Belluard Festival Looks to the Past This Year

This year's 43rd Belluard Festival in Fribourg, Switzerland, running from June 25 to July 4, is looking to the past, featuring young artists who use documentary forms to connect with history. The festival will showcase diverse works exploring forgotten narratives and individual stories that hold universal meaning.

Among the featured artists is Shayma Nader, who uses 3D modeling to reconstruct the Palestinian village of Saydoun as it was before its destruction in 1948. Eugenia Poblete examines the remnants of Mapuche culture through weaving, while Vanessa Cojocaru revisits the 1952 arrest of her great-aunt in Romania through an installation of texts and fabrics. Yuck Miranda sheds light on homosexual relationships among South African mine workers in the early 20th century.

Festival director Elisa Liepsch explained that the focus on the past aims to bring to light resistances that were once condemned to secrecy and to revive forgotten identity practices, such as those of the Mapuche people. "These are individual stories that have universal meanings," Liepsch stated, adding that the festival seeks to "remind us of resistances that the environment condemned to secrecy. Or to resurrect forgotten identity practices, like those of the Mapuche people."

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These are individual stories that have universal meanings. But it is also about bringing to light resistances that the environment condemned to secrecy. Or to resurrect forgotten identity practices, like those of the Mapuche people.

This year's festival theme is "underground complicities." Liepsch described this as exploring "basements which are places of memory, trauma and buried truths, but also places of emancipation, of secret societies which, by burying themselves, escape control." The theme also considers "complicity" in both negative and positive senses: "Guilty complicity that turns a blind eye to rejected or forgotten people or practices. And positive complicity that allows the weaving of underground links of solidarity." The festival also embraces the "underground" as a cherished counter-culture.

The Belluard Festival is known for its cosmopolitan nature, with this edition representing 28 nationalities and speaking 20 languages. Beyond the artistic presentations, the festival aims to foster real-life exchanges and debates, moving beyond social media interactions. It also maintains its connection with the local population, offering experiences like spending a night with storytellers or participating in a queer procession starting from the Schönberg neighborhood.

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This year, with underground complicities, we visit the basements which are places of memory, trauma and buried truths, but also places of emancipation, of secret societies which, by burying themselves, escape control. We also take the word complicity in both senses. Complicity that turns a blind eye to rejected or forgotten people or practices. And positive complicity that allows the weaving of underground links of solidarity. And then, the underground is also this counter-culture that is dear to us.