Luminato Festival Toronto Announces October Lineup

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 15, 2021) - Luminato Festival Toronto - the city's international festival of arts and ideas - is collaborating with many of Canada's most renowned and provocative art makers to celebrate creativity, promote change, and bring connection back to the Greater Toronto Area this Fall, from October 13 to 17.

"As we look toward brighter days, Luminato is excited to announce a powerful series of immersive film and digital experiences, along with a special drive-in concert," says Luminato Festival Toronto CEO Celia Smith.

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Luminato 2021 Details

Original works from Christine Brubaker, Edward Burtynsky, and Julien Christian Lutz pka Director X, will headline the October 2021 festivities. In a nod to the festival's traditional June timing, Luminato has launched Luminato2021, a virtual reality guide to the Festival 'inside' Toronto's iconic Great Hall, which will evolve over the Summer months with more previews, highlights, and interactive elements added as the festival draws nearer.

From dance, music and visual art, to theatre, augmented reality, and digital photography, all grounded in the city-region, Luminato's full list of events (see below) begins in June and crescendos from October 13 to 17. A wide range of accessibility initiatives accompany and augment each event, with additional commissions filling out the Access Program. More details on collaborators and activities will be shared over the summer through Luminato's social channels and the virtual reality guide.

15^th Luminato Festival: Love Letters to Toronto

"In these days of change, Luminato has an important role to play, by sharing crucial stories and ideas from the brilliant artists who call Toronto home. Luminato 2021 is our love letter to Toronto, but and we hope you will enjoy it no matter where you are. And while the work addresses critical issues like the climate crisis, colonization and systemic racism, it also celebrates the joy that people can make every day, in song, and dance, and beautiful images," says Naomi Campbell, Artistic Director of Luminato Festival Toronto.

Edward Burtynsky's In the Wake of Progress

Commissioned and Co-produced by Luminato Festival Toronto
Produced by Edward Burtynsky, Bob Ezrin, and Julia Johnston
Film | Photography
World Premiere

In the Wake of Progress is a new, immersive, digital experience from world-renowned Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky. Created for the screens surrounding Toronto's Yonge-Dundas Square, and filmed by Bokeh Collective for the 2021 Festival's online audience, the piece tells the epic tale of humanity's impact on the planet through photographs and film from Burtynsky's 40-year career. Co-produced by Canadian music legend Bob Ezrin, featuring an original soundtrack by Phil Strong, with vocals by award-winning singer iskwē and performances by musicians of The Glenn Gould School at The Royal Conservatory of Music, In the Wake of Progress is an urgent call to action, and a quest for hope, as we face the greatest existential threat of our time: the climate crisis.

Watch Luminato's website for future iterations of In the Wake of Progress in 2022 and beyond.

In the Wake of Progress at Yonge-Dundas Square has been made possible by the generous support of RBC.

New Monuments

Co-curated by Julien Christian Lutz PKA Director X and Umbereen Inayet, with Lead Choreographer Tanisha Scott
Co-Produced with Canadian Stage
in association with Harbourfront Centre, National Arts Centre, and TO Live
Film | Dance
World Premiere

Conceived and co-curated by Toronto's iconic, Grammy nominated, multi award winning director and installation artist, Julien Christian Lutz PKA Director X and award-winning artistic producer Umbereen Inayet along with lead choreographer Tanisha Scott, New Monuments is a once in a lifetime dance/film event featuring over 40 dancers from across Toronto who, on the shores of Lake Ontario, will take us on a cathartic journey of purpose - from the beginning of colonization to a more hopeful and equitable future.

Streaming, followed by VOD (video on demand), on CBC Gem.

Christine Brubaker and Constantine X. Anastasakis - Henry G20

Produced by Henry G20 Group
Co-commissioned and produced in association with Luminato Festival Toronto and The Bentway Conservancy
PodPlay | Augmented Reality
World Premiere

Henry G20 freely adapts Shakespeare's Henry V for a bold retelling of the conflict between police and protestors during the June 2010 G20 Summit in Toronto. Through a mobile app with both PodPlay and Augmented Reality experiences, Henry G20 addresses unanswered questions from that fateful weekend when hundreds of people, both protesters and innocent bystanders, were detained as part of the largest mass arrest in Canadian history.

Featuring Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah as Henry, with Anand Rajaram, Aviva Armour-Ostroff, Breton Lalama, Christopher Allen, Courtenay Stevens, Dylan Evans, Jasmine Chen, Jennifer Wigmore, Neta Rose, Richard Lee, Rick Roberts, and Sedina Fiati.

Henry G20 is supported by University of Calgary.

View the Full Program

2021 Supporters

Founding Government Partner Province of Ontario

Major Partners Government of Canada, City of Toronto

Presenting Partners RBC, Ontario Arts Council

Festival Supporters Anonymous, Gretchen and Donald Ross, O.C., TD Bank Group, Ian and Kiki Delaney, C.M., Sandra and Jim Pitblado, C.M., The Michael Young Family Foundation, Joan and Jerry Lozinski, Alice and Grant Burton, The Hal Jackman Foundation, Louise MacCallum and Michael Barnstijn, Larry and Judy Tanenbaum and Family, OLG, CIBC, Bloomberg, David W. Binet, Richard and Donna Ivey, Lucille and Urban Joseph, O.C., Power Corporation of Canada, John and Leanna Bayliss, Mohammad and Najla Al Zaibak, Douglas Knight and Shelley Ambrose, The Bennett Family Foundation, Helen Burstyn, C.M. and Family, Tony and Lina Gagliano, Kevin and Roger Garland, C.M., Anthony and Helen Graham, O. Ont., Eva Czigler and Peter Herrndorf, C.C., Downtown Yonge BIA, The McLean Foundation, Medcan, Michael Foulkes and Linda Brennan, ANDPVA, Partners in Art, and many others.

Government Partners Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, Canada Council for the Arts

Media Partners St. Joseph Communications, CBC, Branded Cities, Astral, OUTFRONT, Pattison Outdoor, The Globe and Mail

About Luminato Festival Toronto

Luminato Festival Toronto is an international arts festival dedicated to performance, media and visual arts, and programming that cuts across traditional artform boundaries. Luminato works closely with Canadian artists to support the development and creation of distinctive new work, as well as presenting artists from around the world.

For more information visit luminatofestival.com or follow us on Twitter: @Luminato | Facebook: LuminatoFestival | Instagram: @LuminatoFestival | LinkedIn: Luminato | Youtube: LuminatoEvents

For media information, visuals and to book interviews with Luminato Festival 2021 artists, Celia Smith, and Naomi Campbell please contact:

debquinn@sppublicrelations.com
soniaprashar@sppublicrelations.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/87617