Hello,
MILL was created in the year 2000 for the development and broadcasting of free improvisation in Lebanon. Since then, the association, through its annual music festival Irtijal, has observed the lebanese musical field with the double worry of concquering a new public and to set the music in a permanent dialog with the lebanese artistic domain.
Thus, in the course of its different activities and events, the association has enlarged itself, and the festival’s quality has increased simultaneousely to the public’s adaptation.
The last edition of the festival has added dance and a section for experimental cinema : « Toupie Tournante ». Also, during the « Springs Meetings », workshops of improvisation practice were organised, they are acts of mediation who pre-suppose different social relations between musicians and public which can no longer be reduced to the basic equation of production/consumption.
In the futur, MILL would like to be a place for artistic experience open to all boundaries. Establishing links and bridges between the differents sorts of arts, creating resonnances between them, thinking about all the different kinds of broadcasting in order to reconsider them, are so many purposes that stimulate our work. Convinced by the laboratory principle, considering that improvisation by-crosses all disciplines and feeds all the contemporary forms, our programs could inclued shows that stem from neibhouring fields like improvised dance, performance, sonic poetry, installations, video, real-time fine arts or multidisciplinary shows that include all these forms of expressions.
We look forward to gathering ideas and energies for an « art of breaks ». Starting off from the idea that art must be a Big Refusal and be fed by subversion, we are : against the academism kept by the sound and image industry and their mecanisms of enslavement of body and mind. For an openness in body and mind. For an ever-active imagination and visions always reinvented. For an enlargment of the art work’s perception field beyond the criterium of beauty and emotion. For attitudes of resistance and engagement towards difference. For creating acts of breaks.
If you feel compelled by our libertarian approach, join us:
- during « Irtijal », our festival taking place in august
- in « The Spring Meetings », our workshops in april
- or suscribe to our mailing list (www.zwyx.org/mill)
You may also forward this letter to all the people thirsty for artistic independence.
We would be glad to receive news from you and to collaborate with you in the future.
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MILL (Musique Improvisée Libre au Liban)
www.zwyx.org/mill