Carine Meulders

My name is Carine Meulders. I studied Sociology of Religion and Culture at the University of Leuven, where I worked for a couple of years as a researcher in the field between anthropology, sociology and history.

In 1996 I became a programmer in Beursschouwburg (Brussels). Together with the other members of the team I developed and realized programs with a focus on dance and performance such as BDC/Tom Plischke & Friends. We also designed thematic projects about urbanity, diversity, family & new media, and we took the lead in many ambitious activist interventions in the urban tissue of Brussels: the squatting of Hotel Central, the making of Cinema Nova, the reconstruction of Square des Blindés together with artists and social organizations in the neighborhood. Beursprograms were a mix of art, debate, popular culture, nightlife, political engagement and urban activism.

In 2006 I became the artistic director of wpZimmer (Antwerp): an international residency space for the performing arts with a focus on artistic development, research and creation. We develop sustainable trajectories with a small group of artists with a complex, innovative and hybrid practice.

In 2009 I co-founded WEB, an informal network of international art workers based on artistic affinities and genuine engagement. The network is an answer to the need for joint efforts and loyal partnerships across the national borders, particularly in terms of exchange, research, production and presentation. Every year WEB provides 2 artists full support from "A to Z".

From 2015 till 2017 I was engaged in NOW (New Open Working Process for the Performing Arts) a European network bringing together artists and cultural workers, aiming to develop a transnational laboratory platform to explore, experiment and reinvent relevant ways of supporting artists and their processes in the current European conditions of rising nationalism, populism and neoliberalism.