National artists and agents will participate in talks, meetings, workshops, among other activities planned as part of the new edition of the Assitej Festival, one of the most important events worldwide in the field of theater and performing arts for young audiences.
A delegation of artists and representatives of different Chilean organizations will travel to Cuba to be part of the XXI World Congress and Festival of Performing Arts for Children and Youth Assitej. This event, which will take place between May 24 and June 1, will bring together professionals from more than 70 countries around a program that includes conferences, workshops, conversation panels and the exhibition of 25 works by artists from all over the world. world.
Chile’s presence in this activity has the support of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage, through the Assistance Line for International Performing Arts Instances, a strategic program created with the objective of supporting participation in spaces that have been defined as priorities by the National Council of Performing Arts
Thanks to this financing, a national delegation made up of: Inés Bascuñán de la I See You Association ASSITEJ Chile; Rocío Villegas of the Avanti Scenic Foundation; Fernando Montanares of the MB2 Social and Cultural Group; and the integral designer Eduardo Jiménez who will attend on behalf of the groups Oani Chile, La Mona Ilustre and Compañía Perrobufo.
Regarding participation in this instance, Inés Bascuñán highlights the permanent work that Chile has carried out as an organization since 2017, a work that is bearing fruit today. “We currently belong to the Ibero-American Network and for this reason we are part of and organizers of several of the activities that will be carried out at the congress.”
With an active agenda that will have her organizing and attending different activities, the director of Te Veo Assitej Chile, adds that the most important thing about participating in this space is to be able to “understand how you can work at the level of public policies with issues of childhood and youth through the performing arts, and along with this how we can value the problem, so that the perspective of children is a point of real discussion when imagining the construction of a country.”
For her part, Rocío Villegas, in charge of the education area of the Avanti Performing Foundation, highlights the relevance of the space to share experience related to the performing arts, in the Interscholastic Youth Arts Festival, a space that they have been promoting for years now as an organization: “We hope that our participation promotes youth protagonism and encourages thinking about cultural rights for children and young audiences. “We are very happy with the opportunity to exchange ideas and bring our festival closer to other countries, generating international networks that nourish and strengthen both our initiative and others that are developed in the country.”
As part of Assitej Cuba, the Chilean group will exhibit in different spaces, including the panels «Performing arts for children and youth in Latin America and the Caribbean» and the conversation table «Theater and Education». This last instance will be moderated by Inés Bascuñán and will feature the participation of Rocío Villegas from the Avanti Scenic Foundation.
Add to this agenda the Meeting of Scenic Designers at the ISA University of the Arts, which will have among its guests the national designer Eduardo Jiménez. In addition, Jiménez will teach the intensive workshop “A walk towards staging. Reflections on space and dramaturgy”, which will take place for three days at the Animation Center of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC).
Also noteworthy is the participation of Javier Valenzuela, Executive Secretary of Performing Arts of the Ministry of Cultures, who will be a panelist in two activities of the Iberescena Program: the meeting “Path towards the Ibero-American year of the performing arts 2025” and presentation of the study “The Future of Mobility of the Ibero-American Performing Arts.”
The XXI Congress and Festival of Performing Arts Assitej will include performances of the work “Letters from Children” by the La Negra María Company, the only Chilean proposal selected to be exhibited as part of the official programming of the event. Added to this list of activities is the participation of Layla Raña, representative of the Aranwa Company, in different intercultural collaboration activities, among which her role as speaker of the workshop-discussion “Changing directions” stands out.
Support for the Chilean delegation through the Assistance Line for International Instances seeks to articulate a program that enhances the presence of delegations or missions of Chilean agents abroad, prioritizing the opening of new markets and territories. On the other hand, this initiative has also been established as a central work axis in the Internationalization Plan of the Executive Secretariat of Performing Arts
More information at https://cuba2024.assitejonline.org/
