iMAL Project Office is our yearly open call for residencies, aimed at artists based in Belgium.

We announced our first three iPO 2025 calls last December.

Now we can finally reveal the fourth, dedicated to a two-month co-creation residency in collaboration with Antre Peaux (Bourges, FR), and taking place in the framework of EXTRA RESIDENCIES.

Initiated by The French Embassy in Belgium, EXTRA RESIDENCIES is a new network of residencies in Belgium and France.

In collaboration with two French partners (Antre Peaux and Octobre Numérique – Faire Monde) and four local ones (MORPHO, Wiels, our neighbours at games.brussels, and iMAL), it offers four residencies that aim to strengthen exchanges between the creative scenes of our two countries in the fields of visual arts, digital art and experimental video games.

This project is part of EXTRA, a program supporting and promoting contemporary French creation in Belgium.

iMAL and Antre Peaux are joining forces to encourage collaboration and foster dynamics of co-creation in digital arts between French and Belgian artists.

One artist based in Belgium and one in France will be brought together for a two-month co-creation residency to produce a joint project. They will benefit from the complementary support of the teams at each location, access to workspaces and equipment, as well as their networks and local partners.

Continuous residency periods are recommended for each residency. Upon mutual agreement by the artists, split residency periods, with a maximum of one interval, may be considered based on the availability of the host locations and their workspaces.

This new program aims to foster a reflection on artistic practices capable of subverting dominant paradigms of progress through a residency bringing together artists around a co-creation project.

With a desire to encourage unifying, transformative, inclusive, and sustainable approaches in connection with technology, the residency provides a conducive framework for initiating a collective research process—whether it focuses on autonomous practices that strengthen local capacities, the adoption of low-tech technologies, feminist or ecofeminist methodologies, permacomputing, or salvage computing.

This residency is therefore aimed at artists who wish to question current technological infrastructures to reveal both their vulnerabilities and potentialities. These artists engage in practices that seek to repair rather than produce, collaborate rather than consume, slow down to better anchor themselves, and cultivate networks of care, mutual aid, and trust within digital communities.

While stimulating critical dialogue around technology and its uses, the residency offers a space for exploration where art becomes a means of reinvention, allowing for the construction of new narratives and alternative ecosystems.

In this spirit, it invites artists to imagine projects that, much like the approches compiled in the Damaged Earth Catalogue, explore multiple ways of making do, transforming, and recreating within a landscape marked by fragility but also an infinite potential for renewal.

The call is open to emerging artists engaged in a professional practice.

An "emerging artist" is understood as any artist active for a few years but still in the process of establishing their career, particularly regarding their involvement with various artistic and cultural institutions. Their practice remains precarious and relies on institutional support or partnerships for the production of their works.

Candidates must reside in France or Belgium.

The duo will be formed by the jury. In addition to evaluating the quality of the proposals in relation to the artists' practices, the proposed artistic themes, and the identity of the host organizations, the jury will focus on the potential for collaboration and mutual inspiration that a co-creation residency could foster

Artists may also apply with a co-creation project alongside another artist. The only requirement is that one artist resides in France and the other in Belgium. Both artists must individually respond to the call, specifying their joint project and the name of their artistic partner.

Applicants are invited to complete a short questionnaire and submit a portfolio showcasing a selection of past projects related to the artistic themes outlined in this call, along with an up-to-date CV.

All applications will undergo a pre-selection process in May, after which shortlisted artists will be invited to participate in an online discussion. This preliminary step will allow the potential collaborators to connect and assess the feasibility of working together on a common project.

Selected candidates must be available to travel to both Brussels and Bourges during the residency period, between July and December 2025 (exact dates to be defined with the selected duo).

About Antre Peaux

Since 1992, Antre Peaux has been a cultural collective space located in Bourges, which will be the European Capital of Culture in 2028. Over more than 5,000 square meters, it hosts a program rich in disciplinary intersections and exchanges between its various spaces (contemporary art center, concert hall, dance studio, sound practice studio, video editing studio, construction workshop, BSL 1 laboratory).

A place for research, production, dissemination, residencies, artistic support, and mentorship, Antre Peaux aims to be an adaptable and modular toolbox, a creative laboratory in the fields of visual arts, media arts, bio-art, and performing arts (contemporary and experimental music, contemporary dance, performance, theater).

🔗 antrepeaux.net