Festival Accès Asie 30 Years of Asia Without Borders – Fields of Mirrors
© Festival Accès Asie, illustration de Julia Bragoli
30 Years of Asia Without Borders - Fields of Mirrors is a dive into the archives of the Accès Asie Festival, tracing 30 years of festivities, not to be missed!
In collaboration with OBORO, the Festival Accès Asie will celebrate its 30th anniversary with an interactive exhibition in May 2025. Designed by Khosro Berahmandi and Sarah-Yang Baud, this exhibition, presented from May 3rd to June 14th, traces the festival’s rich history through a multidisciplinary approach, featuring archival images and an immersive video projection that illustrate its evolution. Visitors will be invited on a visual and historical journey, exploring key moments and major successes in the festival’s history. Additionally, an interactive Asian map will be available for the public to leave a word, a drawing, or an intention... of origin. A bibliographic section of the exhibition will also allow visitors to explore documents from the festival's 30 years.
Further readings:
© Festival Accès Asie, illustration de Julia Bragoli
Established in 1995, Festival Accès Asie is Canada’s longest-running festival of Asian heritage. Based in Tiohtiá:ke-Mooniyang-Montréal, Festival Accès Asie showcases the work of artists from the Asian diaspora. Celebrating Asian Heritage Month in May at Tiohtiá:ke-Mooniyang-Montréal, Festival Accès Asie is a month-long artistic, interdisciplinary, unifying, engaging and festive festival. It amplifies the voices and practices of artists from the Asian continent and its diaspora across a wide variety of fields, including performing arts, visual and media arts, literary arts, interdisciplinary arts and culinary arts.
Multidisciplinary artist Khosro Berahmandi, of Iranian origin, arrived in Canada in 1983 at the age of 22. He currently lives and works in Tiohtiá:ke-Mooniyang-Montreal. Khosro first studied visual arts at Concordia University in Montreal and then at the University of Paris VIII. A prolific and renowned artist, he has produced over fifty group and solo exhibitions to date, as part of projects carried out in Canada, Europe and the United States. Khosro is the recipient of the Charles Biddle Award in 2022 for his contribution to the cultural and artistic development of Quebec society. For the past 25 years, he has been actively involved in the life of Festival Accès Asie, a multidisciplinary arts festival based in Montreal that promotes Asian arts, cultures and stories. He has worked for the festival as curator, general director and artistic director since 1997. Khosro left his position in 2023 to focus on his artistic projects.
The rest of the presentation of Khosro and his work by art critic Rajath Suri is available here.
Fueled by an insatiable curiosity and a passion for art in all its forms, Sarah-Yang Baud, also known as Gotaname, is a multidisciplinary artist in constant exploration. Of Chinese descent and raised in France, she first discovered music through her piano studies at the conservatory.
Later, her love for aesthetics and creation led her to applied arts, which she studied for three years. But for her, art is not confined to a single medium—it is movement, sound, and image. Since arriving in Montreal in October 2023, she has been building bridges between disciplines, cultures, and communities. Her energy finds expression through waacking, a dance where elegance meets power. Committed both on stage and behind the scenes, she plays a key role at the Festival Accès Asie, helping to showcase Asian artistic voices. Her involvement on the board of directors of MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) further reflects her dedication to supporting diversity and innovation in the arts. Always in motion, Gotaname continues to carve her path, constantly seeking to make the space between image, sound, and the moving body vibrate.
