HECTOLITRE

Residence of reflection

HECTOLITRE is a venue dedicated to artists who wish to delve deeper into their projects, experiment with transdisciplinarity and connect their art form/research to the neighborhood. The artists living and working at HECTOLITRE are co-joining interconnected community rings, together with involved neighbors, socio-cultural activists, local and international artists/curators.

HECTOLITRE is also an unusual building in the heart of the Marolles neighborhood undergoing a radical change of identity. Former swingers club, then storage for antiques, the space is filled with peculiar Art Brut interventions, resembling a kind of «memory forest». The visually and symbolically complex surrounding is not perceived as an obstacle, but rather as a living systems that accepts, associates, questions and experiences. Hectolitre hosts exhibitions, performances, musical encounters, film projections, debates and other initiatives; the complementarity among its artists, curators, creatives and neighbors inhabits the place and catalyzes exchange.

Residence of Reflection is a three-months long residency programme dedicated to research artists, curators, writers, critics and thinkers interested in working in Brussels. The residency has been paused from the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, but the organisers are going to relaunch for artists living within Belgium, and neighboring countries of Netherlands, France, Germany and Luxembourg (within the sanitary measures).
The residency invites artists/thinkers to reflect on the subjects of community and/or memory, as these are the two main challenges of the project of HECTOLITRE. How to connect communities that coexist in a single neighborhood? How do we speak about an unusual building with a peculiar memory? How do we go beyond the legacy of the building? What does it mean to create a memory of growing relations and exchanges? How to place an artist within a community and strengthen a collectivity within art?

Candidate’s profile:

• There is no specific medium or discipline, but writing, audio/video, performance-based works are preferred. The working spaces are in accordance with the Covid-19 measures.
• There is no subject or method preference, but portfolios rendering contextual and participatory reflection, as well as a research approach, will have advantage.
• The residency is open to people from all over the world, but who are staying at the moment in Belgium and neighbouring countries of Netherlands, France, Germany and Luxembourg (within the sanitary measures). Regardless of their nationality, gender, religious or ethnic background.

Residence’s environment:

• Artists/thinkers-in-residence will have a cozy room in a flat-share with two other artists, access to a rooftop and other common venues (kitchen, meeting rooms, edit room) within the Studio Hectolitre, a hybrid living&working space oriented toward art, culture and film.
• Artists/thinkers-in-residence will have access to a private working space, at Trait d’Union (open community space), or a desk-base working station, depending on the nature of the work. 
• The project’s audio-video equipment and material is available for use (projectors, sounds system, podcast system, power tools, etc.)
• Working language is English and/or French.
• The duration of the residency is three months.

Applications are currently open for the periods of: March-May; June-August 2021.

• Artists/thinkers-in-residence will receive assistance in local networking and communication and are invited to participate in team-meetings and community activities.
• At the end of the residence, the public presentation/talk or exhibition/performance will take place at HECTOLITRE, depending on that-time Covid measures.

The research should be an independent and site-specific initiative, adjusted for a 3-month residency, but resulting in a concrete reflection communicated publicly through a talk, performance, installation or screening (depending on the actual sanitary situation).

Artists/thinkers-in-residence will have a cozy room in a flat-share with two other artists, access to a rooftop and other common venues (kitchen, meeting rooms, edit room) within the Studio Hectolitre, a hybrid living&working space oriented toward art, culture and film.

Artists/thinkers-in-residence will have access to private working space at Trait d’Union (open community space), or a desk-based working station, depending on the nature of the work. 

An atypical building with venues adaptable to shared studios, exhibitions, performing arts, encounters and presentation, vitrine art, co-working.