed partnership at the signing ceremony.
Photo: CNA
Liu and Rodrigues both mentioned the values and vision they share are what brought the NTCH and the Avignon Festival together, with Rodrigues pointing out that both sides “believe about the importance of artistic creation, theater and performing arts as a beating heart of a democratic society.”
“For the next three years, we will receive young Taiwanese artists to take part in the festival, to work directly with great, experienced, famous artists from all over the world, but also to see the performances at the ‘Festival d’Avignon,’ participate in debates, in exchanges, in workshops, and live a very full life in the Festival of Avignon,” Rodrigues said.
The hope is “this will allow them to transform their view of the performing arts, to evolve, but also to share the richness of the Taiwanese performing arts,” he added.
The first edition of “Transmission Impossible Project” would be led by French choreographer Mathilde Monnier, and other artists set to take part in the project to be announced in April next year, Rodrigues said.
Rodrigues took up the post as director of the Avignon Festival in September last year, and Liu said this year’s festival in July already reflected “a subtle tenderness” commonly shown in works by the Portuguese director, writer and actor.
Taiwan is the last stop of Rodrigues’ visit to Asia and it is his first visit to the country, where three of his works had been shown since 2021, including As Far As Impossible, a play about humanitarian workers, at the National Theater in Taipei in March. Rodrigues’ adaption of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard was also staged in March at National Taichung Theater, with French actress Isabelle Huppert playing the main character “Lioubov.”
This year’s Avignon Festival shared the theme of memories with the NTCH’s Artquake festival, Rodrigues said.
The Artquake in Autumn festival runs from Oct. 5 to Nov. 19.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as