During the opening of ICAF 2026, Artistic Director Jasmina Ibrahimovic spoke about the power of participatory arts, care, and connection.
As many visitors asked whether the speech would be made available after the festival, we are pleased to share the full text below.
Good evening,
It took me a while to understand what I wanted to say tonight.
And perhaps it is still not finished, and what you will hear now is a provisional reflection.
Events in the world seem to change completely every two days, and with them my sense of what feels urgent to share.
In the more than twenty-five years that ICAF has existed, the world, our world,
has rarely felt as unstable as it does now.
Geopolitical shifts driven by ego-fuelled leaders who act and look like villains from very bad films— only this is not fiction.
The effects of a rapidly changing climate, wars, genocides, and rising polarisation put pressure on our societies and with it, on our physical and mental space.
Over a year ago, when we launched our open call and announced the theme of this edition, Space for Imagination, we were overwhelmed by proposals. The number of submissions from community arts groups around the world
was four times higher than in the previous edition.
The fact that so many artists around the world are working with communities questioning, deconstructing, rebuilding, and sometimes even healing through imagination is perhaps the most hopeful thing we have witnessed in the past year. Each project showed how threatened space is worldwide, but also how unevenly the privilege of having space is distributed.
Many proposals reflected an attempt to fight for space for imagination, in a society where empathy, creativity, and mutual understanding are increasingly under pressure.
We are living in a time of enormous challenges. Challenges that no one can solve alone.
Challenges that ask us to move not away from each other, but towards each other.
And yet, the space to do that is becoming more and more scarce.
Space to meet. Space to listen. Space to imagine.
Community arts often begins where space is missing. It begins in neighbourhoods, in communities, in cities where people carry different stories. Every project is an invitation to step into a shared space where new connections can grow. Where differences can be explored. Where something unexpected can happen.
Many artists we have invited to this festival have chosen a difficult path.
They work in places where tensions are real. Where trust is fragile. And even though most of them have been working for a very long time in this field many of them are worried.
Many of them feel that the world around them is slowly falling apart. And to them I want to say: Please don’t lose hope The world needs your work. … as you can see around you, you are not alone.
Keep going with this complex, careful, patient, deeply relational work. And to all of you sitting here tonight,
who support this work in one way or another.
Give space to these makers. Trust their process. Walk alongside them.
Support them where you can. Not only when it is easy, but especially when it is difficult.
In a world that is becoming more polarised, it is often easier to take a position than to truly listen. It is often easier to speak against than to stay in conversation.
But community arts is not about choosing sides. It is about revealing the many layers of our identities.
About revealing the complexity of human relationships. It is about showing that behind our differences
we often share the same fears, the same desire for safety and belonging. And when we begin to recognise that new connections begin to emerge.
Over the coming days, we will gather in this theatre, and in many other places across this city.
To share and listen to stories. To ask questions…
You may not always feel comfortable. But don’t worry you can shake it off each evening during the concerts at the late night stage. The space we share here is not neutral.
It carries meaning, opinions, and emotions. It is a space that we create together.
A space where we choose to build bridges even when it is not the popular choice.
Because our answer to fear and anger cannot be withdrawal and despair. Our answer must be to connect human to human, heart to heart. And tonight, we begin with An Fara. A powerful dance performance of Mud Art Company from Northern Nigeria and The Walk Productions.
In Kaduna the region where this work comes from An Fara means:
it has begun. It is a warning. A signal that something has started and that we cannot look away.
Through movement and rhythm, this performance speaks about violence, about survival, and about the consequences of a changing climate and our relationship with the more-than-human world.
It reminds us that the alarm has already been sounded. And that the question now is not whether something is happening but how we will respond.
Community arts does not change the world overnight.
But it changes how we meet each other.
And that… is where everything begins.
An Fara. It has begun.
Welcome to ICAF.
