STUDIO ÉTANGS NOIRS, 29 rue de Menin, 1080 Brussels
This new venue, a space dedicated to movement and cross-disciplinary encounters, is shared with four other partner dance companies under a program contract. Based on principles of equality and horizontality, the space is co-managed and co-funded by all five partners. Coordination is entrusted to Grand Studio.
Opened in 2021 in a former industrial space in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, with the support of Un futur pour la culture: territoires de création from the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (FWB), the Studio Étangs Noirs is a space for choreographic and transdisciplinary research and activity.
Built on the margins of official professional circuits and deeply connected to its local context, the SEN emerged from a desire to pool intentions and financial resources between Grand Studio and four FWB program-supported companies: Wooshing Machine – Mauro Paccagnella, Ruda – Ayelen Parolin, Rising Horses – Louise Vanneste & Nyash – Caroline Cornélis.
Studio Étangs Noirs hosts performance rehearsals, creation residencies — for both guest and supported artists — as well as educational initiatives and public showcases.
A selection of updates available on instagram.
Ouvertures #
As part of this project, Grand Studio initiated a monthly event series, Ouvertures #, designed to highlight the world of a featured artist and the collaborators within their creative network. It offers an opportunity to develop and present an artistic desire or early-stage project, to reveal and share it with an informed or curious audience.
Launched in 2022, this sharing-oriented project is intended as a recurring, one-off encounter with artists connected to the Studio Étangs Noirs. The Covid years revealed artists’ need to come together, exchange, talk about their projects, experiment, take risks, and engage with a supportive audience in welcoming, low-pressure conditions.
Since September 2022, a number of artists in residence at Studio Étangs Noirs have been or will be invited to participate, including Erika Zueneli, Cédric Dambrain, Louise Vanneste, Marielle Morales, Lara Barsacq, Julien Carlier, Gwendoline Robin, Angela Rabaglio and Micaël Florentz (Tumbleweed), Jonathan Schatz, Collettivo Vitamina, Demestri Lefeuvre, Ayelen Parolin, Mauro Paccagnella, Louise Baduel, Fanny Brouyaux, Thomas Hauert, among others.
The programming is shaped by artistic encounters and proposals, and may also include other formats such as exhibitions or film screenings.
This regular gathering, open to all, allows both professionals and the general public to enter an artist’s universe in a unique way. It is a free event that fosters the creation of a community around the project. It takes place at a particular moment — Sundays from 5 to 8 PM.