Holland Festival, 76th edition invites everyone in June to celebrate the arts, reflect on the current state of the world and experience Amsterdam in new ways. 

Part of the programme was created in collaboration with associate artist ANOHNI. Her work includes music, performance, visual art and activism. Through her own performances and her contribution as associate artist, she draws attention to topics such as vulnerability, the destruction of nature and the urgency to formulate a new vision of society. Embracing a variety of identities and lifestyles, she stands up for all those who are excluded, marginalised and exploited by Western, capitalist society. Her work focuses on one question: 'What is really going on?'

ANOHNI is present with three projects. The Disintegration Loops (for Euterpestraat) is a free venue performance of meditative music by American composer William Basinski, performed by the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. This event was born out of ANOHNI's personal experience, having lived in that street for a short time as a child. ANOHNI also presents her own visual art in conjunction with photographs by her main muse, Dr Julia Yasuda. The exhibition SHE WHO SAW BEAUTIFUL THINGS is a collaboration with the Amsterdam Museum and is on display at Huis Willet-Holthuysen.

Future Feminism is a group of artists including ANOHNI, Kembra Pfahler, Johanna Constantine and Bianca and Sierra Casady (CocoRosie). They make proposals for a better, more feminine future. At the Muziekgebouw, they present the installation 13 TENETS OF FUTURE FEMINISM, which was first shown in New York in 2014. The installation is accompanied by a series of performances (world premieres) by them, poetic interventions, rituals and conversations, which encourage the audience to take a stand and together imagine an equal, female world.

Imaginations of an alternative world

This 76^e edition opens with Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, directed by frequent guest at the festival Simon McBurney. Based on the novel of the same name by Olga Tokarczuk, who won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature, the play depicts a vision of the world in which animals take revenge on humans. The influence of power, violence and disrespect for nature is critically examined. Activism, alongside the poetic narrative with charismatic characters, is the driving force behind this radical new view of the world.

A number of large-scale location productions also immerse audiences in alternative worlds. Julian Rosefeldt shows in his spectacular film installation Euphoria in the Central Market Hall the capitalist system in its full scope, from consumerism to despair, and comes up with a critical revision of this ideology. Young Polish director Łukasz Twarkowski fantasises about a utopian society in his six-hour performance Respublika, in which he combines music, theatre, rave and performance.

LEMNISKATA is a poetic and large-scale dance performance by Mexican choreographer Lukas Avendaño, in which he zooms in on the vulnerability of the muxe. His work stems from a strongly anti-patriarchal vision of society. In EXÓTICA, a new work by Chilean-Mexican Amanda Piña, the choreographer brings to the fore a forgotten aspect of the Western history of modern dance. She puts the spotlight back on a number of choreographers and dancers of colour who enjoyed great success in the 1920s.

Multidisciplinary art experience

At Angela (a strange loop) Susanne Kennedy uses virtual reality to explore what an individual's life looks like from A to Z. In Ribingurumu no Metamorufuoshiu by Japanese theatre-maker Toshiki Okada and composer Dai Fujikura, the music itself gradually becomes the protagonist. Briton Ed Atkins, who is at the forefront of digital video art, appears twice: as an avatar in his recent video work The worm and live in performance Epitaph.

For Meredith Monk, a living legend in avant-garde music, creating is a spiritual pursuit. Her work Indra's Net is a collective experience with video, movement and music, including vocal experiments. Multidisciplinary can also mean experiencing art in other ways, such as through participation and sensory stimulation, with the audience as participants rather than consumers. In To Feel A Thing: A Ritual for Emergence by American adrienne maree brown, the participating audience is part of the performance. Australian artist Lynette Wallworth, considered a mentor by ANOHNI, combines new technologies to create immersive experiences. She will present three works: the installation Evolution of Fearlessness, the live performance HOW TO LIVE (After You Die) and the 360-degree film Coral: Rekindling Venus.

Between generations

A theme in the programme is the interaction between generations. This is how Vake Poes; or how God disappeared by young Belgian playwright Lisaboa Houbrechts a family story about the violence embedded in the lives of individual people for generations. Blixa Bargeld, the legendary frontman of Einstürzende Neubauten, performs in a new project by composer Jamie Man about darkness, performed by and produced in collaboration with Asko|Schönberg.

Wuthering Heights by British director Emma Rice is a contemporary musical theatre adaptation of Emily Brontë's famous family epic, presented with and at DeLaMar. The Warm Shop adapts another classic, Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, and shows the topicality of this story, in which forbidden desires collide with power relations and normative visions of love.

Dragons is a celebratory show by South Korean choreographer Eun-Me Ahn. The 60-year-old choreographer presents a vision of the future performed by herself, her company and dancers born in the year of the dragon (2000). For the continuation of the Sustainable Theatre Project started last year, choreographer Jerome Bel, a legendary figure in contemporary dance, is donating a personal story to be adapted and performed by two young creators: Maria Magdalena Kozłowska and Pankaj Tiwari.

Festival centre and accessibility

De Balie is this year's festival centre, serving as a meeting place, service desk, box office and stage for debates and artist talks. For the 'do-it-yourselfers', there will be the masterclass Writing from the Sprit by adrienne maree brown and workshops by the collective skinship, practising ways in which we can connect with each other. The festival also has an online presence with streams, a podcast series in collaboration with De Groene Amsterdammer and a film programme in collaboration with Cinetree. International and local artists come together in a programme with online radio station Echobox Radio. Melkweg Expo presents work by photographer David Jack Lyons, highlighting the experience of queer and trans communities in the Amazon. Among other programmes around Future Feminism, the Galaxy Expo, Echobox's programme, The Disintegration Loops (for Euterpestraat) and the display of Rusalka by The National Opera in Park Frankendael are free to visit.

Partners

Collaboration partners this year include Hartwig Art Foundation, Amsterdam Museum, Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, De Balie, BIMHUIS, DeLaMar, De Nationale Opera, Het Nationale Ballet, Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, Frascati Producties and Koninklijk Conservatorium. Media partners are VPRO and NTR. The festival is made possible in part by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the municipality of Amsterdam, production partner Ammodo, main sponsor Fonds 21 and presentation partner Hartwig Art Foundation. There is also support from VandenEnde Foundation, Fonds Podiumkunsten and many other funds, companies and private donors.