© Saphir Belkheir
The Good Practices Factory 2023 goes online!
Between Bobigny, Brussels, Lisbon, Cologne, Stockholm, and Warsaw, the Good Practices Factory relies on six autonomous groups that developed a reflection around a common theme: “Radicality: a Sustainable Transformation Towards Diversity?”. During regular online meetings and the annual meeting on November 20th, 2023, in Lisbon, experiences were shared, as were successes, dead ends, good (and sometimes not so good) practices, doubts, what works, and what doesn’t...
This first edition is neither a handbook of best practices, nor a toolbox, but an inventory of the actions and reflections of each partner. The Good Practices Factory dynamic acted as a springboard to further explore and critically consider our existing approaches.
This publication reviews a wide range of experiences in very different contexts: representativeness, access policies, internal dynamics, possible discriminations within teams... It is an honest introduction to the questions that drive us, and to the experiences that carry us through our daily lives in Bobigny, Brussels, Lisbon, Stockholm, Cologne and Warsaw. A space of dissonance? A sounding board? Or more simply, a tool for listening to the world...
CommonLAB24, Welcome to Lisbon!
CommonLAB2024 opens in Lisbon. From June 17th to 29th, the nine selected artists, Nadim Bahsoun, Advilseen Bheekhoo, Diego Bragà, Azani V. Ebengou, Jin Xuan Mao, Agathe Yamina Meziani, Lucía García Pullés, Pankaj Tiwari and Inés Sybille Vooduness will meet, exchange and discuss around their projects, while encountering other artistic and professional approaches, both local and international. Cameroonian-Finnish choreographer Sonya Lindfors will offer a 4-day workshop, Working with F(r)ictions - Decolonial and Speculative Practices from June 19 to 22, followed in the second week by Desire as Document, two days of reflection and practice with Lisbon-based Brazilian playwright and actress Keli Freitas.
Next stopover in Maputo in September, in collaboration with CulturArte and Panaibra Gabriel Canda.
© Luc Depreitere
CommonLAB 2023, Continuing our Companionship…
Common Stories aims to provide lasting, meaningful support for CommonLAB artists. As part of this, five CommonLAB 2023 projects will be supported in 2024-2025. This support takes place within the framework of the CommonPROD programme and will take in various forms.
Two pieces will be co-produced:
- Sycomore by Saphir Belkheir, a Common Stories coproduction with the MC93, Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, Riksteatern, Alkantara and africologne,
- Galactic Crush 2: Into The Cold by Stéphanie Kayal, a Common Stories coproduction with Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles and Alkantara.
Hang Hang was in a research residency at the MC93 from February 1 to June 30, 2024. The Riksteatern commissioned Nancy Ofori to write the theatrical text Gåvan (The Gift). Last but not least, Anna Ten's project Portrait d'une femme ordinaire dans un océan de coquelicots (Portrait of an Ordinary Woman in a Poppies Sea) has received development assistance from the Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, with the support of the MC93.
Pays de rien © Najwa Hakiri
Common Stories is a Creative Europe project, supported by the European Union.
Common Stories is presented by the Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis, MC93 (Bobigny, France), in partnership with the Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles (Brussels, Belgium), Alkantara (Lisbon, Portugal), Culturgest (Lisbon, Portugal), africologneFESTIVAL (Cologne, Germany), Riksteatern (Stockholm, Sweden), in association with TR Warszawa (Warsaw, Poland).