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Music as cultural unifier: The music taking centre stage at the French Spring Festival 2021

26 Jun 2021

Music is one of those transcendent forms of art that crosses boundaries and brings people together; it is incredibly collaborative and has the power to evoke any emotion in a listener. It forms an integral part of culture and the human experience.  [caption id="attachment_145711" align="alignright" width="331"] "It’s about song traditions and song lineages coming together. Things that are handed down to us in the form of lullabies and songs of the Earth Sri Lankan musician" Hania Luthufi [/caption] The French Spring Festival is a multi-disciplinary platform that recognises the power of music, and this year, the French Spring Festival 2021, which is taking place virtually, features an eclectic mix of musicians from Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Polynesia to emphasise the cultural importance and versatility of music. The French Spring Festival 2021 is organised jointly by the Embassy of France in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, the network of Alliance Française in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, with the support of their partners, Lanka Institute of Fashion Technology, SLYCANTrust, Publicis Groupe Sri Lanka, Café Français, ARTRA Magazine, SUEZ France, ATR Aircraft, Mod’Art International, AGC Innovate, Ceylon Theatres, Cafe Kumbuk, Emerging Media, and One Galle Face. In its ninth year, the French Spring Festival 2021 takes place from 18 June to 18 July and explores the theme “THE ISLAND”, showcasing a range of different insularities that vary by their size, position, culture, and conceptual understanding, as well as the challenges that affect them. Through history, islands have been subjected to a myriad of collective imaginaries and mythologies. They are mysterious and inaccessible, and something of a siren for adventurers. From Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island to Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, real and imaginary islands have always been part of our geographical and literary understanding. In the words of 20th-Century Swiss traveller, writer, picture editor, and photographer Nicolas Bouvier, “what we bring to an island is subject to metamorphosis”, and the French Spring Festival will look at what islanders are bringing to their island today.  Embassy of France in Sri Lanka and the Maldives Cultural Attachée Aurélia Collard shared that this year, the French Spring Festival will take place largely virtually. “We prepared for two scenarios throughout the year; physical and online format, and the latter became evident as the date approached. However, we are still hoping to organise certain physical events once the situation is better,” she said, adding: “This year, we also decided to innovate and have a core theme guiding the festival: The island. This allowed us to explore the different characteristics that constitute islands, both French islands (places like La Reunion, Polynesia, Martinique, and so on...) and islands such as Sri Lanka and the Maldives. We wanted to showcase their different artistic talents, but also question their conceptual understanding; their insularity or their relationship with the ocean, for instance.”  Some of the key performances and creative events of the French Spring Festival include two online concerts from Sri Lanka musician Hania Luthufi (26 June and 11 July), a virtual open studio by Maldivian artist Eagan Badeeu (23 June), and an exclusive concert by Polynesian duo Vaiteani which will be streamed on 27 June.  Brunch spoke to Sri Lankan musician Hania Luthufi about the performances she is curating for the Festival to learn more about how she is harnessing the power of music for the Festival.  Luthufi’s first performance at the Festival, which took place yesterday (26), was with the Venus Jazz Collective, a rolling collective Luthufi initiated that focuses on traditional jazz. The jazz performance for the Festival was a curation of traditional jazz standards from old jazz greats like Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Victor Scherzinger, Johnny Mercer, and Edith Piaf (who, Luthifi shared, was known as the sparrow of France). The performance for the Festival featured Luthufi performing with contemporary jazz musicians from Colombo including Denver Barnes on bass, Luthufi on vocals, Revel Crake on the jazz guitar, and Dr. Sum Suraweera on drums. Her second performance, which will be released on 11 July, will feature Luthufi performing with Sankhara, another musical collective of her own devising that draws on her years of study at Shantiniketan in India, and her interest in bridging languages and song traditions together. Sankhara, which first began in 2015 is also a rolling collective, where Luthufi links with visiting musicians from around the world who have different music traditions as and when she is able to. To Luthufi, we are all in these different rivers of life, and music, especially through Sankhara, is a way for these mirrors to meet and for different traditions and walks of life to converge in music. “It’s about song traditions and song lineages coming together,” Luthufi said, adding: “Things that are handed down to us in the form of lullabies and songs of the Earth.”  For the Festival, Sankhara will deep dive into the convergence of folk song and the languages of various subcontinents, watching as ancient forms swirl together and re-emerge in new but familiar forms. “We’re keeping the theme from the performance really open and we’re not necessarily fitting into the song format,” Luthufi explained, adding that the music will be more raga based, taking inspiration from classical ragas and honouring the older song traditions of Sri Lanka in a really open and abstract way. The performance will feature Luthufi on vocals, Kalani Perera on the violin, Sarani Perera on the electric guitar, and Venilan Vairavapilla on the mridangam. Speaking on collaborating with the Festival, Luthufi shared that the whole process had been very refreshing because of the creative freedom she was given. “They’ve been really open to everything that I’ve put across to them. What was going to be a physical performance is now online; they’ve been adapting and kept encouraging to keep digging for material from Sri Lanka, and to keep creating and collaborating.” The format of the Festival and the model of collaboration it inspires was also very encouraging to Luthufi, who shared that artists and musicians around the island really need a lot of support, especially since they can no longer stick to their usual formats of expression like performing at a venue, and that the continued support of platforms like the Festival can really help music thrive.  With the Festival taking place at a time when Sri Lanka is on high alert in the midst of a third wave of Covid-19 infections, Collard shared that it is important to think about cultural exchange even in times like this, saying: “At a time when the sanitary context is encouraging us to rethink the ways we support artists, highlighting how creation continues to take place amidst adversity seemed essential to us. It is also an opportunity to explore new cultural formats, such as virtual open studios.”  In addition to the musical performances by Luthufi and other musicians from the Maldives and Polynesia, the Festival will also include an online photography contest, “My Island” (18 June to 18 July), a focus conference on human mobility facing climate change (21 June), a slam poetry workshop (2 July), a discussion with Prof. Eric Meyer and Prof. Sasanka Perera on Sri Lankan insularity (5 July), ModArt’s “Exposition de Mode” annual student fashion exhibition (8 July), and a musical evening with the band Sankhara (11 July). The French Spring Festival will take place from 18 June to 18 July 2021 and is open to all audiences virtually. For more information and to register for specific events please visit the French Spring Festival’s website https://www.frenchspringfestival.com/   

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