Exploring the virtual edition of the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival 2021
The impact of COVID-19: “The rules of engagement are changing”
Not surprisingly, the effect of the pandemic on the literary and the arts worlds was a recurrent theme during the festival. An illuminating discussion on this topic and on the place of the digital in our future ways of creating and experiencing art, was “Theatre after COVID.” Mariane Ackermann hosted this lively conversation between Jessie Mill and Martine Dennewald (Co-directors, Festival des Amériques), Amy Blackmore (Executive and Artistic Director of MainLine Theatre, the St-Ambroise Montreal FRINGE Festival and the Bouge d’ici Dance Festival) and Annabel Soutar (Artistic Director, Porte Parole). While hybrid productions, interactive performances or podcast adaptations have existed as theatre practices for some time now, the pandemic pushed for a more in-depth consideration of the place of the digital in theatre production. As Mill said, it is not only about adapting the work to a digital space or remote audiences, but about understanding the technology and the possibilities that it offers as a different medium and a different language that both creators and grant institutions need to consider.
A major impact of going virtual has been the possibility to expand audience reach by transcending geographic boundaries, all the while rethinking audience engagement with the work. Blackmore said:
“The most exciting thing happening right now is that all the rules of engagement are changing, we don’t have to do theatre the way we did before.”
Of course, there is no doubt that in-person performances will not disappear and people will return to the physical space of the theatre. In the panelists’ view, people will go back to find a sense of solidarity in an increasingly polarized world, to orient themselves about what is going on in the world, to express a need to converse with each other and understand difference. For Blackmore and the team at the Fringe Festival, this translates into a commitment to practice what she called “radical hospitality”: being transparent to audiences about what the theatre-viewing experience will be like in the conditions of a pandemic so that “our patrons and audiences feel comfortable coming back.”
The panelists also broached the question of whether the theatre world would witness a loss of talent as a result of the long-term loss of jobs due to the pandemic. All panelists agreed that in an industry that was already very precarious to begin with, there are still many unknowns about whether it would offer a sustainable future to theatre artists and creators. “It’s important to develop systems of support for performing artists in the future,” Blackmore said and added that there’s been a push for basic income for artists in Quebec and across the country, but there remains “a lot of work to be done.”
The effect of COVID-19 on the international literary scene was the topic of discussion of the panel “Littératures hispaniques: Hispanic in the Pandemic.” Hosted by Ingrid Bejerman, it gathered professionals from the business side of publishing, and specifically, the world of international book fairs. Featured presenters were Cristina Fuentes LaRoche (Director, Hay Festival Americas), Marifé Boix García (Vice-President – Business Development, Frankfurt Book Fair) and Marisol Schulz Manaut (Director, Guadalajara International Book Fair). International book fairs, such as those in Frankfurt and Guadalajara, represent major business events in the book industry for the sale of publishing and translation rights. They usually feature a country, a region or a city as a guest of honour, which means offering an exhibition on the world stage of that place’s literature and broader culture. Canada was supposed to be the guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2020, but it didn’t happen since Canada quickly closed its borders to international travel after the pandemic hit. It then asked to be featured in 2021 instead, although this is when Spain was slated to present and had already started putting together its program and participants. Ultimately, the countries agreed to move their participation by a year, although it wasn’t an easy task to convince them, García explained. Similar situation happened with Peru as guest of honour at the Guadalajara Book Fair, Manaut said.
Other approaches include going all digital or adopting a hybrid model. This is the case of the Hay Festival whose 2021 edition will take place both in-person and online. LaRoche talked about the festival’s fully virtual experience from last year when the organizers had to quickly learn how to use digital platforms and adapt to the online world. A new feature they introduced were online chats with the audiences, which proved to be successful in making the festival more interactive and creating a sense of community.
However, as in the discussion on theatre audiences above, the panelists here also agreed that the “in-person community [remains] really important.”
The digital has its advantages in creating more inclusive events that reach many more people and extend beyond borders. It can also make business transactions more efficient. At the same time, the “emotional” aspect of literary events, as the panelists noted, the conversations that happen in the hallways and the relationships that are built in person, can’t be fully reproduced online. The future may be hybrid, the presenters concurred, but the in-person activities “remain the heart of what we do.”
Paths in nature: “A state of mind and of heart”
The conversation “Rest and Recuperate: From Taiwan to Norway to Bancroft, Ontario” provided an insightful, gentle conclusion to my virtual engagement with this year’s program of the Blue Metropolis festival. Three authors, Kirsteen Macleod, Jessica J. Lee and Torbjørn Ekelund, and host Shelley Pomerance, talked about finding moments of contemplation, “taking a break from the frenetic pace of contemporary life” and reconnecting with one’s self. All three shared experiences of their connection with nature: be it in the form of paths and walking as in Ekelund’s writing, year-round swimming in 52 different lakes, which is the subject of one of Lee’s books, or being inspired by the spiritual dimension of retreat, as is the case for Macleod. Finding places of introspection and observing nature around us—no matter how small those moments can seem amidst our busy urban lives—could become a habit that we can all cultivate, and it could help us discover a rich inner dimension and a deeper connection with the places around us and with the natural world. Western ideas of retreat often carry connotations of weakness, escapism, retreating rather than advancing. In other cultural traditions, however, the concept of retreat has deep philosophical meanings that touch not so much on the dominant social and active aspects of our lives, but on the more “solitary, reflective and receptive” part of living; retreat could be a form of inner sanctuary, as Macleod explained.
The three authors also discussed the connection between thinking and walking, which, in Ekelund’s view, has to do with speed:
“You adapt to the slowness/speed of your thinking when walking, your feet and your brain pick up the same pace.” The fast speed of our lives is the basic reason why we don’t see what’s happening around us; “walking is the best way to better our ability to see,” he said.
Reminiscent of the two discussions on the effects of the pandemic mentioned above, the conversation here also veered briefly towards the digital. Lee pointed out that activities such as walking and being in nature do not have to be divorced from the digital world—the two are not mutually exclusive. The Internet has democratized knowledge about nature by bringing a wealth of information at people’s fingertips. Being able to use an app that tells you the name of a plant species, to check out a hiking trail by satellite imagery or navigate with a GPS while going for a walk in the woods are practical uses of technology that have expanded our engagement with the natural world, in Lee’s view.