Welcome to CAPS
 

Welcome to CAPS

Creative approaches to public space – CAPS – is a new graduate school developed by Rennes 2 University, in partnership with the Ecole européenne d’art de Bretagne - EESAB - European academy of art in Brittany and the Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture de Bretagne - ENSAB - Brittany national college of architecture and the Centre national de la recherche scientifique - CNRS - National centre for scientific research. CAPS is supported by the French national research agency, the Brittany regional council, Rennes Metropole and Ville de Rennes.

CAPS focuses on innovative, creative ways of experimenting in academic research, teaching and action, all within public space. Our aim is to combine creative imagination, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary collaboration. With several local and international partnerships, CAPS seeks to create new encounters with publics from within the university environment, and outside of it. Our goal is to play an active role in society, with creativity at the centre of our actions.

CAPS thinks about public space with practice-based research in mind, and also as a way of working with civil society to create things (objects, art works, performances), whilst engaging with different publics and experts. CAPS thrives on interdisciplinarity, and involves collaboration between several university departments – such as Geography and Urban Planning, Arts, Information Communication, Sociology and Languages – as well as close cooperation with Rennes’ top art and architecture institutions.

The Graduate School format is new to France, and will provide Masters and Doctorate level training for students coming from all pathways, sharing a common interest in public space. The CAPS Masters programme opens in Rennes in September 2022.

Partnerships

EUR CAPS brings together 70 researchers from 12 research units and 50 doctoral students. It is supported by the CNRS and the Maison des sciences de l'homme en Bretagne  and is also associated with two Scientific Interest Groups - l’Institut d’Aménagement et d’Urbanisme de Rennes et les Archives de la Critique d’Art - and with the international network Creative Shift Studies.

Arts

  • APP

    [Arts : pratiques et poétiques] / [Arts: Practices and Poetics]

  • GRIEF

    [Groupe de Recherche sur l’Invention et l’Évolution des Formes] / [Research Group on the Invention and Evolution of Forms]

  • HCA

    [Histoire et critique des arts] / [Art History and Criticism]

  • PTAC

    [Pratique et Théorie de l’Art Contemporain] ] / [Practice and Theory in Contemporary Art]

HumanitIES

  • ACE

    [Anglophonie : communautés, écritures] / [English-speaking Countries: Communities and Writing]

  • CELLAM

    [Centre d'études des langues et littératures anciennes et modernes] / [Centre for the Study of Ancient and Modern Languages and Literature]

  • ERIMIT

    [Équipe de Recherche Interlangue : Mémoires, Identités, Territoires] / [Interlingual Research Centre: Memories, Identities, Territories]

  • LIDILE

    [Linguistique – Ingénierie – Didactique des Langues] / [Linguistics and Language Didactics]

SOCIAL Sciences

  • ARENES

    [Unité mixte de recherche en sciences humaines et sociales] / [Mixed Research Group on Human and Social Sciences]

  • ESO

    [Espaces et sociétés] / [Spaces and Societies]

  • LIRIS

    [Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Recherche en Innovations Sociétales] / [Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Research on Societal Innovation]

  • PREFICS

    [Pôle de Recherche Francophonies, Interculturel, Communication, Sociolinguistique ] / [Multilingualism, Representations, Voices of the French-speaking World, Interculturality, Communication and Sociolinguistics]

EUR CAPS has formed a first group of local socio-cultural partners, with varied and complementary fields of action:

Created in 2001, 40mcube is an exhibition space for contemporary art, a studio for the production of artworks, a place for artist residencies, a lifelong learning professional development organisation and an office for organisation of contemporary art projects.
40mcube produces works, diffuses them in the form of exhibitions or interventions in public space, sets up artist residencies, accompanies the commission of artworks, as well as promoting and mediating them to the public.
40mcube is labelled Centre of National Interest for Contemporary Art by the French Ministry of Culture.
L’Âge de la Tortue is a creative association that conceives and develops artistic projects in the fields of visual and performing arts.

Based on a critical thinking of our contemporary society and respecting cultural rights. L’Âge de la Tortue questions our relationship with political and societal representations in order to change our vision of the world.

Created in 2001 and established in the neighbourhood of Le Blosne in Rennes, l’Âge de la Tortue manages its projects from a micro-local level, in coordination with other territories in Europe.
Aître is an artistic project;
We, artists, architects, art historians,
create trips, courses and different pathways to allow spaces and artworks to meet.
Aître is a business;
A travel agency that re-thinks creation, its promotion and what "creatives" can produce.
Aître is multi-national;
We work based on the values of the territory where we choose to operate.
Based in Rennes, Ars Nomadis is particularly interested in public space, mobility and nomadic art projects whilst also using the potential of digital media technologies.
Our activities cover artistic production, research and also consulting. European and international cooperation is transversal across all of these activities.
Our artistic projects are imagined as “meeting processes” which connect artists, inhabitants and actors of civil society.
Le Bon Accueil shows Artists for whom sound and music are in the center of their works, as a medium or inspiration. Le Bon Accueil invits foreign artists previously unseen in France, or artists at the beginning of their career.
The artistic programming focuses on sound as an expanded material of contemporary sculpture, and the shifting of perception of sound from an evanescent phenomenon to a physical object since the beginning of recording technologies
Since 2001, Electroni[k] has been developing a project dedicated to today’s artistic creation, in the areas of sound, image and new media: paying special attention to multi-disciplinary and innovative creations.
Every October, they produce the Maintenant Festival, conceived as a snapshot of contemporary artistic practice. With its various partners, Electroni[k] creates multiple cultural activities all year long, aimed at diverse publics, based on arts, music and technologies.
A place of constant renewal, thanks to the traces of those who pass through. A public place, with a roof, a laboratory, an off-site school (?), a mushroom farm, a library-boxing ring, a shed – a building site one day, a garden the next… L’Hôtel Pasteur steps outside of the box. A hospitable space where you can learn, make, experiment and pass on knowledge. It is possible to stay for 3 hours or up to 3 months, depending on the values agreed by the collegiate association, who manage the premises.
Lire & Délire aims to promote reading amongst publics who are marginalised from it, due to their economic, social or personal situations. In 2011, Rennes City Council assigned them the mission of bringing the Carrefour 18 Reading Space alive.
Lire & Délire offers cultural mediation, develops innovative ways of accessing reading, and is fully committed to strengthening community links thanks to books. Their work is based on reinvented playful and creative methods, entirely adapted to their publics.
La Sophiste brings together academic researchers and artists within immersive and participatory experiences. Their creations take images, sounds and movement and intertwine them with the audience’s sensory experience.

Are you interested in
GS-CAPS Activities ?

The EUR CAPS offers numerous opportunities for partnerships in training and research with the actors of creation and public space.

If you would like to find out more about partnership opportunities or advertise an internship or job offer, please contact us via creativepublicspace@univ-rennes.fr 

 

  • University of Barcelona

    Barcelona / Faculty of Fine Arts / MFA: Production & Artistic Research [Spain] 

  • Queen's University

    Belfast / The Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security & Justice / School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy & Politics / MA: Conflict Transformation and Social Justice [Northern Ireland] 

  • University College Cork

    Cork / The Glucksman Gallery / Department of Theatre / MA: Theatre & Performative Practices [Ireland]  


  • IADT DUBLIN

    Dun Laoghaire / Institute of Art, Design and Technology / Department of Humanities & Arts Management / MA: English, Media and Cultural Studies [Ireland]  

  • Goldsmiths University of London

    London / MA : Photography & Urban Cultures [Royaume-Uni]

  • Leuphana University

    Lüneburg / Institute of Sociology and Cultural Organisation / MA: Cultural Studies: Culture and Organisation [Germany]


 

  • Concordia University

    Montréal / Faculty of Fine Arts / Faculty of Arts and Science / Milieux Insitute for Arts and Technology [Canada] 

  • Texas State University

    San Marcos, Texas / Department of Geography and Environmental Studies / [USA] 

 

Steps

At the start of the 2020 academic year, CAPS set up the first round of trial interdisciplinary modules at Rennes 2 University, EESAB & ENSAB, and opened a call for CAPS-funded doctorate applications.

From March 2021 onwards, CAPS will occupy a specifically-designated public space provided by the city of Rennes. The aim is to transform it into a place to develop creative and intellectual experimentation. Located off campus in the heart of the city, this space connects academic research and creativity with society, and facilitate access to a variety of publics.

April 2021 - The International Board Meeting takes place, officially launching the graduate school                   over a 2-day online event with our international and local partners.

September 2021 - The first cohort CAPS-funded doctorates begins. CAPS incresases the number of trial interdisciplinary modules on offer to students from various MA programmes.

June 2022 - The 1st CAPS international partner summer school, “The City as Artscape”, takes place in IADT Dun Laoghaire, Ireland.

September 2022 - Launch of the open-MA programme, MA Creative Approaches to Public Space. The 2nd cohort of CAPS-funded doctorates begins.

June 2023 – The 2nd CAPS international partner summer school takes place (location and title TBA).

September 2023 - The 3rd cohort of CAPS-funded doctorates begins.


The CAPS team

Marion HOHLFELDT

Hélène BAILLEUL

Anne Goarzin

Émeline Jaret

ISABELLE KAISER

EESAB Head of research and international affairs

M. isabelle.kaiser[at]eesab[dot]fr

T. 02 22 51 44 68

LAËTITIA BOUVIER

ENSAB Head of resarch

M. laetitia.bouvier[@]rennes.archi[dot]fr

T. 02 22 51 44 68

Marlene Meslay

Operational coordinator

M. marlene.meslay[at]univ-rennes2[dot]fr

T. 02 22 51 44 68

Anna briand-bergmans

Administrative and financial manager

M. anna.briand-bergmans[at]univ-rennes2[dot]fr

T. 02 99 14 10 59   

Roland DELICADO

Head of communication and local partner relations

M. roland.delicado[at]univ-rennes2[dot]fr

T. 02 22 51 44 69  

Taylor STILL

Head of International Relations

M. taylor.still[at]univ-rennes2[dot]fr

T. 02 22 51 44 56





The GS CAPS receives financial support from the State, the Brittany Regional Council, Rennes MetropoLE ANd Ville de Rennes :
GS CAPS brings together the following institutions :

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