Pooling resources and working together: the watchwords of 24–25
Collaboration lies at the heart of the programming mission championed by Coline Struyf, Varia’s General and Artistic Director, and supported by the entire Varia team. Together, we champion a spirit of mutual support and the pooling of strengths, experiences and practices that reaffirm everyone’s place on the Brussels and Belgian arts scene. This is why we collaborate with other institutions to work together, as a network and in partnership.
This collective and collaborative approach to stage work is close to our hearts, and we wish to apply it across our institution.
The 2024–25 season therefore features several co-presentations and co-productions with Brussels-based institutions: Le Rideau, Kaaitheater, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, atelier210, la Balsamine and Pierre de Lune.
Spotlight: Poetry Lunchtimes
Les Midis de la poésie and FrancoFaune have joined forces to take over the Théâtre Poème, renamed Maison Poème, a new project at the crossroads of poetry and music, creating a space for experimentation and work for both emerging and more experienced artists.
This unique partnership addresses a significant need in the cultural sector: the provision of workspaces and supportive, specialised teams dedicated to diverse artistic creations, thereby providing a showcase for projects that aim to push and question boundaries both on and off stage.
La Maison poème is a venue dedicated to poetry and literature in the broadest sense, music, the performing arts and sound art. A multifaceted, committed venue that aims to be a laboratory for research and creation open to various sectors, with a particular focus on promoting hybrid projects at the intersection of artistic disciplines.
Nomadic and multidisciplinary, Les Midis de la poésie take over key venues in Brussels’ cultural scene, such as the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, the Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, Café Congo, the Théâtre des Martyrs, La Bellone and Le Rideau. Here, poetry is to be understood in both its broadest and most specific sense. We explore what, in literature or in everyday life, belongs to the realm of the poetic.
Varia is delighted to be joining forces for the first time in far too long with Midis poésie and Maison poème to present cabaret poème ♯4, what future edition, a sober event by Lylybeth Merle, who returns to us following the unforgettable Hippocampe (p. XX).