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Castel Coucou - contemporary art space, organises exhibitions and residencies for young artists, ensuring real proximity to artists and audiences.

Castel Coucou's ambition is to make the population aware of contemporary creation in relation to everyday life (design, fashion, architecture, etc.). It is about becoming aware of the importance of cultural creation and the links it forges between populations through common issues. In addition, the intervention of young artists to lead plastic art workshops promotes openness to current artistic creation, they are also a mediation tool for parents.

A long history links Castel Coucou to the town of Forbach, where the association was created in 1990 by the artist Monique Auburtin. Before her, her father Théo Wolters created the Oeil gallery in 1970, one of the first galleries in the school space in France, at the Lycée Jean Moulin. After a few moves and changes in artistic direction, Castel Coucou took over in 2015 the premises of the former synagogue in Forbach. The place is full of architectural reminiscences charged with memory and challenge the traditional “white cube”. It was in 2013 that the Forbach synagogue was definitively closed to worship for lack of a sufficiently large number of practitioners. The municipality of Forbach then signed an emphyteutic lease with the Israelite consistory of Moselle and decided to assign the building a cultural use. The synagogue is one of the city’s oldest monuments. Built in 1835, it is a large building in the traditional style of 19th century synagogues with an interior balcony, reserved for women during religious services.

Through its activities, its interest and its commitment to contemporary art, the association takes its role as a cultural actor very seriously, not only through its status as an intermediary offering artists/public meetings at its place of exhibition, but also by remaining itself closely in contact with the regional artistic scene, in a desire to be part of a dynamic of cross-border cooperation and to participate fully in the development of a large region of contemporary art.

The objectives of the association are:

• presenting emerging artists but also other, more established artists.
• provide a diverse audience with access to varied and recent art research
• initiate and raise awareness among local youth, in particular through plastic arts workshops.
• create and generate meetings, regional, interregional and international exchanges
• develop a dynamic around the specificity of the place
• a desire for conviviality in welcoming artists and the public

Castel Coucou is a member of LoRA - the Contemporary Art Network of Lorraine

+33 (0) 7 61 41 06 06
infos@castelcoucou.fr
www.castelcoucou.fr