CREATION - Stimultania

The intervention of an artist in a territory is, above all, an action supported by an institutional partner. It is also objectives, needs, beneficiaries. And people gathered, partnerships, timelines. However, introducing the act of creation in an environment governed by its own codes, rooted in habits, is an upheaval.

Stimultania identifies the issues and, within the framework set up, foresees an artist. An artist who disrupts the context, and who is disrupted, as well, in his practise by the context. He is not a mediator who reproduces on each occasion workshops tied around image education. He is a creator who invents, builds and doubts. Stimultania handles the choice of the words used and prefers talking about creation time rather than workshop, collective creations rather than works.

Faire les choses à moitié, Benoît Luisière and Stéphane Castet artist residency, 2018-2019 © Benoît Luisière

Initiated in 2012, creation times between artists and audiences became a regular and consistent activity when the second Stimultania facility was created in Givors, in 2014. Since then, more than sixty artists have worked in various contexts on the Rhône-Alpes territory: in school environment from kindergarten to high school, in hospital and medico-social centers, in detention, in reception and integration structures for newcomers and in proximity projects with the inhabitants.

Stimultania invites artists by privileging the personal approach, the artistic excellence and the desire to share. No need to be an expert in educational workshops. The artist designs a tailor-made project, directly linked to his own practice. The challenge: to be both solid and flexible in order to set a quality artistic framework, to carry it through to the end while leaving room for the creativity of the participants.

Stimultania promotes the crisscrossing of visions and disciplines by inviting artists' duos on certain projects. Everyone has his own field: one is always a photographer, the other one can be a writer, a sound creator, a graphic designer, an illustrator, a musician,... The duos formed do not always know each other, they are led to build a proposal together combining their practices, promoting emergence of unique and rich works.

Collective work status

By giving the status of artwork to the production created collectively by the artists with participants everyone's involvement, commitment and responsibility are emboldened. The project thus directly echoes the approach and the sensitivity of the artist while leaving room for the participants creativity. Exhibition prints, posters, postcards, books, video: the outcome can be multiple and is thought by the artist in coherence with the project, refined with the participants, accompanied by Stimultania.