Villa Bloch x Cité internationale des arts
Programme for former or current francophone residents of the Cité internationale des arts
Programme
To support artists after their residency, the Cité internationale des arts works with organisations that share its missions and values. To this end, in 2019, the Cité internationale des arts and the City of Poitiers built a partnership with the aim of setting up residencies for artists in Poitiers.
In that framework, two artists who have previously been in residence at the Cité internationale des arts may be hosted successively in residence at the Villa Bloch each year.
The artists’ residency is organised for artistic, cultural and educational purposes, for the widest possible audience. Its purpose is to create the conditions for an original experience, a meeting between an artist and the public in a given area.
About
2 residencies per year
3 to 6 months’ residency
Programme created in 2019
Eligibility criteria
- Have completed at least one residency at the Cité internationale des arts or be currently in residency
- Be French-speaking and write in French
- Be a musician, a playwright, a dancer or a choreographer
- Be able to work with a varied audience
The partner of this programme :
In 2017, the City of Poitiers decided to transform the property of writer and intellectual Jean-Richard Bloch, known as ‘La Mérigote’, which it acquired in 2005, into an artists’ residence: the Villa Bloch. This property in the Poitou region, a haven of peace in a wooded park overlooking the Clain valley and recently opened to the public, is a particularly favourable setting for research and creation. Jean-Richard Bloch used to talk about ‘the beautiful solitude of Merigot work’: in fact, it was in this house that he wrote most of his pieces.
Like a ‘window on the world’, this house was also a place where people met, passed through and socialised. Many intellectuals, writers and artists stayed here, including Spanish and German writers and poets fleeing repression in their countries.
As a result, the City of Poitiers wished to welcome artists to this property, in keeping with and respecting its history, and as a tribute to the commitment of Jean-Richard Bloch, to enable them to create. The Villa Bloch has four residency spaces to accommodate artists simultaneously. The residencies are multidisciplinary.
