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Echoes from the Silk Road

For centuries, the Silk Road has helped to create links between the most diverse cultures – nomadic traders would establish contact with sedentary populations through encounters along the road. From the Caucasus to the borders of the Pacific Ocean, this vast territory was – among other things – a spiritual melting pot for Sufism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Shamanism. These influences helped to forge artistic expressions of great originality, of which this festival offers some particularly significant examples.

Although certain connections remain evident, each culture has developed its own language and aesthetic. Far from being restricted to the reproduction of past models, contemporary artists of inner Asia are today part of a cultural renewal that sometimes occurs through new encounters.

Laurent Aubert (translated by Emma Johnson)

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