On the occasion of the annual meeting of Onda’s partners, the Festival d’Avignon, the Institut français, and Onda are offering a new space for exchange, bringing together international festivals of different scales, rooted in diverse contexts and coming from several continents. This meeting continues the discussions initiated during the 2024 edition.
At the heart of the discussions is the role of festivals in building desirable futures, the dynamics of transformation they inspire, and the connections they weave at various levels with territories, communities, and artists. How do festivals remain relevant & responsive by operating responsibly in times of polycrisis? Especially in times of shrinking civic spheres, cultural erasure and genocide, what measures could festivals take to avoid instrumentalising art and artists as a means of white washing their way into socially-prescribed acceptability ?
Rooted in the age-old question around the role of festivals, the conversation will confront the issues of today by inviting experts in the field to reflect on how they are disrupting the faltering paradigms that once upheld our cultural institutions in Europe and the SWANA region. The panelists will reflect on dissonant funding models, ethical programming, non-instrumentalising practices, and navigating censorship, silencing and erasure across different contexts. Ultimately, the panel will consider strategies & models of praxis that allow us to continue to operate with criticality, dignity and integrity as festival makers committed to worldbuilding for the common good.
Alia Alzougbi, Artistic and General Director - Shubbak Festival (London, UK)
Alia Alzougbi is the Artistic Director & CEO of Shubbak Festival. She is a cultural strategist, artist and facilitator working at the intersection of art and social and environmental justice. She has worked with national and international organisations as an artist and storyteller to create critical encounters in education and the arts towards collective liberation, from local corner shops to world-renowned museums.
Alia is a Chevening Scholar, a Clore Fellow and Contributor, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Prior to joining Shubbak, she was Director of the global citizenship education organisation Global Learning London. She is Chair of Maslaha, an organisation which seeks to change and challenge the conditions that create inequalities for Muslim communities in areas such as education, gender, criminal justice, health, negative media coverage and a continued climate of Islamophobia. She is also a trustee at Tamasha, a dedicated home for both emerging and established Global Majority artists.
Iman Aoun, Co-Founder and Executive Director - ASHTAR Theatre (Ramallah, Palestine)
Iman Aoun is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of ASHTAR Theatre.
She is a theatre maker and award-winning actress with a career spanning theatre, television, and film. She began her acting journey in 1984 with El-Hakawati Theatre Company in Jerusalem and went on to co-found ASHTAR Theatre in 1991.
Iman Aoun has received numerous recognitions for her work from international organizations and festivals across various countries. In 2020, she was a finalist for the Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award in New York City.
Since 2012, she has directed the ASHTAR International Youth Theatre Festival. She has written and published several articles on theatre in Palestine and co-authored two books on theatre training. As a panelist, she has participated in numerous international conferences and World Summits, and she is a member of the UNESCO Arts Lab.
Internationally recognized as a trainer specializing in Theatre of the Oppressed, Iman Aoun has initiated several major international projects, including One Hundred Artists for Palestine (2003, with IETM), The Gaza Monologues (2010, revived in 2023), The Syrian Monologues (2015), and Letters to Gaza (2024).
ASHTAR International Youth Theatre Festival (AIYTF), created in 2012, is a biennial event that invites young theatre artists from across the world to Palestine. The festival was launched after the international tour of The Gaza Monologues and reflects ASHTAR’s commitment to youth theatre training. AIYTF provides a platform for youth to enhance their creativity, self-awareness, and identity while fostering social change. Young participants from diverse backgrounds engage in daily training, collaborate on performances, and present their work to the public. The festival promotes cultural exchange, mutual learning, and freedom of expression, encouraging youth to take an active role in decision-making. It offers international participants an immersive experience of the Palestinian context, raising awareness of its social and political realities. AIYTF also combats isolation for Palestinian youth, breaking down barriers created by occupation-related restrictions. The festival facilitates constructive dialogue between youth and mentors, fostering collaboration and future artistic development, while also nurturing solidarity with Palestine.
Silvia Bottiroli, Artistic Co-Director - Short Theatre Festival (Rome, Italie)
Silvia Bottiroli, lives in Bologna, Italy, and works trans-locally as a curator, writer and researcher in the expanded field of the live arts.
She was the artistic director of DAS Theatre in Amsterdam (2018-2021) and of Santarcangelo Festival (2012-2016), and curated the projects FUORI! for Emilia Romagna Teatro in Bologna (2022-2023), For the Time Being for Freespace in Hong Kong (2020-2021), The May Events for KunstenFestivalDesArts in Brussels and Vooruit in Ghent (2018), Shipbuilding and other joint efforts for Homo Novus Festival in Riga (2015).
Her writings have been published in a number of international magazines and publications, and her latest book What Can Theatre Do, co-edited with Miguel A. Melgares, was published by BRUNO in 2024.
Silvia is a member of the inaugural Rose Choreographic School at Sadler’s Wells in London (2025-2026), and the artistic co-director of Short Theater Festival in Roma (2025-2027).
Short Theatre is a multidisciplinary festival active in Rome since 2006. Short Theatre engages the changing landscape of national and international contemporary performing arts, with a layered program made of performances, installations, talks, lectures, workshops, concerts and DJ sets. The festival facilitates an open environment for research and experimentation, one in which to develop new forms of production and circulation of arts-related knowledge, offering established and emerging artists a space and a time in which to meet, get to know each other and exchange.
Since 2025 Short Theatre is co-directed by Silvia Bottiroli, Silvia Calderoni, Ilenia Caleo and Michele Di Stefano in the attempt of practicing collective curation as an artistic and political gesture and of nourishing the possibilities of experience that the festival may offer to artists, visitors and communities.
Nathalie Garraud, Co-Director - Théâtre des 13 vents (Montpellier, France)
Nathalie Garraud is a stage director. She began her career in alternative venues in Paris, where she founded a theatre company in 1998. Until 2006, she focused on collective creation with young writers, actors, and architects. She also initiated a collaboration with playwright Howard Barker and worked regularly in the Middle East with Lebanese and Palestinian artists. In 2006, she met playwright Olivier Saccomano, with whom she began a creative dialogue that continues to this day. Together, they have created several plays, including Notre jeunesse, the diptych Othello – Soudain la nuit presented at the Festival d’Avignon, La Beauté du geste, Institut Ophélie, and Monde Nouveau, recently premiered at the Printemps des Comédiens festival. Since 2018, they have co-directed the Théâtre des 13 vents – Centre Dramatique National de Montpellier, where they founded the Biennale des Arts de la Scène en Méditerranée.
The Biennale des Arts de la Scène en Méditerranée was launched in Montpellier in 2021 at the initiative of the Théâtre des 13 vents – CDN Montpellier. It is developed in collaboration with a network of cultural partners from the region and hosts, over a three-week period, artistic teams working around the Mediterranean basin. The Biennale serves as a space for sharing works, practices, and ideas. It is also a tool and a lever for supporting and producing performing artists based in Mediterranean countries. Making Mediterranean creation both visible and heard, connecting geographical and imaginary territories, engaging everyone in artistic and political questions, and highlighting both contradictions and hopes—this is the vision and spirit that drive the Biennale.
Selma and Sofiane Ouissi, Co-Director - Dream City (Tunis, Tunisie)
Selma and Sofiane Ouissi are choreographers, dancers, educators, and curators. Together, they develop an artistic approach that blends various disciplines to explore the concept of “imagined societies.” In 2007, they founded L’Art Rue in Tunis, a transdisciplinary and cross-community laboratory conceived as a space for research and action. As leading figures in contemporary dance in the Arab world, their work is presented on numerous international stages.
Dream City is a multidisciplinary arts festival rooted in the city and developed collaboratively over an average of two years leading up to each edition. With every iteration, new works are created in dialogue with the present moment — its issues, its urgencies, its challenges.
What sets Dream City apart is its unique methodology: Tunisian and international artists are invited to engage directly with the city of Tunis and its residents, creating contextual works that resonate with local realities. The festival is built as a long-term commitment: Participating artists are supported over extended periods—from one to four years—allowing them the time and space to immerse themselves in the city’s social and political specificities.
The festival takes place in the informal spaces of the Tunis medina—cafés, streets, abandoned buildings, and public squares. Themes such as human rights, the question of democracy and citizenship, living together, but also issues related to governance, environmental crimes, and memory are at the heart of this festival.
The Professional Meeting will be in English, French and Arabic with simultaneous translation into French and English.
It will be broadcast live and available for replay.
Distribution
With Iman Aoun Co-Founder and Executive Director of ASHTAR Theatre (Ramallah, Palestine), Silvia Bottiroli Artistic Co-Director of the Short Theatre Festival (Rome, Italy), Nathalie Garraud Co-Director of the Théâtre des 13 vents (Montpellier, France), Sofiane Ouissi Co-Director of Dream City (Tunis, Tunisie)
Facilitated by Alia Alzougbi, Artistic and Executive Director of Shubbak Festival (London, UK)
Organized by Festival d’Avignon, Onda, Institut français