Literary arts meeting

Since 2021, the non-profit organization Et caetera has been defending and promoting emerging literature in Brussels through the organization of monthly reading evenings and occasional partnerships with cultural institutions. Its aim is to provide spaces for expression and experimentation for hybrid literary forms (readings, performances, multimedia, streaming) that struggle to find their place within the book economy.

This alternative literary economy raises many questions and generates a growing need for definition, both in relation to the public and to cultural institutions and funding bodies. This gathering proposes to establish a subjective mapping of the possibilities offered today by the literary arts in the French-speaking world, through the presentation of several initiatives (Et cætera (BE), the Textures festival (CH), the canap’ readings (CH)…) before opening the discussion to current and future challenges, as well as to possibilities for mutual support and collaborations.

In this sense, the meeting is addressed both to a new audience wishing to become familiar with the notion of literary arts, and to publishers and cultural actors who wish to reflect on the ways of disseminating, defending and supporting contemporary literature when it leaves the page, when it travels, or when it encounters other artistic disciplines.

The meeting will be led by Perrine Estienne and Bastien Hauser from the non-profit Et cætera.

Visual and title of the round table taken from the outreach document on literary arts prepared by the Ex situ laboratory of Laval University (Canada) — see: https://ex-situ.info/english/