Kuala Lumpur Festival and international exchange
KL Festival (6–31 May 2026), and the full-day gathering ‘Currents and Confluences’, brought together international producers, curators and arts practitioners to discuss cross-cultural collaboration. An article on the festival’s website explores what some of the experts thought about cultural diplomacy, festivals, cities and cultural exchange.
Article extracts:
Kate Ben-Tovim, curator, executive producer and cultural diplomacy specialist from Australia, believes festivals have a role that extends far beyond attracting visitors or generating economic activity. ‘Festivals play a critical role in showcasing the contemporary identity of a country or city to the world,’ she said. ‘Cultural diplomacy works best when a nation’s values are demonstrated authentically by its people, and artists have a unique capacity to do this.’
Michelle Rocha, Head of Touring at Factory International, the organisation behind the acclaimed Manchester International Festival, believes successful international partnerships begin with clarity of purpose. ‘Before thinking about international collaboration, I believe every city or festival should first be clear about why it wants to collaborate internationally,’ she said.
For Sasapin Siriwanij, Artistic Director of the Bangkok International Performing Arts Meeting (BIPAM), industry gatherings serve a critical function that audiences rarely see. ‘While the arts are made by artists and for the public, there are many other practitioners behind and around performances and festivals who make them happen,’ she said…Those practitioners include producers, curators, communications teams, fundraisers, technicians and administrators – people responsible for everything from budgets and contracts to logistics and audience engagement…Such networks are particularly important in South-East Asia, where arts infrastructure remains uneven and funding can be limited. Across the region, practitioners often rely on relationships and trust to create opportunities that formal systems cannot always provide.
Photo: Sunlee Khan