Complexity (Version 11)
In an interview with Le Devoir this past March1, renowned stage director Peter Brook issued a warning to young artists : Beware. After years and years of carrying out all sorts of experiments, I have arrived at what journalists and writers refer to as simplicity. However, if you set out with the idea of simplicity, you risk giving rise to some kind of moribund austerity.
As we strive toward efficiency, shortcuts can easily appear as the most obvious choice. By so doing, we believe that we are saving time and expediting results. Yet more often than not, this leads us to dead ends. Instead, why don’t we encourage complexity in art as elsewhere? Diving fearlessly into chaos and learning to nurture the patience necessary to uncover meaning and avoid this austerity?
How can we develop a festival that fosters productive forms of complexity?
The OFFTA wishes to highlight these intricacies by considering different perspectives of the same object. By providing a space for disparate voices, by cherishing the ideas that cause us to doubt, and by nurturing critical and empathetic approaches to beings and objects.
We create spaces conducive to the delicate process of artistic gestures. Presentations of performances at different stages in the creative process that enable these projects to develop over time and that allow ideas to take root. Formats that encourage fruitful gatherings and strengthen our relationships with others. Discussions, residencies, laboratories, premieres, and revivals.
But mostly, unique encounters between artists and audiences that cultivate these different perspectives.
To all who wish to contribute to this vitality, to those for whom chaos brings forth life and meaning, to those who see beauty in the complex, welcome into the second decade of the OFFTA.
The Co-directors and Team of LA SERRE – arts vivants