Caen artists will be able to take advantage of the old stables in the Lorge district

In the Lorge districthas Caen (Calvados), the project managers of a major heritage project see the end of the tunnel. Or rather old military stablesabandoned since the 1990s.

Their rehabilitation postponed several times, began in July 2022. At the end of the work, this protected part of the former Lorge barracks, transformed into a “cultural and artistic hub” by the City of Caen, was due to open to the public at the end of 2023.

The stables in the Lorge district of Caen were “waterlogged”

This was without taking into account the complexity of the place, certainly “exceptional” for Mayor Joël Bruneau, but left too much time at the mercy of humidity.

Why this construction site has been “longer than expected” ? Specialist in heritage restoration, architect Gabor Master de Parajd recalled during a final visit before opening this Tuesday, May 7, 2024, “the big difficulty was the very structure of the vaulted stables, with multi-layer waterproofing and a corrugated roof that has trapped moisture.

Everything was saturated and dripping with water.

The “major sanitation work” delayed the repair and the layout of the 11 stables165 m² each, in “cells” dedicated to different artistic practices.

The City of Caen awarded 8 to the Amavada company alone. After many years of wandering in Caen, between squats, sheds and free accommodation at the Bibi, she will set up her quarters there, including her workshops and artistic education courses, “quite astonishing” according to the cultural assistant, Patrick Nicolle. But not before the start of the school year in September.

What opening to the public?

Curiously absent from this last site visit, the association guided since 1995 by Valéry Dekowski will operate an exhibition space with fixed and mobile walls, a ‘Théâtrion’ and a concert hall with around a hundred seats each, two stages rehearsal and a set workshop, still a little soaked.

In addition, Amavada planned to open “all the time, every day” the large central hall, with a bar and the independent publishing store already present at the Bibi, as well as a final multipurpose room for meetings and neighborhood assemblies.

At the beginning, the place should only be accessible “from Wednesday to Sunday”, tempers the City. Even if there could be workshops “every day” for Amavada members.

The company will also have to share, on occasion, ‘its’ spaces with neighboring cultural structures such as Studio 24 and the Cité Théâtre, for rehearsals, work or professional performances. It remains to find the formula to contain operating costs…

At least one stable for the Millennium of Caen

At the start, the municipality entrusts the 3 remaining cells to the Oblique/s network for digital arts and the Mir Station for contemporary art, to the artists and researchers gathered in its Millenial Academy to prepare the Millennium of Caen until the end of 2025, and the last – a long stable still in its juice – to “emerging visual artists”, for example just out of ESAM Caen-Cherboug. Including Julien Creuzet, who will represent France at the next Venice Biennale.

Studios instead of boxes

With its “reversible” installations, the construction site at €7.1 million, co-financed with the State, the Normandy Region and the Department, finally includes the transfer of the small adjoining veterinary stables. In the past, sick horses were isolated in boxes there. In their place, 8 studios were built for artists in residence.

This annex, like the central building, retains traces of its equestrian past. Like its granite feeders and water troughs scattered over the 2,000m² of floor space of the new Lorge cultural center.

Practical. The old rehabilitated stables in the Lorge district will be open to the public for visits, Saturday June 15, 2024, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. A neighborhood party will take place outdoors, with concerts, activities, wooden games for children, and a picnic in the new central public garden. Access via Neuve Bourg l’Abbé and Capitaine Boualam streets.

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