About
La Balsamine was founded by Martine Wijckaert in 1974. At the beginning, it was a simple legal structure, a non-profit organization, allowing it to obtain subsidies for creation. It had no place or form of residence within another existing structure, but it allowed Martine Wijckaert to produce her first shows. In 1981, La Balsamine settled temporarily then permanently in the wasteland of the former Dailly barracks. This marked the beginning of a period known as the "wilderness period", during which numerous places were invested for their raw spatial value and where made-to- measure shows were created, as unique and totally ephemeral interventions on the architecture. The current theater, in a contemporary style that has retained the singularity of the original hall, dates from 2001 and is the work of the architect Francis Metzger. An amphitheater with 170 seats and a studio with 70 seats, with a surface area of 200m2 and 130m2 respectively, form a beautiful work tool. 2011 marks the arrival of a new artistic direction composed of Fabien Dehasseler and Monica Gomes. While further marking the particularity of the identity of La Balsamine in the theatrical landscape, new partnerships are built. La Balsamine is also progressively embracing a policy of sustainable development (placement of beehives on the roof since 2014, progressive replacement of lighting equipment with LEDs). In 2022, the management of La Balsamine is once again assured by a duo: Isabelle Bats and Mathias Varenne, and the permanent team is composed of about ten people.
La Balsamine is a theater.
For a long time, it was even called “Théâtre de la Balsamine” and then “Théâtre la Balsamine” and today, we choose to call it “la Balsamine”.
A radical growing.
It’s no small thing to name a theater after a flower. And what a flower! Balsamine is an invasive... Antiseptic if well dosed, it can also be fatal in too large quantities... and then, its pink or purple bells, sometimes blue, explode when you caress them to swarm more than fifteen meters around them. It also brings joy to children. We could stop there, everything would be said.
Yes, at Balsamine, we are concerned about only one thing: Growing living things. Living arts.
Accompany the seed, the emergence of soil, the budding and the blossoming of artists’ projects. This is what we do every day. We grow. Patiently. Because it takes time, to grow. Moreover, the artists we like to support are generally also potential gardeners, sowers of parallel, intersecting and plural stories and visions of the world. Artists who take into account the interdisciplinarity of mediums, who question their approaches and their working processes, artists who graft, who take cuttings... with care. Artists who ask themselves: “what is theater today? "
Often it produces fragile and sensitive spectacles. Bold, always!
Shows to share, because obviously, it is not a question of us growing all this alone and even less of keeping it secret. On the contrary, we want spectators with us.
Cultivating a garden means cultivating it in a street, in a neighborhood, in a city... with its inhabitants, with its habits, with a rhythm to follow its seasons, the needs and aspirations of each individual who comes to live there for a while, for a project, for a performance, for a meeting.
La Balsamine is a theater. A theater is a garden.
La Balsamine is a signatory of the United Stages charter, which brings together some fifty cultural structures and associations that publicly commit to defending and promoting a progressive, supportive society project that respects human rights. La Balsamine is subsidized by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and is part of the Scènes chorégraphiques network of the French Community Commission of the Brussels-Capital Region. La Balsamine also receives support from Wallonie-Bruxelles Théâtre/Danse, Wallonie-Bruxelles International, the Brussels-Capital Region and visit.brussels.
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Related Residencies on the move events
2023
2023-10-30 > 2023-11-04
Enora Boëlle - Coeur avec les doigts, La Balsamine, Belgium
2023-03-06 > 2023-03-17
Flora Détraz - HURLULA, La Balsamine, Belgium
2023-09-11 > 2023-09-20
Odile Gamache - Le magasin, La Balsamine, Belgium
2023-09-23 > 2023-09-23
Emilia Verginelli - Lourdes, La Balsamine, Belgium
2024
2024-03-22 > 2024-03-26
Gloria Dorliguzzo - Butchers, La Balsamine, Belgium
2024-05-07 > 2024-05-12
Gloria Dorliguzzo - Butchers, La Balsamine, Belgium
2024-10-10 > 2024-10-12
Michael Martini - Et si Hansel avait consenti à être cuit vivant ?, La Balsamine, Belgium
2024-05-21 > 2024-05-31
Carla Mezquita Honhon - Pierre-Olivier Roussel - L'Impératrice des continents, La Balsamine, Belgium
2024-10-10 > 2024-10-12
Cie 52 hertz - sirènes, La Balsamine, Belgium