Occupying an exceptional heritage site that it shares with the Ecole nationale des beaux-arts de Lyon, Les Subs has two small theaters, three rehearsal stages, an art lab (the DVR (Digital Virtual Realities) lab, a skylight-covered courtyard, an outdoor esplanade, and 19 rooms and studios to house artists. More than simply providing work space and technical and human resources, Les Subs makes a real investment in the projects it hosts by helping manage them and ensure their future (networking, distribution, compiling application files), paying the costs of the residencies, co-producing and making advance purchases of shows, and helping with the administrative organization of up-and-coming teams.
Les Subs in the 2020s
Sublime, subtle, subversive, subjective, substantial, sub-cultural: Les Subs is many things, which is what makes it so unique. Theater, dance, music, circus, visual and digital arts – in short, there’s a place for all the diversity of today’s art forms at Les Subs, and especially for aesthetic adventures that take audiences beyond their comfort zone. Gone are the borders between visual arts and performing arts, the big stage and small theaters, indoors and outdoors, high-brow and low-brow, here and there. Open to the city and the world, Les Subs promotes regional as well as international talent, residencies and meet-up events, new technologies and accessibility for the many, a strong identity and partnerships. At the crossroads of historical heritage, artistic creation, amateur practices and digital research, Les Subs gives pride of place to the values of hospitality, diversity, and innovation.
Creating a desire for artistic creation, risk taking, cultivating our differences, asserting our freedom and embracing the uncertainty of novelty: this is the prerequisite to seeing ourselves in a future built together, openly, warmly, and with joy. That’s why the artists of tomorrow are already in residence at Les Subs!
Stéphane Malfettes
Director, Les Subs