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Although both Interchange Festival and OzAsia Festival engage with intercultural exchange as a theme, the former sees exchange as a process-based tool for artistic research, and the latter views exchange as a transaction with socio-political and economic outcomes. Yet these two very different festivals feed into our artistic landscape to shape the type of work that we create and then deliver to audiences, and therefore is a cogent argument for the continued need to program intelligently and sensitively so that “intercultural” does not become
a mere play between us and “the other”. Perhaps this was best summed up by Cherkaoui in his response to being typecast as a “cross-cultural” choreographer: “I am translating into a field that is contemporary dance. Sometimes I am translating things from another field – like martial arts or Flamenco, which could be considered to have another language – but I feel that they are part of the contemporary language. When certain movements are brought into a contemporary field, suddenly they become natural; they become part of your language as well.” (Cherkouai, 2013)
References Adelaide Festival Centre, Highlights: OzAsia Festival 2015. Posted on: 5 October 2015. Available from: http://www. adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/ozasiafestival/news/listing/highlights-2015ozasia-festival [12 Jan 2016] Cherkaoui, S.L., interviewed by Ceyda Nurtsch, 2013. “I Don’t Mix Cultures, I Translate” in Qantara.de. Available from: https://en.qantara.de/content/interviewwith-choreographer-sidi-larbi-cherkaoui-idont-mix-cultures-i-translate [12 Jan 2016] Department of Education NSW, 2015. About Cultural Exchange. Retrieved from:
http://www.culturalexchange.nsw.edu. au/exchange_programs/about-culturalexchange/ [10 January 2016] Mitchell, J., interviewed by Murray Bramwell, 2014. OzAsia Adelaide: Programming the Asian Century. Available from: http://dailyreview.com.au/ ozasia-adelaide-programming-the-asiancentury/11294 [12 January 2015] Wikipedia, Social Exchange Theory. 19 January 2016. Retrieved from: https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_exchange_ theory [21 January 2016]
Yeehwan Yeoh is an arts writer and visual artist, and until recently, she was also the Program and Business Manager at Critical Path. She has worked for various non-profit arts organisations including Gallery 4A, now known as 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art and has an MA in Curatorship and Modern Art from the University of Sydney. (Page 34-35) Cry Jailolo at OzAsia Festival 2015. Photo courtesy OzAsia Festival