Crossed Residencies Bruxelles/Montreal

Mara Dupas

LA BELLONE (BE) X LA SERRE (QC)

In order to promote the exchange of ideas and practices, LA SERRE hosts artists through residency exchanges with various local, national, and international partners. These partnerships allow emerging local artists to meet new artistic communities from different territories, while also enabling national and international artists to build connections with the Montreal creative scene. These exchanges lead to the enrichment of artistic practices and foster collaboration within the artistic community. They are offered to artists supported by the various initiatives of LA SERRE.

This initiative fosters a dialogue through a Quebec-Belgium residency exchange, where a pair of artists will alternate between residencies hosted by both partner organizations in Montreal/Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang and Brussels. Each pair, consisting of one artist and one dramaturg, confronts their creative ideals by participating in various activities: residencies, meetings, and exchanges. These exchanges are intertwined with major events organized by the involved organizations, including Africa is/in the Future and OFFTA. LA SERRE – arts vivants and La Bellone are both committed to supporting contemporary creation, as well as the aesthetic and political questions that stem from it. Their respective mandates aim to foster the emergence of significant works related to societal issues, allowing for the birth of conversations and new methodologies specific to each context.

La Bellone is a platform for meetings and exchanges. It stands out for its approach that places dramaturgical practices at the heart of its activities. La Bellone advocates for the research and reflection carried out by artists as a source of meaning for all, and views artistic knowledge as a precious and necessary social knowledge. To achieve this, its team organizes conferences and seminars, workshops, residencies, and numerous meetings with artists, specialists from various sectors, and thinkers.

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24-25 Mara Dupas (QC) + Camille Gendron (QC)

From November 4 to 14, 2024, Mara Dupas and Camille Gendron traveled to Brussels as part of the cross-residencies between LA SERRE and La Bellone. During these two weeks, the artists participated in the Africa is/in the Future festival, held annually by La Bellone for its 9th edition.

Hosted in the Gallery, the artists worked on Mara’s solo piece Olympia 2.0, exploring fluid and undulating gestures. This work reflects on the artist’s relationship with her body as an Afro-descendant individual and the invisibilization of the experiences of racialized people, while abstractly addressing notions of exoticism and fantasy. By refusing to directly reveal her face, Mara seeks to subvert the audience’s expectations, offering them the opportunity to discover her, partially, through a mirror.

23-24 Marilou Craft (QC) + Marie Umuhoza (BE)

In February 2023, artist and playwright Marilou Craft (Montreal) completed a two-week exploration and research residency at La Bellone (Brussels). She met her artist pair, Marie Umuhoza, the center’s cultural workers (Mylène Lauzon, Florent Garnier) and playwright Riccardo Fazi. Marilou Craft was provided with a workspace space (“le Cocoon”) and accommodation on site. She also benefited from a dramaturgical seminar with Riccardo Fazi, sound artist and associate playwright at La Bellone. The residency and seminar culminated in the presentation of a stage of work followed by an end-of-residency interview (Half & Half Closer).

Marie Umuhoza (Brussels) was in residence at LA SERRE in Montreal during the OFFTA 2023 festival. As our spaces were being renovated at the time, the Regroupement québécois de la Danse joined the project as a partner, offering her a workspace. Marie Umuhoza took part in many of the conversations, activities and conferences offered as part of the OFFTA and FTA. She also met with local presenters, playwrights, CEAD, artists and poets in order to fuel her artistic approach as both creator and curator.