Festivals as Catalysts for Social Change
Re-connecting minds and spaces
From 20-28 May 2024, The Festival Academy in collaboration with Re-Connect platform, invited a group of 6 international creative minds based in countries that face limitations for international travelling to gather for an 8-day immersive experience and research-based experience on an Island in Turkey.
Under the name “The Island Lab”, the purpose of the trip was to map out, brainstorm and try out practices that could outline a long-term project: a residency with a festival outcome that could reinvigorate the cultural life of the island as well as serving as a meeting point aimed at artists and cultural practitioners advocating equal opportunities within the international mobility schemes.
The stay combined collective actions, time for individual creation, discussions and body-oriented practices.
The Island Lab was the pilot version of the Festival Lab, which is a new format that addresses people from The Festival Academy community to impact and catalyse new ideas and projects.
Find here a poetic documentation of the experience by Nahhmeh Manavi, participant in the Festival Lab.
