The research coven will gather again in May 2025 at Ferme d'en Haut, Bruits d'en Bas, Haute-Saône, France, for a ten-day residency.
More news soon !
25.11.2022: Performative reading, Permanence Poétique, L'orée 85, Strasbourg
18.06–12.09.2021: Restitution of the workshop with the students of the Master Critique-Essais, écriture de l'art contemporain, presented in their curatorial project Nouer le reste, at CEAAC (Centre Européen d’Actions Artistiques Contemporaines), Strasbourg.
6-7-8.06.2021: Residency at 49° Nord 6° Est Frac Lorraine, Metz
05–06.2021: "Activismes Ésotériques". – workshops with the students of the Master Critique-Essais of the University of Strasbourg ; exhibition "Nouer le reste" CEEAC, Strasbourg (18.06–12.09.2021).
02.05.2021: Public tarot spread podcast (in french): https://galoche.online/emission/470/2021-05-02-18-00-activismes-esoteriques
18.04.2021: "Marche votive et performative". – ritual with a vindictive character. 49° Nord 6° Est Frac Lorraine, Metz ↣ http://www.fraclorraine.org/explorez/recontres/886
15–16.03.2021: "Parures guerrières armures de soin". – workshop & performance at the emergencies of the Robert-Pax hospital, 49° Nord 6° Est Frac Lorraine, Sarreguemines ↣ https://discord.com/channels/785169876960149514/802120147178749962/823133360276242432
20– 21.02.2021: "We are the flow, we are the tide. We are the weavers, we are the canvas." – workshop & ritual in public space, 49° Nord 6° Est Frac Lorraine, Metz ↣ https://discord.gg/jTKKHbKGBG
To think of magic from a symbolic point of view and its uses as a lever for the emancipation of socially committed practices is to pose it as a support for intuition rather than as a mystical truth.
Activismes Ésotériques is an open performance and research-creation programme, which explores the relationship between communities, arts and rituals as supports for action socially committed. The aim is to create an international working group of artists and researchers to experiment with different research and creation methodologies in relation to with the idea of transmission and initiation among constituted publics and in contexts located. This working group is called a research coven, and is made up of 13 artists, activists and researchers. Activismes Esotériques is deployed in several stages that follow the rhythm of the seasons, over the span of eight months.
Activismes Esotériques is initiated, directed and coordinated since the 2020 winter solstice by Cynthia Montier and Sophie Prinssen, with the support of DRAC Grand Est, Région Grand ESt, Frac Lorraine 49° Nord 6° Est, Syndicat Potentiel, and in partnership with the University of Lorraine, the University of Strasbourg, Centre européen d'actions artistiques contemporaines (CEAAC) and La Ferme d'en Haut, Bruits d'en Bas.
The term "coven" is used in magic and witchcraft to refer to a gathering of people, of individuals with similar interests or activities; an assembly or a group of insiders, usually consisting of 13 or 8 sorcerers. From the Latin "convenire", "conven" which means "to come together"; from the Middle English "covin" refers to a "gang", "circle" or "gang", in other words a collective, or a community of practice. Covens serve support, trust and sharing groups. The research coven thus borrows from different research methodologies, actions and creation that cross-cut knowledge or forms of knowledge. Intuitively derived from vernacular practices - such as neo-paganism - to those of arts committees and communities of practice from civil society. From its format experimental, the research coven questions the relationship between activism and magic, between art and activism, between esotericism and research, in order to understand the ways in which the socially engaged practices - artistic, political and vernacular - can transform reality and carry emancipatory ambitions from their circles. The research coven aims to reflect collectively on the role of the symbolic in vernacular and artistic practices, between intervention in the public space, performance and collaborative practices.
The Research coven gathers Camille Back (Montreuil), Celine Drouin Laroche (Montreuil), Isabelle Frémeaux & John Jordan, -h- from the Cellule d’Action Rituelle (Notre-Dame-des-Landes), Lise Lerichomme (Amiens), Lilly Markaki (London), Melodie Marull (Metz), Cynthia Montier (Strasbourg), Jonathan Naas (Altkirch), Ophélie Naessens (Metz), Sophie Prinssen (Strasbourg), Clémence de Montgolfier & Niki Korth from The Big Conversation Space (Paris – New York)