CALL FOR PARTICIPATION — METABODY_TOULOUSE 2026
Deadline: September 15, 2026
Information also available on NOVATOPIA
Transformative Practices for the Eco-Social Crisis
Every year, Metabody_Toulouse, a transdisciplinary platform, challenges us and enriches our practices.
Our exchanges with Jaym/Jaime del Val* and Jean-Marc Matos, our experiments in artistic research and creation, and our growing awareness of the current social and ecological crisis remind us just how essential these spaces and moments are for us and for our professions.
This is not “just” another artistic residency. It is a profound experience, a moment to reflect on the place we occupy — or do not occupy — within mixed groups, on our professional paths, and on the impact these experiences have on the way we construct ourselves as artists.
We work towards seeking poetic, political and concrete alternatives to creation in its various forms: dance, physical theatre, music, video art, digital environments, AI technologies, etc.
The programme is at once in situ (improvised activations in indoor and outdoor spaces), immersive (digital environments), and participatory (everything is based on physical interaction between living beings). A kind of “creative ceremony” for the world of today. This autumn, three distinct training/research/creation residency sessions will take place in Toulouse.
They propose a shared exploration of the body and its choreographic languages, both indoors and outdoors, with the December session also exploring co-writing through interactive digital telepresence and AI devices.
The three sessions:
Session 1 → October 13–17, 2026
La Gare aux Artistes, Toulouse http://gare.art.free.fr/lieu-de-fabrication-partage.html and directions
Session 2 → November 9–13, 2026
Same venue
Session 3 → December 7–11, 2026
Same venue
I am delighted to offer participants the opportunity for an unprecedented encounter with artist-philosopher-activist Jaym/Jaime del Val*, coming specially from Spain for Sessions 1 and 2, with new proposals and approaches to movement, improvisation in outdoor spaces, and experiences of bodily interaction.
This year, we will place stronger emphasis on body techniques and bodily intelligence, understood as forms of embodied knowledge and collective memory transmitted through movement. The aim is to rediscover what the body can do and know beyond digital and industrial technologies, in order to imagine more sustainable futures.
Session 1
Jaym/Jaime del Val* will lead the sessions in Toulouse, focusing on various new approaches to embodied knowledge and so-called bodily intelligence, choral dynamics, and collective improvisation in outdoor spaces, in public space or in nature.
Session 2
The sessions will be jointly and alternately led by Jaym/Jaime del Val* and Jean-Marc Matos, proposing various new methodologies of movement improvisation and continuing the dynamic initiated during the first session. This will include critical approaches to digital technologies and, weather permitting, a continuation of dance practices in public space.
Session 3
Led by Jean-Marc Matos. Among other experiments, we will develop a France/Italy telepresence performance, involving K. Danse and the Italian company Omnia, Rome, with choreographer Cora Gasparotti and researcher Nicola Corbellini.
Other partners working in the field of digital technologies applied to the performing arts — and beyond — will join us, including:
• Clément Combes , digital video artist and TouchDesigner specialist
• Nataliya Velikanova, digital artist, AI and VR specialist and trainer
• Antoine Costes, robotics and magic
• Thomas Peyruse, clown and robotics
• Célia Bétourne, digital artist and programmer
• and others.
We will also offer the possibility of mentoring if you would like to use the sessions to initiate or develop a creative project.
In that case, you may also send me a detailed artistic proposal at kdmatos@k-danse.net.
Please let us know as soon as possible which session or sessions you would be interested in attending, as I wish to keep the number of participants limited.
Practical information
K. Danse does not currently have the financial means to cover participants’ travel, accommodation and food expenses.
However, we can envisage buying food collectively and cooking together, as the venue has a kitchen.
The event is strictly vegan, in order to remain fully consistent with the philosophy of the project.
You may contact friends in Toulouse to help with accommodation, buy your transport tickets well in advance, or organise car-sharing.
Please contact us by email if you would like to register for one or more sessions — it is not necessary to attend all three — so that we can discuss all the necessary details.
Accessibility
The space is not yet fully wheelchair accessible (adaptations are planned). Please let us know about any specific accessibility needs, particularly regarding sign-language interpretation or other forms of support, as well as food allergies.
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Proposed theme: Transformative Practices for the Eco-Social Crisis
How can the arts, academic research and activism merge into something entirely new and meaningful that responds to the current eco-social crisis and its existential threat to all life on Earth?
By combining radical critique, visionary creativity and survival practices, the sessions propose original tools for profound systemic change, with particular emphasis on the underestimated role of the moving body in this process.
Offering a unique intersectionality that goes beyond queer, animal, ecological, decolonial, crip and posthuman studies, and resonating with the VegAnarQueer proposal, Sessions 1 and 2 of Metabody_Toulouse 2026 will address factors largely ignored by dominant ways of living and thinking and their associated human supremacy.
They will propose new ways of challenging these assumptions at the intersection of theory, sensorimotor experimentation, digital technologies and survival techniques.
Sessions 1 and 2, each lasting five days, will involve sharing the Metabody TOOLKIT, developed within the framework of the European Bodynet-Khorós project. See the toolkit here for references and further details: https://metabody.eu/metabody-toolkit/
Daily programme
Mornings — 10:00 am–1:00 pm
10:00–10:30 — Theoretical and contextual introduction
Presentation of the project from the perspective of metahumanism.
10:30 am–1:00 pm — Physical practice
Creative tools centred on choral improvisation techniques of the moving and sounding body, without new media, including techniques of disalignment, developed throughout the week as a powerful choral practice.
Sessions will be led alternately by Jaym/Jaime del Val* and Jean-Marc Matos.
Depending on the weather, these movement practices may take place outdoors or in public spaces.
Lunch — 1:00–2:00 pm
Meals will be prepared collectively.
Afternoons — 2:00–5:00 pm
Focus on outdoor improvisation.
Depending on the weather, these experiences may take place outdoors or in public spaces.
Creative tools centred on choral improvisation techniques of the moving and sounding body, with new media, exploring a variety of tools throughout the week.
There will also be dedicated time for participants to present their own theoretical/practical research projects, discuss them and/or develop their artistic projects.
Additional possibilities
There may also be opportunities for sharing ecological and survival knowledge, such as ethnobotany, edible plants, ecosystem observation or rewilding, through walks and outdoor activities: the adjoining garden, locations in the centre of the village, selected sites in Toulouse, and other environments.
Throughout the week, a powerful choral dynamic will emerge, becoming an experience in itself for rethinking communities beyond anthropocentrism and towards inhabitable terrestrial futures.
Participants will have the opportunity to present, discuss and work on their own creative, research or activist projects.
All of this will take place within a convivial framework, living and cooking vegan meals together during Sessions 1 and 2, in the unique setting of La Gare Aux Artistes, with its adjoining garden.
Who can participate?
The programme is aimed at: artists from all disciplines, particularly those with an interest in the moving body, researchers from all disciplines interested in addressing the eco-social crisis, activists and social workers, and anyone interested in the proposed themes. The movement practices can be adapted for people with very limited mobility.
Languages
French will be the main language, with English and Spanish also used, and the possibility of translation into Italian.
Forms of non-verbal conviviality will also be explored.
If you are interested, please send us a few lines about your motivation to: kdmatos@k-danse.net
Deadline: September 15, 2026
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About Jaym/Jaime del Val*
Non-binary artist-philosopher-activist, promoter of metahumanism, author of the Ontohackers trilogy, Radical Movement Philosophy in the Age of Extinctions and Algorithms (punctum books, 2024–2025), and promoter/coordinator of the European projects Metabody and Bodynet-Khorós.
Since 2001, Jaym/Jaime has presented transdisciplinary projects and organised more than 100 events in over 30 countries, and has published more than 120 essays.
As a post-queer, environmental and animal-rights activist, Jaym* has led international initiatives. As a musician, they have recorded 15 albums and also exhibit as a visual artist. They are currently developing a rural space in Salamanca while training to become a nomadic gatherer. http://jaimedelval.com
About Jean-Marc Matos
All information is available here: https://www.k-danse.net/portfolio/direction-artistique/
