Résidence d’auteurs, création littéraire et médiations culturelles (1). À la recherche d’une cartographie

Résidence d’auteurs, création littéraire et médiations culturelles (1). À la recherche d’une cartographie

Border Region
France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Greater Region
Language(s)
Français
Introduction

This book provides an insight into the relationships that form between the writers who complete residencies in locations in the Greater Region and those places and the cross-border territory.

Summary

Writer's residencies are often little-known as places that support cultural intermediation in cross-border regions. This book proposes to define writer's residencies from a scientific perspective, to seek to understand the creative act of writing in relation to the spaces and times of the residency locations and to the different cultural exchanges that are organised there. The publication is an opportunity to map the creative venues in the Greater Region.

Content

This publication contains and puts into perspective the results of an international conference entitled "Writer residencies: figures of the writer, institutional configurations and cultural intermediation". It offers what is intended to be a scientific definition of the notion of the writer's residency. The publication seeks to understand what kind of links are created between writers-in-residence and the places, people and institutions they encounter.

In the theoretical part, residency is defined first of all through the expectations of the sponsors who fund these residencies. More often than not it is a response to the economic imperatives that affect writers given the difficulties inherent in the status of the artist today.  Beyond this initial definition, the aim is also to identify everything that impacts literary creation in the particular context of a residency and understand the cultural intermediations that emanate from that creation. In concrete terms, in this publication we discover the possible interactions between literature and territory, as well as the different relations between the writers, the local authorities, the cultural operators and the public.

The mapping section concentrates on the territory of the Greater Region. This work consists first of all of identifying and analysing the works and materials produced during the residency, then studying the intermediations and other social relations that are built from the place and time of the residency and which involve the writer and the other actors he or she engages with, identifying and finally understanding the possible appropriations of the writing-in-residence by the public.

In the Greater Region, this mapping process concerns the Künstlerhaus (Artists' house) Edenkoben and Stadtschreiber (Public letter-writer) residencies in the city of Trier in Rhineland-Palatinate, the Château du Pont d’Oye residencies in Habay, the Passa Porta residency in Brussels, the Mariemont residency in Morlanwelz, the writers' and poets' residency at the Maison de la Poésie d’Amay in Belgium, the La Pensée Sauvage (Vosges) residency in Lorraine and the Struwwelpippi (Echternach) residency in Luxembourg.

This publication is the first in a series on writer's residencies published as part of the RESI-CREA-MEDIA project.

Conclusions

In the Greater Region, there is a relatively large number of residencies given the favourable involvement of the public cultural operators and the cross-border context which legitimises the wealth of intercultural exchanges.

The place and time of a writer's residency can have several effects on literary creation.  As the writer is in a situation of retreat, they have to draw on their own inner resources to produce their writing. Conversely, the place and the encounters that the residency allows can become a source of inspiration. In both cases the residency leaves it mark on the work that it written.

A residency can also be an opportunity for the writer to become involved in cultural activities connected to writing and literature. Among other things, these activities help to demystify the figure of the writer and the work of writing and increase the societal impact of artistic creation.

Key Messages

Writer's residencies are of the utmost importance in generating and disseminating culture and literature in cross-border territories where language barriers subsist.

Depending on the form they take or the investment in the writer these places of creation can also become places of sharing, communication and intermediation with the public, but also other private or institutional cultural operators.

Lead

Carole Bisenius-Penin

Author of the entry
Contributions

Christine Servais, Jeanne Glesener, Valérie Deshoulières, Clara Levy

Contact Person(s)
Date of creation
2020