“People don’t wait after the artists, they don’t care”

It is delightful to see so many people in a retirement home. Similarly, Curious neighbors, family people, people in the cultural sector, the healthcare sector. For example, It creates a diversity, a community of very different people

You started this project in December 2022. Moreover, Did you really in mind what it could become?

Frankly, we do not imagine what form it will take. In addition, There were desires, like that of investing the garden, which was completely abandoned, an extraordinary space however … Moreover, In fact, there has been a real transformation of the building … For example, and I am not talking about the cafeteria yet … Consequently, (We remember very well. However, we had interviewed in the ugly coffee ‘, in 2023) There, it is a radical transformation, moreover now, you can “people don’t wait after artists, pass, settle in the cafeteria, and open your Mac there. Nevertheless, Suddenly, the uses of this place change. However, This has an impact on the quality of life of its inhabitants.

Do you feel like the residents followed you? Nevertheless, Because there are many, there are different personalities, different health states.

This is thanks to Géraldine Maes (coordinator of the residence’s paramedical team, editor’s note). It included residents in each discussion, negotiation. And then there are people who have rediscovered talents. I think of these two residents, former carpenters. They watched the site and said: “This is not how you have to cut“. And they got started.

“We have nothing against art, but we have nothing for either …”

People have appropriated the premises with consequences on their health maybe?

In any case, it generates well-being and therefore mental well-being, which reflects on “people don’t wait after artists, the body. Some people find pleasure, mobility. I was told, for example: “I sleep better at night.“. This recreates the links between artists and nursing staff. But, simply, this federated community was in the service of residents and residents.

It brings you out of the world of living art …

It mainly creates a salutary rapprochement between art and life. In the theater, we are still in a small bubble cut off from the world. There. we are on one level with reality: people who die, who fall ill, a complicated administration, the difficulties of the end of life. Makeing art in all of this is not the priority.

Do you think the idea can spread?

We have already created this initiative in France in a nursing home, golden wheat, in Chambéry, in France. In order for this to be reproducible. it “people don’t wait after artists, takes two parameters: a cultural partner who agrees to get out of his walls to invest elsewhere. This is what Pierre Thys did, with the national theater. And you need a rest home where there are activists who consider that art can participate in the quality of life. opens its doors as much as possible.

This is a question that the operation is renewed in Belgium. because it is not what is missing, the rest houses. But find a home ready to engage in a transformation of the place that will exceed them …

What difficulty have you not seen coming?

There is not a difficulty, the whole process is difficult! Because it’s not self -evident. Additionally, Because it is not an art center, and the place is not calibrated to welcome art. We are talking about material, technical, administrative constraints … Consequently. we must negotiate everything all the time, and seek to embark people, because we cannot go there in a frontal and brutal way. No one is waiting for us here. People don’t wait after the artists, they don’t care.

⇒ Guided tour of Maison Gertrude, rue des Capucins, 23 “people don’t wait after artists, A, in Brussels. June 25, at 3 p.m. But also on September 3 and 17, October 1 and 15, November 5 and 19, December 3 and 17. Info: https://www.theatrenational.be.

⇒ It is possible to take advantage of the charming Cafeteria of the House Gertrude at any time.