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Feb. 16, 2021

Gisèle Vienne and Ryuichi Sakamoto named associate artists for the 2021 Holland Festival

It has been announced that the associate artists for the 2021 Holland Festival to be held in June will be the French-Austrian director, choreographer and stage art creator Gisèle Vienne and the Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Known for its proud history over six decades, the Holland Festival has continued to present cutting-edge performing arts not only from the Netherlands and Europe but from around the globe as well. Since 2019, the festival has selected one or two associate artists from whom new works are commis-sioned or recent works performed. Their presence also brings to the festival programs a spotlight on themes related to the respective associate artists. The associate artists for 2019 were choreographer Faustin Linyekula of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and contemporary artist William Ken-tridge of the Republic of South Africa, while the associate artist for 2020 was choreographer Bill T. Jones of the U.S.A. (due to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, the festival was cancelled and online programs conducted instead).

As an artist whose works are known in Japan through appearances at Festival/Tokyo and Kyoto Experiment, Gisèle Vienne has been known internationally for her works using marionettes or man-nequins with human forms, or dolls wearing masks as main motifs, but in recent years she also uses actors and dancers. In her works, Vienne brings philosophical thought to her human figures and shows how human desires seemingly opposed to the themes of beauty, love and destruction are mutu-ally intertwined. At the coming Festival, she will present her newest work L’Étang (The Pond), which is a joint production with Holland Festival.

The Japanese composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto is known for his diverse musical works drawing on elements of classical music, contemporary and popular music as well as ethnic music. His album async, released in 2017, is a work which paints an audio portrait of the passing of time.

In recent years, Sakamoto has expanded his activities beyond music to include opposition to nuclear energy and support of environmental issues. Currently, Sakamoto is working in collaborating with the multi-disciplinary artist Shiro Takatani on a new work titled Time, an unconventional opera which is also a coproduction with the Holland Festival.

For the 2021 Holland Festival, both of the associate artists will present their newest or recent work.

Holland Festival
https://www.hollandfestival.nl/en/