‘WE are at a point in history where everything is about division and so we are trying to find ways to create more understanding and more conversations and more dialogue.”
Journey to the East Festival director Jian Yi is on Zoom, appearing to be in a coffee shop somewhere in Glasgow explaining the focus of an internationally collaborative festival being held in the city, but with his heart and his mind united with a clear, singular purpose – making art relevant to all of us.
Journey to the East is a weekend of live performances from Friday in the CCA and Tramway followed by a week-long residency at French Street, about which Yi is particularly excited.
He explains it is about “incorporating a space where we are making an exhibition but also having workshops, panel talks, discussions and inviting people from Glasgow to come in, utilise this space and just participate.”
The festival centres queer people, people of colour and East Asian artists and art forms, with the focus on artists and their work.
Yi becomes animated when expressing this: “This is really an artist’s festival run by artists and for artists and directly connecting with audiences and society to bring in a sense of art and performance being relevant again: making a difference in our culture.”
For Yi that integrity along with integration is key as he sees art, “being integral again, rather than being a commodity”. It is what he calls, “the transformational aesthetic encounter”. Just as exciting are the international artists he has delivered for Scotland, as he went on to explain: “I am thrilled and honoured to have such great artists to be part of the programme – international superstars.”
And they are internationally renowned as Glasgow will welcome techno-transcendent ritual style, Japanese DJ ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U, iconic New York-based transfem activist artist Keioui Keijaun Thomas and Taiwanese live artist River Lin.
Yi said: “It will be really enriching to our local culture to come into contact with the global network of what we are creating.”
Journey to the East Productions is no stranger to success following this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.
Yi said: “My work Weathervanes, for the Made in Scotland Showcase, had a great run. It was great to really connect with people from everywhere and to share the work we first made in 2021 with a new audience.”
It won a Lustrum award for being an “unforgettable show”.
Yi will bring the curtain down on the festival’s initial weekend alongside Cryptic artist Robbie Thomson with a new multidisciplinary performance art and dance piece – Cloud States.
Yi said: “Cloud States is very much about exploring our internal nature and connecting that to the external environment and this idea of internal and external wildernesses and exploring how that can ground us in a more universal framework.”
Thereafter it is all about French Street and Yi’s vision really spills out: “We are interested in finding ways in which we can take our practice and make a difference by following the legacy of the artist-led model. We want to present our perspectives on cultural curation.”
It is a theme that is key – the commodification of art. Yi adds: “With increasing corporatisation and capitalisation of the arts there really needs to be a space where artists can come together and explore thematic content and share that directly with audiences so there are more diverse voices and more ability to showcase works and perspectives that have been marginalised and artists that have not had a chance to come to Scotland due to a lack of curatorial investment in these kinds of practices.
“It is really exciting to have that sort of legacy for queer people and people of colour but also for everyone to be able to experience more diversity in what we are able to go to and experience in Scotland.”
And of the festival overall? Yi says: “I think it is about dialogic practice. We are bringing artists conversations, research panels and community engagement where we tackle issues.
“It is about understanding and bridging differences and divisions. We need more sensitivity to the issues and more exposure to diverse artists and artforms, and themes.
“If we always have things produced by the one corporate organisation, one museum or art centre which is run by white cis people, we are never going to be able to hear more voices and have more familiarity with each other.”
And it is here that familiarity bucks the cliche and brings us closer by relevance and respect. For that more than anything else, Jian Yi’s excitement is justified.
