Situated in a former school in the heart of Mons, la Maison Folie is one of the places promoted by Mars (Mons Arts de la Scène), a major cultural institution in French-speaking Belgium.

Inspired by the dynamics of third places and shaken by the successive shutdowns of the cultural sector during the COVID crisis, a handful of volunteers within the existing team set themselves a great challenge at the end of 2020: to give Maison Folie back its identity linked to the district and turn it into a place for emerging citizens, creating links between residents, artists, associations, institutions, entrepreneurs...

And so begins the adventure of a fallow period, a long-term laboratory to give the project every chance of starting afresh from the ground up, from what is right for the people who live there.

La jachère, nom féminin - The fallow land

Temporarily uncultivated land to allow soil fertility to be reconstituted.

 A methodology for designing or adapting projects, inspired by social permaculture and design thinking, proposed by MUE and Rethink, who are supporting the Maison Folie project.

Fallowing the Maison Folie means...

• Getting away from the classic linear logic of setting up a cultural project: thinking (instead of) > organising (for) > implementing > involving.
• Taking the time to observe your area, to get to know it again, to diagnose it, to take its pulse, to listen to its reality, its needs, its desires. Allow time for projects to emerge from the soil. Don't pull on the carrots to make them grow.
• Take the time to experiment: test projects in situ with users. Give yourself the right to make mistakes from the outset. Accept the energy cycles available. Take regular stock, harvest the seeds and celebrate.
• Involve the community from the outset: opinions, co-construction of projects, right through to governance.
• The philosophy of small steps: feel together that each step is fair in relation to what is happening on the ground. Leave yourself the possibility of changing the framework if it is relevant and necessary.

What does it mean in practical terms?

 A few key steps...

1/ Establish the perimeter, create the boundary membrane.

To develop fully in the spirit of a laboratory, a fallow project requires a secure environment, nurtured by the trust of the bodies that support it, back it or at least authorise it. This membrane, negotiated with those who have the power (of life or death) over the project, ultimately creates a zone of freedom where you can experiment, test, fail, start again... It is possible that this membrane will evolve during the course of the adventure, so that, for example, in the event of success, good practice can be extended to other projects or sectors...

The Maison Folie essentially relies on two management bodies: the City of Mons owns the building, and Mons Arts de la Scène manages and runs it (along with several other performance venues in the area). So our first step was to convince the Mars Management Committee and the relevant City departments of the value of the approach. And to define the scope and resources allocated to this laboratory zone, as well as the information circuits that would enable them to follow developments in the project. As it happens, we review the situation together every 6 months.

2/ Listening to the soil, over a coffee.

How can a consultation be more than just a consultation? How do you get to know your neighbours? Over a cup of coffee!

From September 2021, the "Jattes de folie" will be launched: every Tuesday morning at 8.30am, we have invited 5 or 6 people from different backgrounds to have breakfast together. At the centre of the table was a question: "If this were your place, what would your desires, needs and plans be? At the end of the discussion, everyone was invited to invite someone of their choice for the following week. In this way, from week to week and by word of mouth, we took the time to have a coffee with 286 people (most of them outside our circle of regulars) and collected their 273 dreams for Maison Folie.

This approach was supplemented by a more traditional online form.

Today, the consultation process continues, with meetings, projects and events (neighbourhood parties, permanent on-site reception, setting up a neighbourhood newspaper, etc.).

3/ Making room. Offering a space for possibilities.

For something to grow, you have to give it free rein. One of our first steps was also to deprogramme part of the space to leave room for spontaneity. The Margin'Halle, one of the three rooms on the site, was literally left fallow and renamed the "Project House". It was equipped and fitted out to meet the first need to emerge from the consultation: a shared, non-commercial space in which to relax, meet new people and organise activities (workshops, meetings, concerts, etc.). A free bar has been set up. A "first come, first served" reservation system. An occupancy charter was drawn up to ensure free use of the space and harmonious cohabitation. It was a great success. Six months later, we proposed the opening of a second, larger space: the Espace des Possibles (8 classrooms and a central hall).

From the Jattes de folie, the desire also emerged to set up projects around a number of themes: well-being, a bar and canteen based on solidarity, support for emerging musicians in the region, do-it-yourself, mutual aid and a network of citizen initiatives... The momentum was there. What was often lacking was the skills, the place or the energy of the collective.

We then set up a working group for each of the themes, inviting anyone who wanted to join to co-construct the project they had dreamed of. On the opening evening of the 'WGs we had 45 members of the public. A year later, we still have around fifty. Cooperative beers, cross-programming around well-being, upcycling workshops, cookery workshops, neighbourhood parties and newspaper, monthly jams, gardening... Wonderful projects continue to be born, groups have been transformed, some have died out, others are being created. Little by little, Maison Folie is becoming a place where people can go back to developing projects with others, in a safe environment.

4/ Supporting what emerges.

This emergence is made possible by the initial framework and open attitude, of course. But also, and above all, by the energy deployed to support these citizen initiatives. At the outset, each WG is led by a Marsian facilitator, whose role is to stimulate participation and cooperation within the group. The facilitator helps the group to find its own rhythm, to land its projects and to make collective decisions on the basis of equal power. He or she also puts oil in the wheels with the institution and keeps a close eye on things. It's a delicate balancing act: blowing on the embers of the project and not pulling on the carrots to get them to grow. The aim is then for the WGs to become autonomous and elect an in-house facilitator. To date, this is the case for 3 of the 7 circles. They are being supported in these first steps by the project coach.

Alongside the thematic working groups, support committees have been set up to manage the project across the board: communication, eco-admin, site development, living space committee, jattes de folie committee, meta circle, etc. They are also open to members of the public on an application basis. The whole project is based on the principles of shared governance (inspired by sociocracy and holacracy).

The whole project is supported by two facilitators: Marie Godart (MUE) and Nathalie Cimino (Rethink).

5/ Observing yourself

As a laboratory zone for almost two years, the Maison Folie is a breeding ground for multiple learning experiences. Both the space and the project have become very much alive, shifting and teeming, and sometimes difficult to grasp and communicate in their entirety and complexity. Review meetings (every six months) allow us to metabolise, take stock, synthesise and adjust what needs to be adjusted. The meta circle meetings (every month) and governance workshops (every two months) also give us time to take a step back and look at the way we operate, to understand what we are actually doing, one small step at a time. With this awareness, our organisational culture gradually changes. This laboratory spirit affects each and every one of us personally, in terms of our vision of things, our beliefs, our values, our attitudes and our behaviour. In this way, the project becomes a lever for both individual and collective transformation.

Today, Maison Folie's mission is to recreate links, activate citizen initiative and facilitate the co-construction of collective projects. It is also a cultural centre experimenting with a different culture, with the aim of building a more connected, fertile and resilient society.

To find out more about the project: www.maisonfolie.be