The festival will still hold shows in virtual format, but it will gather an audience in the theaters and other stages of the city.
Ecuador inaugurated this Wednesday its largest cultural meeting, the VI Festival of the Living Arts of Loja (Fiavl 2021), with France as guest of honor and more than 300 artists from fourteen countries of the world, for twelve days of continuous shows.
The Loja festival was inaugurated in a special ceremony held with the public and that seemed to leave behind the confinement caused by the covid-19 pandemic, which forced the virtual mode to be privileged in the last two editions.
The festival will still hold shows in virtual format, but it will gather in the theaters and other stages of the city an audience that has waited and prepared to live the event intensely.
A colorful parade anticipated the inauguration of the Loja 2021 International Living Arts Festival
The Minister of Culture, María Elena Machuca, did not hesitate to affirm that with this festival it would seem that life is “reborn with love” after a pandemic that does not end and that, therefore, it still demands biosecurity care, present in the organization of the contest.
Now “Loja receives hundreds of artists and dozens of works”, after a period of “confinement, where music and art were a refuge against anguish and uncertainty,” added the minister.
For this reason, this sixth edition of the Fiavl also supposes “a space for the reunion of the artists with their public”, and of the local creators with the international ones, in a kind of “rebirth” after the “long confinement”.
The organization has also been a welcome effort by the municipality of Loja, the central government and the embassies of countries that have decided to join a festival that will put joy and art as “a pretext to return” to show the best of the city. world culture, added Machuca.
Loja’s living arts, which will be presented until November 28, come from Ecuador, France, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Spain, the United States, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Peru and Russia; with the support of organizations such as the World Health Organization.
The French Ambassador, Frédéric Desagneaux, highlighted the areas of cultural cooperation between the two countries and said he was proud that his nation has been chosen as the guest of honor for the resumption of the Fiavl in person.
Loja is ready for the VI edition of the Living Arts Festival
The best of the living arts of France will be presented in Loja “after the retreat” by the coronavirus pandemic, in a sample of the strong historical and cultural ties that unite Ecuador and France, added Desagneaux.
The participation of dozens of French artists in the Loja Festival reflects the “diversity of cultural cooperation” of France in Ecuador, added the diplomatic representative.
He also highlighted the festival’s inaugural play, “The Portrait of Raoul”, starring the Franco-Salvadoran actor Raúl Fernández, a comedy from the Normandy National Dramatic Center.
In turn, the mayor of Loja, Jorge Bailón, assured that his city has waited for this moment with intensity, as he assured that “people’s desire for culture” is enormous.
And, in his words, “in this tiny city, we continue to do” what pre-Hispanic ancestors taught for centuries: make art.
Loja is a “little piece” of land that knows how to “suffer and sing”, but that, above all, lives with the joy that the arts offer and that are expressed en masse during the Festival.
“Let’s all sing at this festival”, which is also a magnet for visitors from all over the country and the whole world, added Bailón, who invited everyone to make the contest “be a party.”
Under the motto “Unknown Territories”, this edition of the festival also includes training activities and participation of casts and workshops, in virtual and face-to-face mode.
The “Benjamín Carrión”, “Bolívar” theaters, the “Alfredo Mora Reyes” Cultural Center, the University House and other “conventional and unconventional spaces in the city” have been adequate to host many of the works that will be presented at the twelve days of the festival.
The contest has also invited visitors from other countries and latitudes, who will be able to enjoy tourism and the innumerable natural attractions of a region such as Loja, nestled in the magical Andes of southern Ecuador. (I)
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