Opening up or broadening access to culture, fostering an environment conducive to young creative talent, supporting artists' residencies and workshops, Paysages Humains has been keen to take action in the cultural field since its inception in 2015. An appetite that will later develop with the creation of the Mon^1er Long film festival in Istanbul in 2017, followed by the launch of the online music magazine Hémisphère son between France and Spain in 2021.

Les Escales Improbables - Montreal, Canada - September 2015

Co-founded by Sylvie Teste, Escales Improbables have been installed in the city of Montreal since 2004.
In 2014, Paysages Humains followed an amazing project mixing cultures, urban landscapes and social interactions: the project of a "Ministère des Affaires et Patentes Humaines, Végétales et Élémentaires, MAPHAVE " inspired by Marie Sylviande.
The Ministry presented its first study, gathering from 9 residents and users of Montreal's Quartier des spectacles their impressions of their living environment and how they would like to see it changed. Their stories generated 9 projects, or 9 alternative realities.
After downloading a software program created for the occasion, spectators could view these synchronized virtual sequences on their phones, following a signposted route.

MAPHAVE | Station centrale (view from rue Saint-Hubert) | Daniel from WIKIRADIO | UQAM on Vimeo.

We also took part in a small collective event of the 2015 edition : the Fantaisies des EscalesFresco by Etienne Doucet in an emblematic venue of the city, the Bain Mathieu.
A young artist influenced by Street art, Etienne Doucet presented this fresco where the boundaries between figurative and abstract art are infinitesimal, exploiting visual art in mural forms - while seeking to abolish the stereotypes of Street art and reduce the enormous space that separates it from contemporary art.

Host an Artist - France - November 2015

Noting that there are too few residency spaces for artists in France, and that exchanges between artists and art lovers remain mostly restricted to vernissages, in 2014 David Guez and Anne Roquinycreated an online platform that enables "owners" of private or public spaces - vacation homes, apartments, rooms, studios, vacant premises - to offer artists creative residency spaces.

HOST AN ARTIST proposes a new form of mediation between artists and the public, based primarily on exchange.
The following principles prevail:
* The site is multilingual, and the principle of residencies is developing internationally.
* There is no exchange of money between hosts and artists.
* The artist undertakes to donate a work, a text, offer a performance, a course or any other form that creates an original link between the host and his or her artistic work.
* The residency offer may include all or part of the site.
* The structure that manages the site is associative. It provides a legal framework to secure the exchange between the two parties and to ensure that the transaction is simple and based on mutual trust.
* A customized contract is proposed by the association to the host and the artist.

Arthèreistanbul - Istanbul, Turkey - 2017 

A project initiated by Omar Berakdar, Arthereistanbul is a gallery-residence-home center located in Kadiköy on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, Istanbul. Omar is a Syrian photographer and media artist who arrived in Istanbul in 2012, a year after the start of the war. Confronted with the difficulties of adapting and integrating, he is well aware of the difficult paths and the courage it takes not to let the need for back-breaking work take precedence over the need to paint, draw and photograph.
It was with this in mind that he created Arthereistanbul.

On the first floor, there are exhibitions, discussions and readings, while the second floor features painting studio spaces and the basement a darkroom. The courtyard is used as a workbench for building frames and sculpting.
Arthereistanbul is home to some fifteen young artists, many of them from Syria, but also to young Turks who cannot afford working space.
Here, they organize conferences, exhibitions and concerts, all free of charge, as it is Omar's determined desire to make art and its many expressions accessible to all.
Some of the artists are now exhibiting in Paris, Berlin and elsewhere.
Means are modest, and support must constantly be sought.
Athereistanbul is a member of the ResArtis network.

Photo article Les escales improbables, Le petit prince © Geneviève Brindle