Collaborating for the return of Asia TOPA
Artists from across South-east Asia enjoyed a week of creative development planning in Melbourne recently in preparation for the return of the Asia TOPA Festival in 2020.
Over the summer of 2017, Arts Centre Melbourne successfully led the inaugural Asia TOPA (Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts) Festival, a multi-artform celebration of Australia’s cultural connections with Asia.
What distinguished the festival was the high number of new works and commissions at its heart. The majority of these were collaborations between Australian artists and international artists from across the region.
As Arts Centre Melbourne shapes the content for the second edition of Asia TOPA in 2020, 35 artists and “connectors” from eight Asia Pacific countries came together for a Creative Lab directed by Creative Director Stephen Armstrong.
The Lab participants included film makers, writers, curators, producers, performance artists, designers, directors, composers, choreographers, gamers and digital specialist. In all, a total of 12 inter-cultural projects were seeded and most are expected to progress to the next stage of development or commissioning in partnership with local and international producers.
Photo credit: Arts Centre Melbourne
The success of this focus on new work can be measured by the string of Helpmann and Green Room Awards and an impressive slate of national and international presentation opportunities for commissions associated with the inaugural Asia TOPA festival in 2017. This included Garin Nugroho’s Satan Jawa (scored by Iain Grandage and Rahayu Supanggah), Gideon Obarzanek and Lucy Guerin’s Attractor in collaboration with Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi, and Polyglot Theatre and Paper Moon Puppet Theatre’s Cerita Anak.
The focus of the recent Creative Lab on developing a creative repertoire for 21st century audiences in a region as dynamic as Asia-Pacific also means building capacity, connecting communities and enhancing the livelihood of artists. The focus on new work by Australian artists as well as international artists provides an important new platform for innovation as well as cultural connection.
Asia TOPA is a joint initiative of the Sidney Myer Fund and Arts Centre Melbourne and is supported by the Australian and Victorian Governments.
For further information about Asia TOPA 2020, pls email Stephen Armstrong.