Over the past couple of years, there's been a changing of the guard at Australia's major international arts festivals but this hasn't just meant a mere passing of the baton from one Festival director to the next. After a period that saw all the major State arts festivals led by artistic planners from overseas, all but one - Melbourne's, currently led by British curator Jonathan Holloway - are now programmed by Australians, and what's more, they are all celebrated theatre directors.
At a glance, this might seem like a minor point of interest, but as Wesley Enoch - the latest artistic director of the Sydney Festival - explains, there's a distinct advantage in having the mind of a theatre maker behind a program. "Artists, by our very nature, are curious beings who are fascinated by things. We're like the moths of the arts: we go 'ooh, what's happening over there? I don't know, but I'll go and check it out!' We use our instincts a lot more than the science; we tend to ignore the rules," Enoch says. "I think producers or those with a more administrative background tend to look to the past for evidence or precedence, but an artist looks to the future to find that next exciting thing. We look beyond the horizon."
Judging by his debut selection for the 2017 Sydney Festival, unveiled earlier this week, Enoch is prepared to put his money (and his programing) where his mouth is. You can find playful and provocative themes galvanising swathes of next year's offering, where Enoch has woven an innate theatricality into the architecture of next year's spread of dance, theatre, visual art and community events. Enoch says his creative choices have been guided by the unique dichotomies he discovered upon beginning the process of crafting his first Sydney Festival program.
"There are some aspects that are inherited because they are traditions that have existed for decades in the Festival, but I felt it was also important to somehow question or upstage some of those established expectations. It's an international arts festival, but I think it's vital to make sure that international stage is populated by Australian stories as well. I've also been thinking about the Festival's role as a disruptor and an enabler for change. As it takes place in January, it feels like a moment to make a New Year's resolution. Audiences can say, 'I want to enrich my life. I want to push myself further culturally', and artists can also make choices about how we use our collective imagination to push our cultural aspirations further. The Festival should be a space where that can happen."
Among the thematic links Enoch has used to bind his program together, is a focus on the experiential. A number of productions play with the senses in unexpected ways, including shows governed by smell, physical touch, and spatial sound design. For Enoch, it's an attempt to break the passive conventions of traditional performance. "A lot of shows ask very little of their audience. You just have to sit back and take what's being given to you. You have no control and no incentive to engage. That's very contradictory to the world we live in, where everyone has access to filmmaking, photography and endless ideas in their pocket," Enoch notes. "I wanted to offer something that stimulates beyond the passive reception of someone else's ideas. Our increasing reliance on digital technology is creating a disconnection with our bodies. The arts are a way for us to come back to the corporeal and become more connected to our sense of self and the world around us."
It's unsurprising that as one of Australia's most respected and accomplished Indigenous artists, Enoch has included a major focus on Indigenous storytelling in his program. When he speaks to The Music, it's the day after a touring production of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert: The Musical has sparked outrage for axing the show's sole Indigenous character, citing a lack of actors to fill the role. "You'd think someone would ring me," Enoch cries as we discuss the scandal. "I've been around for 25 years. I've worked all over the country with hundreds and hundreds of Indigenous performers. You'd think, at some point, someone would think to reach out. It's what I call the paralysis of integrity: this notion that people are so desperate not to make a mistake, but they refuse to acknowledge their weaknesses. Sure, they might not know of someone for that role, off the top of their heads, but that's when you have to look to someone with that knowledge."
This philosophy of honest collaboration is front of mind for Enoch, as the development of his first Sydney Festival selection, finalised over a breakneck seven months, has required a huge degree of exploration and consultation to ensure it is both enticing and challenging. "I have a philosophy that two people can see ten pieces of art, and three they'll love, and three they'll hate, and four they'll think are okay. But those two people won't agree on which is which. The real power of art is in the debate and discussion about why you liked something or why it didn't work for you," Enoch explains.
"I think it's vital to a community, that we can debate and discuss things. Disagreement shouldn't be viewed as a negative; there is no 'right' or 'wrong' way to experience something. As we've become increasingly transfixed by social media, you can see the growing tribalism of agreement taking over, where you only talk to people you are already in agreement with and who share your values. But disagreement doesn't have to be a reason to disengage from society. We live in a time when Pauline Hanson and Donald Trump have made the need for honest, reasoned debate even more essential. If we can keep these conversations alive, if we are truthful and upfront, then as a society, we will always win."
What: 2017 Sydney Festival
When: 7 - 19 Jan
