LABSERVATOIRE, ARTISTIC RESIDENCY
masculine noun: artistic residency in Auvergne Rhône Alpes, a space for exploration and sharing. A time to let the imagination flourish and build together. Anchor yourself here to look elsewhere.
Apply for the 2025 edition!
The 2025 edition of our artistic residency will welcome a dozen artists from Saturday June 7 to Sunday June 14 in a former castle 1 hour's drive from Lyon.
APPLY HERE !
Présentation du lieu
What you need to know before applying
The LABservatoire artistic residency is open to all artists, whatever their level and whatever their artistic practice: visual arts, music, storytelling, poetry, theater, performance, dance, photography, video... Anyone is free to propose a project. It must be in keeping with the theme of the residency and with the values of our association.
Timetable for the call for applications :
- Start of call for applications: 02/02/2025
- Call for applications closes: 02/03/2025
- Resident selection announcement: 23/03/2025
Everyone is legitimate, so don't wait any longer, apply through this link!
The 2025 theme: Amitier les rivages - Befriending the shores
The formula contains an enigmatic dimension. It begins with an invented verb, a neologism conceived as an invitation to reflect on the bonds of friendship. It suggests a certain dynamic for the meeting to come. Do shores echo those who are stranded in a place, here or further afield? An open space in which to moor and tie up. Envisaged as a discreet sideline from which to observe possible horizons. On the banks of the Rhône, how can we amitize their inescapable face-to-face encounter?
How do you get to grips with it artistically?
The theme is conceived as a point of support for artists, as a breeding ground for their imagination. Alternatively, the artists' proposals can take the opposite approach. Whatever their choice, it acts as a link and a collective trigger. By proposing a few words affixed together, at the confluence of distinct sensibilities.
Hospitality conditions
For the 2025 edition of our artistic residency, artists will be welcomed from Saturday June 7 to Sunday June 14 in a former château in the Auvergne-Rhônes-Alpes region an hour away from Lyon. It should be noted that a financial contribution of 280€ is requested from each artist for the week.
A collective artistic residency
During the residency, living conditions are governed by conviviality and community life. During the residency, artists will have access to :
- shared accommodation: shared rooms (mixed or not, at their request), lounges, kitchen, bathroom and all amenities, wifi
- morning, noon and evening meals: recipes concocted in advance by our chef Chloé Leroy and prepared throughout the week by our cooks using local produce. Recipes are adaptable to all dietary requirements and allergies, and you can let us know if you have any special requests.
- a number of locations entirely at your disposal for creative work: each of you will have your own personal space according to your needs.
- human, technical, material and artistic support from our teams
Please note that the artists are responsible for all materials required for the creation. They may, however, be assisted in purchasing by our team.
The spirit of the LABservatoire residency is based on the desire to share, to pool, and to link up with each other in order to nourish each other's research and creations. Moments are dedicated to pooling everyone's questions, progress and desires, with free feedback from the team and the collective.
Why do artists have to contribute financially?
The association is currently run entirely by volunteers and does not receive any kind of public or private funding. Unfortunately, in order to offer the artistic residency, we are currently obliged to ask the artists and teams present to contribute to covering costs (catering and accommodation).
Eventually, we hope to be able to welcome artists free of charge and pay them for their work during the residency. To this end, we are actively seeking grants and donations.
A unique place of residence
This year's venue is a château in the Ain department, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. This former château has a plot of approximately two hectares, stretching right down to the Rhône river.
Detailed schedule for Residence 2025
- Arrival on site and start of residence: June 7
- Supervised arrival, description of communal living areas, day and night.
- Personal presentation of each artist's artistic approach.
- Research and creation period: June 7 to 13
- Official opening in the form of a walkabout: June 13
- More informal walkabout, banquet and party: June 14
- Last day of residency: June 15
LABservatoire artistic residency
Every year, the LABservatoire association offers a week's autonomous, eco-responsible artistic residency in the Auvergne Rhônes-Alpes region to a dozen artists from all artistic backgrounds and levels of practice (professional or amateur). This selection is made via a call for applications.
The concept
Each artistic residency is based on a theme chosen in advance by the association's artistic management team..
A call for applications is then issued. Anyone is then free to propose a project, whatever their level of experience, in line with the defined theme and incorporating the eco-responsibility imperatives we hold dear. Find out more about our values.
Following the call for applications, we select around ten artists to take part in a week-long research and creation residency, with no obligation to produce. We take care to offer a balanced selection of profiles, as mixed as possible, and representing a variety of disciplines and levels of practice.
How does the residency week work?
The residency week takes place at a venue chosen each year in the Auvergne Rhônes-Alpes region. For one week, the artists offer themselves a space for reflection and creation in relation to their environment.
Meals and catering are managed by a dedicated team. This way, artists can devote themselves entirely to their creative work, with the support of our experts in artistic direction, technical management and communication.
All meals are taken together, often providing an opportunity to share progress and questions with the team and other artists.
The locations we choose for our residencies are out of town, in spaces that give everyone access to a bubble away from the hustle and bustle, in connection with themselves and their environment. At the end of the week, a vernissage and presentation of works is organized, followed by a weekend of celebration with DJs taking over the artistic entertainment.
Who are we?
The LABservatoire is an association whose aim is to promote and disseminate all forms of artistic creation, and all levels of practice. To achieve this, we offer an annual week-long residency (location, artistic, technical and communication support) outside the city, with particular attention paid to social and environmental imperatives. The residency ends with a festive closing weekend featuring vernissage and DJ sets.
Our values
The LABservatoire is driven by four key values that have guided our actions since the first edition.
Exploration
A practice between self and others, matter and light, that goes through time and space. Set out to discover a world without limits, devoid of all expectations. Try again and again, relentlessly.
Our residency is a research-creation residency. Artists are under no obligation to produce anything during the week. Moreover, as an association, we strive to question our practices in order to explore new territories of expression and new ways of acting
Sharing
The desire to live a collective experience in a timeless place with a direct link to the living world. A daily routine punctuated by artistic research, meals and mutual support.
The association was born of the desire to share space, time and ideas with people from all walks of life. During the residency week, we do our utmost to encourage exchanges and mutual support. And throughout the year, we encourage our community to share moments of creation and reflection on contemporary issues. So you can find out more about our two annual highlights: LABcember, a moment of collective creation inspired by the inktober and offered every December on our social networks and the artistic residency.
Mutual support
Enable artists to benefit from time dedicated to experimentation and creation. For each edition, the group of artists formed is seen as a resource for all participating artists. As is the team, attentive to the needs of the group and each individual.
Members of the association and artists form a single team during the week of residency and thereafter for the rest of the year. Mutual support is part of the very essence of LABservatoire at every level, nurturing the societal ideal that drives us: the collective.
Eco-sustainability.
In a venue with an autonomous vocation, we are committed to placing artistic creation at the heart of a sustainable approach. Whether this means building with bio-sourced materials, reusing materials or thinking about the works and their future reuse.
From the work tools used by association members throughout the year, to the selection of artistic projects for the residency week, to the organization of the vernissage and residency closing event, we strive to limit our environmental impact as much as possible (sustainability of practices, over-consumption, ecosystemic impact of creations).