We’re all familiar with CENTQUATRE-PARIS, an institution in the north of Paris that hosts a multi-cultural annual programme ranging from concerts to performances, creative workshops to exhibitions (most recently the Grande Expédition, ‘Tara, art and science to reveal the Ocean’), and its Open Factory (6 and 7 December) to incubate the next creative start-ups that will make the art of tomorrow. Less well known are its cultural policy initiatives, from residencies (over 300 a year) to off-site cultural engineering support at national and international level.
Find out more about their new collaboration on Villa Formose, between France and Taiwan, with Julie Sanerot, Production Director and Programming Assistant, and Martin Colomer-Diez, Director of Cultural Engineering.
Cover: BEAR MY SOUL at CENTQUATRE-PARIS, december 2023, 📸 Quentin Chevrier
Julie Sanerot – I work closely with our director José-Manuel Gonçalvès on all the artistic programming at CENTQUATRE-PARIS. It’s essential for us that the people in charge of programming can also be present when projects are being produced. Our artistic activities range from festivals and concerts to major exhibitions and residencies. For some years now, we’ve also been organising international events such as Séquence Danse Paris, Impatience for emerging theatre and the Biennale Némo for digital creation. I’m also involved in sharing our expertise with the outside world.
Martin Colomer-Diez – I run the cultural engineering department at CENTQUATRE-PARIS, and more specifically the engineering and innovation department. We work on projects in 3 categories: design and production of artistic and cultural projects outside the walls, in urban and multi-disciplinary contexts (for example, exhibitions for architects, on the Grand Paris construction sites, organising festivals, etc.), a second aspect closer to a consultancy agency to bring a methodology to companies or institutions that are imagining the city and territories (or to create places, transform them, etc.) based on the expertise of CENTQUATRE-PARIS, and finally a third branch an activity around calls for artistic projects to support establishments that wish to launch them. On this last point, it is our multi-disciplinary capacity that is our strength, but also an eye on the emergence of new practices or talents – such as can be found in our 104factory.
CENTQUATRE-PARIS, a major player in Villa Formose Immersive
J. S. – The Villa Formose was proposed to us by the French Office in Taipei, following on from the first editions which were supported by the Forum des Images. With our cultural engineering capabilities and our network, it makes a lot of sense to collaborate on this type of international residency. And doing so collectively, with different skills, is part of our DNA at CENTQUATRE-PARIS. Here, residencies are often less visible from the outside, but they feed into all the activities of the venue. Some artists in residence find collaborators in our incubated companies. What’s more, 70% of our programming for the general public is based on artists or groups who have been in residence with us at some point!
J. S. – Being able to take part in Villa Formose also meant that we could welcome Taiwanese artists and incorporate them into our network, introducing them to the ecosystem around CENTQUATRE-PARIS: artistic partners, entrepreneurs in their sector or events such as the Némo Biennial. We were able to work with our Taiwanese partners on setting up the residency, selecting the juries, thinking about the economic models, etc. And we had complementary perspectives, which made things easier.
M. C.-D. – We already had experience of working with Taiwan on the C-LAB Taïpei project, which aimed to transform a former military base into a cultural venue, with IRCAM in particular. Joining Villa Formose also means developing an international relationship that is truly co-financed by these two cultural territories, with funding from the CNC and then TAICCA. We remain close to the Forum des Images, and to all the key players in the two creative industries. We were lucky enough to be able to go to the Kaohsiung Film Festival in 2023 and again in 2024 with French teams to consolidate our discussions. And we’re closely following the development of Villa Formose globally, which brings together arts and disciplines that obviously echo the work of CENTQUATRE-PARIS – and in an area where artistic practices are particularly diverse and rich. We are learning a great deal from the residents who have already been to Villa Formose, and from the meetings with the Taiwanese teams (particularly about the role of the author in the projects, the discussions with the co-producers or technical teams on site, etc.).
J. S. – Performing arts, visual arts, immersive art… We need to maintain a decompartmentalised view of all artistic disciplines, and open up these residencies (Formose, Kujoyama…) to artists who sometimes don’t have the reflex to apply or find out about existing support.
CENTQUATRE-PARIS, 300 residencies a year (and a bit more)
J. S. – When it comes to residencies at CENTQUATRE-PARIS, there’s no single path. It can range from a few days for a musician to several months for a visual artist. We need to take into account the rhythms of each discipline, and understand when we can welcome them into our creative process. This can range from a simple office to a 500 m2 space for creating a show or rehearsing. Some artists are very autonomous, others are associate artists with us, and we enter into co-production to accompany them on tour (104ontheroad – link). And there’s the 104factory to incubate certain artistic teams, such as Novaya, who created COLORED (NOIRE) there.
J. S. – Sur l’accompagnement de certains artistes, l’exemple récent serait notre travail avec la chorégraphe Leïla Ka. Nous l’avons suivi en tournée avec des premiers spectacles à taille raisonnable, pour ensuite envisager un spectacle plus ambitieux. Nous faisons très attention à bien paramétrer nos actions, surtout quand il s’agit d’emmener des artistes sur les routes. Dans le même sens, notre Laboratoire des cultures urbaines est venu de l’idée d’accueillir des artistes à l’heure. Certains n’ont pas forcément le temps de bloquer plusieurs jours ou semaines. Et ils ont besoin d’accompagnement plus spécifiques sur l’administration ou le juridique.
When it comes to supporting certain artists, a recent example would be our work with choreographer Leïla Ka. We followed her on tour with some reasonably sized initial shows, before planning a more ambitious show. We’re very careful to set the parameters of what we do, especially when it comes to taking artists on the road. In the same vein, our Laboratoire des Cultures Urbaines grew out of the idea of welcoming artists on an hourly basis. Some of them don’t necessarily have the time to block out several days or weeks. And they need more specific administrative or legal support.
Discover the artists in residence this season
Cultural engineering, a global cultural approach to the regions
J. S. – We have a real sensitivity to the public space, both inside and outside our walls. How do you show artistic projects outside?
M. C.-D. – At 104ingénierie, we take a multi-disciplinary, multi-scalar approach, based on a cultural urban planning method that takes into account multiple parameters in order to analyse an urban or territorial phenomenon. To answer the questions posed by the projects, we carry out a real diagnosis to fully understand the context and establish a 360° vision of the issues identified, with a spatial and temporal vision and chronotopies. We work with sociologists, geographers, architects, urban planners and artists to establish dedicated methodologies that enable art and culture to be used as vectors for transforming or enhancing an area.
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