Le Cube Garges

In 2018, the city of Garges-lès-Gonesse undertook a landmark project: the launch of a cultural innovation hub, synonymous of a creative, digital and inclusive city, in partnership with the Communauté d’Agglomération Roissy Pays de France (Roissy Pays de France Conurbation Authority) for La Médiathèque Intercommunale (Intercommunal Media Library).

To achieve this goal, Garges teamed up with Le Cube, a pioneering and internationally renowned digital creation center in France, set up in 2001.

From this encounter was born Le Cube Garges, whose mission is to make cultural renewal a lever for inclusion, emancipation and territorial development.

Le Cube Garges is an Établissement Public de Coopération Culturelle (EPCC or public institution for cultural cooperation) born from the collaboration between three players: Le Cube, the first digital creation center in France (set up in 2001), the city of Garges-lès-Gonesse, and the Communauté d’Agglomération Roissy Pays de France. Le Cube Garges is supported by the French Ministry of Culture – DRAC Île-de-France – and the Région Île-de-France.

In the 1990s, the democratization of IT tools encouraged the emergence of creations stemming from crossovers between the arts, sciences and technologies.

This creative renewal triggered the production of interactive, experiential and immersive forms that have transformed our relationships to works. Thirty years on, the takeoff of artificial intelligence, virtuality and connectivity has accelerated this renewal in all spheres of creation. This cultural revolution responds to the new social aspirations of connected generations, open to a culture of exchange, participation and intercreativity.

One year after organizing the French edition of ISEA, the international digital-arts event, Le Cube opened its doors in 2001 in Issy-les-Moulineaux. This center, described as a “cultural oddity” at the time by the press, reflects Le Cube’s pioneering commitment to cultural transformations linked to digital innovation. In the next 20 years, Le Cube would support over 4,000 artists from the international digital-arts scene, and over 500 productions.

Keen to promote the democratization of digital creative practices, Le Cube has also developed an innovative educational offer centered on practical and social skills in the digital era, recognized by its earning of 7 awards and the Grande École du Numérique (Digital Grande École) label.

Le Cube is a partner of the “Digital Inventiveness” Chair, the first professorial chair devoted to digital creativity, supported by the Institut Mines – Télécom Business School, in partnership with Télécom SudParis – Institut Polytechnique de Paris and the ESAD de Reims. It aims to place creativity at the heart of organizational management in order to better meet major contemporary challenges.

Structured around an interdisciplinary and future-focused editorial approach to issues raised by today’s world, Le Cube has also created different media productions including the journal Nov’Art, La Revue du Cube, as well as Le Rendez-vous des Futurs comprising over 165 online programs about 250 figures associated with change such as Jérémy Rifkin, Claudie Haigneré, Etienne Klein, Cynthia Fleury, Cédric Villani or Bernard Stiegler.

With 80% of its population living in priority neighborhoods, the city of Garges confronts major social and economic challenges. The creation of Le Cube Garges represents a bold and concrete response to the issues facing the territory. This approach to transformation relies on the creation of the Laboratoire d’Impact (Impact Laboratory) that aims to develop areas of cultural innovation and to gauge their reach in social, economic, educational and ecological dimensions.

The Laboratoire d’Impact benefits from the support of the Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso (Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation).

Gathering six major cultural venues under integrated management and transversal programming, Le Cube Garges uses interdisciplinarity, participation and inclusion as the yeast of its activities. This concept relies on an innovation-centered approach in all of the project’s components. It allows for investment in digital potential in the areas of creation, production, diffusion, facilitation, practice and training.

Digital ethics, media education, eco-responsibility in cultural practices, and cultural rights are at the heart of Le Cube Garges’ activities. These topics are the target of interdisciplinary action-research, based on collaboration with high-level experts and carried out in the Laboratoire d’Impact.

Winner of an Investissements pour l’avenir (Investments for the Future) France 2030 program grant for its project “Augmented Experience in Live Performance,” Le Cube Garges is supporting the development of a creation-research platform in the field of performance and the visual arts.

This approach is accompanied by a music, drama and dance education component, as well as programs aimed at school students reaching out to over 10,000 young people every year. Deployed in over 70 cities in France, these programs offer training in digital creativity and critical thinking. They draw on twenty years plus of experience recognized by several awards, as well as on cutting-edge resources such as the Fablab, a recording studio, a participative cinema, and the Salle des Immersivités (Immersivity Room).