BOUND FOR FOUND
Celebration of art in unique spaces takes most of its off-the-wall acts online
Street performer Aytahn Ross will be one of just two acts performing live July 2-5 during the ninth annual Found Festival. The others will be appearing digitally to comply with physical-distancing rules. Ross will be clowning around in the Oliver area as part of the festival dedicated to art in unusual places.
After 25 years of joyful work, Aytahn Ross was prepared to bow out. The Edmonton-based circus-cum-comedy performer was ready to retire his crystal juggling balls and pack up the cigar boxes he can pile as high as the sky, if that was what the world was telling him to do.
“I’ve always been a humble person, so I am open to different ways of living,” said Ross, who lost all his spring and summer bookings to COVID-19. “I’m a student of history and literature and I know the world changes and sometimes we cannot control that.”
But then the Found Festival asked for submissions that would respect physical distancing, prompting Ross to craft a show that is emblematic of what the festival does best. That is, to send art careening into the community, and see what happens.
The festival, now in its ninth year and running July 2-5 in the Old Strathcona area, is known for curating “unexpected collisions” between the world and artists. Previous iterations have seen theatre, dance and music turn up in a grocery store, on the loading dock of a business, or at a playground. This year, though, festival co-producers Megan Dart and her sister, Beth Dart, knew things would have to be different, and it wasn’t just because festival sponsorship dropped by half to only $55,000. (And there’s no beer garden.)
“We asked artists to reimagine how to foster connection with audiences at a time when we couldn’t physically be with them,” says Megan Dart.
The result? Fourteen projects from 30 artists, most of whom appear digitally. Two shows, including Ross’s roving clown act, are live. (Visit Found Festival’s website for details.)
Online appearances include The Quaranteens, a virtual interactive gallery that gives a glimpse into the daily lives of teenagers in quarantine, and Secret Creek, a 45-minute experiential medicine show that takes the audience on a stunning musical journey through the woods. All but one of the shows are free, but patrons are encouraged to donate to the Found Festival via its website.
A new partnership with an app called Story City means some of the shows are accessible on your cellphone. In one Story City tale, The Home Suite, Ben Stevens and Paula Humby ask the question “who would I be if I lived in this house?” Audiences stroll through Old Strathcona, stopping at 10 different homes to hear short audio pieces played in succession. In another, performer and drummer Mackenzie Brown of the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation leads listeners on an immersive musical journey through the River Lot 11 Indigenous Art Park.
Found Festival leaves Old Strathcona for the first time ever with Ross’s show, a 15-minute clowning experience taking place on private property in Oliver. It features one of his favourite characters, the Great Balanzo, a classic clown who balances things and connects with the audience through circus and comedy.
“If something isn’t funny, that’s the circus part,” jokes Ross, who has appeared numerous times on Just For Laughs, and performed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
The Great Balanzo will entertain at care homes and apartment complexes. Ross is particularly excited to bring joy and laughter to people in care residences (there are several in Oliver) who have had a short supply of that lately. He knows the care home residents will be able only to watch from the window, but he also loves the notion of people in apartments potentially watching him from on high.
“I have this vision of people viewing from their balconies, safely, in their own private box seats,” said Ross.
The other live performance at Found Festival is a miniature drive-in show called Chamber Obscura. It sees a family of Edmonton artists (including a talented youngster) performing an American
folk story set in Dustbowl-era Alberta. Each performance is a private viewing experience for the driver and passengers of a single, enclosed motor vehicle, viewed through the front windshield, with live audio broadcasting via the car radio.
Dart says this year’s efforts have stretched festival producers, in a good way.
“It’s been a steep learning curve for us because the live performance element is our passion, and learning how to translate art to a digital platform has been a wild and weird and wonderful challenge,” she says. “We have learned so many new avenues for online development and accessibility.”