\"A feeling of familiarity... yes, most of the time, that's what I feel when I arrive in a place to work. In my job, you travel a lot to meet people who share the same passion: the theatre... So even in extremely remote contexts, like Japan, very quickly and very obviously, we talk about the same things. For example, with Vincent Baudriller, co-director of the Festival, we have made some very memorable journeys to discover the world of the 'associate artists' we honour every year in Avignon. Joseph Nadj, a choreographer based in Orl\u00e9ans, originally from Kanizsa in Serbia, invited us to visit. This place, with its distinctive Mitteleuropa atmosphere, has strongly influenced his art. So to find ourselves with him, there, in his world, in the middle of a vast, magnificent plain and at the heart of incredible stories - Attila passed through there! - was truly a marvellous moment. Since then, I've come to understand some of his work better.<\/p>\n
Author and director Wajdi Mouawad and I spent a week in Lebanon. He left Lebanon at the age of 8 for France, then moved to Canada. In the village where he was born, he relived his entire childhood: the places, the smells, the colours... Suddenly, almost miraculously, he began to express himself in his mother tongue, which had been buried inside him until then!<\/p>\n
On these trips, so detached from the usual contingencies, you really 'converse'. In fact, that's perhaps what interests me most about travelling: exchanging with others, reflecting, thinking in a different way... Of course, the landscapes also appeal to me. When I went to Iceland, on a personal trip - even though there's a theatre there too! - I found the landscapes magnificent, so extraordinary that they were almost imaginary... We've seen a lot of them in pictures, but to be there is so different! And then, I'd been told it would be cold, dark and rainy... In fact, the skies change very quickly! And because it's an island, the light is also very special, unexpected and unexpected.<\/p>\n
To make a success of a trip, I believe that above all you have to be available, open to people, light, colours, smells, flavours... I remember the exotic fruits of Martinique: bananas, coconut hearts, sweet potatoes, pineapples... You think you know them, but it's when you taste them on the spot that you really discover them!<\/p>\n
It's thanks to travelling that, all of a sudden, you take a slightly different look at everything. You look at your life, your daily routine, your goals too... In a way, you come back from a trip slightly changed. It's a bit like coming away from a performance that has made an impression on you, that has been an experience! That's why, for me, Avignon is a real journey for festival-goers! I believe that theatre, like travel, has something to do with this. It's another reality that opens up to you.<\/p>\n
For the Festival d'Avignon, of which she is co-director, Hortense Archambault travels the world's theatres. From stage to stage, she gleans experiences to share with festival-goers.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[143,1455],"tags":[1005],"type-darticle":[],"n_magazine":[],"class_list":["post-16295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-carnets-de-voyage","tag-carnet-de-voyages","vapo-free"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n