Description

Culture Commune set out right from the beginning to argue their point at regional, national, and European level, for the necessity of establishing (along with the means to do so) an ambitious cultural project for the people of the coalfield region. One of the contributing projects toward this ambition, one on which Culture Commune have been expending their energy for several years now, is the 11/19 project. 11/19 is an abandoned mining site close to the centre of the Lens-Liévin conurbation and has become something of a "symbolic Mecca", since it enables the coalfield region to become involved in a new future without having to reject the past - you could even say it was leaning on the past - for one and a half centuries of singular industrial activity has left behind it a rich human history and industrial heritage. Culture Commune has installed its headquarters here and pursued its inter-communal artistic action through a new tool: "The Theatrical Factory."

The Factory is a workspace, a place for artistic research and production and meetings between artists and the public. It has enabled Culture Commune to restructure its objectives after 8 years of work and development, to strengthen its artistic project due to new possibilities of long term working with artistic teams (the Hendrick Van Der Zee company, Metalovoice, La Station Mir), of receiving other artistic teams for prolonged work in the coalfield region, and of establishing a Resources Centre, which will be the preferred public reception place (inside the Factory) and which will have two missions: making known contemporary dramatic writing and developing the use of New Interactive Technologies and bringing them to the masses.
Through the years, Culture Commune has proved its role in reflected study, in cooperation, in putting culture into motion in the coalfield region, and through this, in contributing to regional development and restructuring. Through actions undertaken in the field, Culture Commune obtained the 1999 "label de Scène Nationale" (National Stage Approval).

Former use : former bank mine of the basement 11/19
Surface of the site : about 30 000 m²
Location : in the heart of Lens-Liévin / mineral field
Architect of the reconversion :Boualem Chelouti
Foundation year : 1998
Type of occupation :
Owner of the building: Community of urban area of Lens-Liévin

Infrastructures

reception
rehearsal room "La Nef Centrale" (390m²)
2 rehearsal room (about 93m² each)
Contemporary theatral writing and Multimedia Resource Centre (54,5 m²)
chill-out, meeting and training room
kitchen
toilets / showers
technical room
2 offices (technical + administration)
3 offices (direction, communication and artists)
Multimedia cultural space: creating sound, image, webpage, video realisation, access to internet

Social and artistic disciplines

3 axis of cultural development :

 creation-diffusion

 training

 communication

Theatre
Dance
Street performing arts
Circus arts
Music
World music
Urban culture
Young public
Lecture
Theatral writing
Heritage
Multimedia

Other structures settled on the site

La Chaîne des Terrils (Environmental initiatives permanent centre)
Axiome (Revegetalisation of former mine site)
La Jardinerie Delbard

Financial partners

General council of Pas-de-Calais (department)
Regional council of Nord/Pas-de-Calais
Ministère de la Culture (DRAC Nord/Pas-de-Calais)
Community of urban area of lens-Liévin and the 34 adherent cities
FEDER
Caisse des dépôts et des consignations
Book National Centre
City Policy (contract of Plan Etat-Région)
AFAA
ONDA
D.A.C.O.R.
Regional park of material
A.D.C.S.
La Poste
EDF
Supinfo (computing maintenance)
Press Club Nord/Pas-de-Calais

Networks

Autresparts