Dispatches from a Spring of Festival Travel
June 11, 2025
Over the past few months, the PuSh team has been lucky enough to visit other fabulous international festivals in Canada and abroad: Bangkok International Performing Arts Meeting, Taiwan Week, Festival TransAmériques (FTA) in Montreal and Luminato Festival in Toronto.
Discovering work from artists new to us, and building relationships with both artists and fellow presenters, is a huge part of this curatorial research. There are electrifying moments of “I’ve never seen this before!”, warm moments with familiar faces, and an always welcome feeling that PuSh is part of a larger ecosystem that connects artists and audiences across cultures in ways that continue to inspire us.
Here are some reflections from these recent travels:
Taiwan Week – Gabrielle
Su PinWen performing during PuSh’s 2025 Opening Night Party // Photo by Sayna Ghaderi
“Being immersed in Taiwan Week this April and Festival TransAmériques earlier this month reminded me how live arts hold space for collective memory and imagination and help us navigate the contradictions of our time. Taiwan Week was about reconciling with a past that feels like it’s getting closer and diving into the future unknown.
“Several projects revisited the White Terror Era. Several projects displayed cutting-edge virtual reality: Riverbed Theatre and PHI Studio’s mixed reality experience Blur had me convinced my body had physically flown through a dystopian desert of cloned mammoths, reflecting on the magical possibilities and terrifying consequences of the speed of our advancements… thanks to technology that takes us further from human experience as we know it. Singing Chen’s award-winning The Man Who Couldn’t Leave uses this next level VR technology to transport us back in time, within the walls of a political prison, waiting for a freer future with fellow inmates. And I experienced this hyper-real VR cinema while physically sitting in a former detention centre in Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park.
I also caught up with Su PinWen – who some of you may remember from our opening party!”
If you’d like to read more about this trip, PuSh’s visit to BIPAM, and PuSh’s curatorial vision with Artistic Director Gabrielle Martin’s reflections on her travels, we invite you to join our Patron’s Circle of Donors: those who give $500+ each year receive an exclusive curatorial newsletter.
Festival TransAmériques – Lindsay
Managing Director Annie Clarke and Festival Producer Lindsay Clarke at Théâtre de Quat’Sous following the performance of Tyson Houseman’s askîwan ᐊᐢᑮᐊᐧᐣ
“FTA was a whirlwind of visually stunning programming, inspiring works-in-progress, and connections with new colleagues and established partners. The sudden influx of cultural professionals in Montreal sparks a creative fire. Showcases, pitches, artist talks, industry cocktails and other off-programming beckoned us to venues across the city. The PuSh team took a divide and conquer approach to make the most of this smorgasbord of opportunities and came together for Tyson Houseman’s askîwan ᐊᐢᑮᐊᐧᐣ, a meditative multimedia opera in which Houseman ‘proposes an ode to his ancestral territory at a critical moment of ecological crisis in human history.’ This beautiful show was a collective favourite, and the FTA festival experience was a fantastic kick-off to the summer festival season.”
“Bread for the World” workshop at FTA, led by Wayqeycuna artist Tiziano Cruz, who brought Soliloquio to PuSh in 2023
Luminato Festival – Tricia
“It was the immersive experiences woven throughout Luminato—each one a portal into a world of sensory storytelling—that captured me during this year’s Luminato Festival. From the first experience of Maria Chávez’s exploratory soundscape taking shape in real-time as it reacts to its surroundings within the Art Gallery of Ontario to my final day playing on the inside of a bouncy castle… sadly no, you don’t get to bounce on the outside of it—but inside The Terceradix Luminarium, towering domes and winding pathways create an otherworldly landscape with the natural light.
Joshua Thomson’s THAW at Luminato Festival, Toronto // Photo by Jeremy Lyall
Between these joyous moments shared with strangers—now friends—I sang and danced along with the UK’s dandies, I witnessed a performance on an ice burg in THAW—one of the coolest (pun intended) contemporary performance installations I’ve seen regarding the climate crisis, and shared space in a special realm that wove together sound, story, and ceremony in a powerful performance that bridges Indigenous worlds of the North and South. From large-scale environments to intimate encounters, these works reminded me of the power of art to shift perception, invite play, and reconnect us to wonder. Now, to seek out Hiromi Tango’s installation Rainbow of Dreams and move, wonder, and pause.”
Marketing & Communications Manager Tricia Knowles with performers of the UK’s Dandyism at Luminato Festival