During one week, we will form a temporary, nomadic community in the Malvaux forest.

As the funding for the 2026 edition of the Summer School has been drastically reduced, we’ve had to rethink the format for this year, and forgo the communal living area and catering. While these exceptional offerings brought us great happiness and comfort at the 2024 and 2025 Summer Schools, these changes gives us a chance to focus on what has always animated us: sensing, thinking and acting from within the forest. Summer school 2026 will involve daily walks and somatic practices in the forest. Each day will have its own itinerary; we’ll set off from Ried (Bienne) or Evilard to walk and discover the forest, with time to explore different practices along the way.

Journeys through the forest

For this third edition of the summer school, the Malvaux forest remains our guide, our partner and our field of experimentation. Ecosomatics and our ability to think-sense-act will be mobilized to listen to and relate to the forest and its entities. As a pre-movement, a prerequisite for gesture, interaction and transformation of the self and others. To walk, sing, dance, dream, reflect, nap… To be abundant, silent, alert, at rest. Every day, our practices will be transdisciplinary, involving movement, voice and drawing. We’ll take our questions and reveries to the forest, and for a week, we’ll seek to get closer to it.

Children

Important information: this year, we are once again offering children the chance to spend a week in the forest (max 10-12 children, aged 6 and over). We invite parents who would like to come with their children to write to us, as a parallel program will be set up during the adults’ research time. Children will spend their day outdoors.
Séverine and Sydney will look after the group and speak mainly French, with some basic knowledge of English, German and Spanish.

Programme

Morning meeting points: Ried or Funiculaire Evilard, to be determined each day. Easy access from Biel.
The day begins at 10:00 am with a joint activity for children and adults, and ends at 6:00 pm. Each day there will be a break at around 1pm for a picnic lunch. Everyone is responsible for their own lunch.
Bring walking shoes and comfortable clothing depending on the weather.

On Thursday evening, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., we’re organizing a public evening with a lecture – (more details soon).

Optional: One evening during the week (depending on the weather), if you feel like it, you can sleep in the forest with Séverine and Sydney. Meals will be cooked over an open fire, and you’ll sleep on the ground or on your own mattresses. Please bring your own sleeping bags and mattresses.

Who is the Summer School for?

The summer school is open to anyone interested in movement and voice, curious about the forest and already involved in some form of artistic research for several years.

We ask participants to be available for the entire duration of the school to facilitate group dynamics and research.

Organization

For adults:
Eve Chariatte is an artist-choreographer. She is passionate about fascia (the connective tissue of the human body) and its ability to make us sensitive/ attuned to an environment.

Gregory Stauffer is a choreographer and researcher. His work draws as much on movement and the expressive arts as on drawing and writing. In recent years, he has been conducting research into sustainability and resilience in creative processes. Inspired and instructed by plants and ecological gardening for 20 years, he weaves links between these fields.

Joanne Clavel is a researcher in Ecological Humanities at the CNRS. She will share with us her sensitive knowledge, at the crossroads of art and ecological sciences. She examines how thinking-feeling-acting is articulated in the interweaving of the living, or how experiences of situated natures transcend the great Western dualisms.

Noemie Wyss is a vocal coach. For several years now, she has been combining her passion for singing, dance and nature during outdoor explorations at various workshops.

For children:

Sidney, a wanderer at heart, has been exploring the natural territories of the Swiss Pre-Alps since childhood, in search of a deep connection to living things. Driven by this essential need, he trained with Pâris & Cancan, developing a solid experience of forest life and gentle survival. His journey took him through the great forests of Europe, nourishing his love of flora and his desire to understand the plant world. Today, he continues this apprenticeship at the Collège Pratique d’Ethnobotanique with François Couplan, while aspiring to share the world’s knowledge, fire and poetry.

Sèverine Jeanneret grew up at the foot of the Jura mountains, between adventures on horseback and barefoot, nurturing a deep bond with nature from an early age. After many explorations, she anchored herself in a living connection to the wild, which she shares with gentleness and sensitivity. The birth of her first daughter strengthened her impetus to pass on this love of life to children and families. For over ten years, she has accompanied them into the forest, guided by storytelling, fire and an energy deeply connected to the heart.

Price

Per person and for the week: 150.00 to support the organization of MALVAUX events.

Registration

Deadline: July 1, 2026

The summer school is open to a maximum of 14 adults and 12 children.

To register, please send us an email (link below)

Please specify if you want to bring your child(ren), how many and what ages. deadline: June 15, 2025

more info:

www.malvaux.net

Theme

For this second edition of the summer school, the Malvaux forest is our guide, our support and our playground. Our ecosomatic and thinking-sensing-acting capacities will be mobilized to listen to and relate to the forest and its peoples. As a pre-movement, a prerequisite for gesture, interaction and transformation of self and others. To sing, dance, dream, reflect, sleep… To be abundant, silent.sein search, in rest. Every day, our practices will be transdisciplinary, involving movement, voice and writing.

For one week, we’ll be building an ephemeral community of explorers of our bodies in the Malvaux forest. This year, we want to create a breeding ground for experimentation and research, with each participant bringing his or her own desires to work on a specific aspect of their own research. They would bring with them a question or issue of their own, for which the relationships to be investigated with the forest could instruct or guide them. The group would provide a forum for sharing experiences, experimenting, exchanging know-how and other knowledge, and offering a critical eye to help them move forward.

Children

Important information: this year, we’d like to try an inclusive week with a few children (max 10-12, aged 6 and over). We invite parents who would like to come with their children to write to us, so that we can draw up a joint program in parallel with the research time. Children will spend most of their day outdoors, and remain under their parents’ responsibility for the rest of the time.

Séverine is in charge of the group and speaks mainly French, with basic knowledge of English, German and Spanish.

Programme

The day will be divided into two parts: the mornings from 9:00 to 12:00 with group practice (collective, then separate children and adults) and the rest of the day planned for research. In between, we’ll spend lunch at the scout house. We close the days with a time of collective exchange, following different modalities. Other times of exploration can be organized outside this framework, according to the wishes of the group.

One evening this week, we’ll be sleeping in the forest with the kids.

On Wednesday or Thursday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, a public evening with a lecture will take place – to be defined.

Who is the Summer School for?

The summer school is open to anyone interested in movement and voice, curious about the forest and already involved in some form of artistic research for several years.

We ask participants to be available for the entire duration of the school to facilitate group dynamics and research.

Organization

Joanne Clavel is a researcher in Ecological Humanities at the CNRS. She will share with us her sensitive knowledge, at the crossroads of art and ecological sciences. She examines how thinking-feeling-acting is articulated in the interweaving of the living, or how experiences of situated natures transcend the great Western dualisms. She will be offering reading and reflection workshops in the forest, based on texts she has selected.

Noemie Wyss is a vocal coach. For several years now, she has been combining her passion for singing, dance and nature during outdoor explorations at various workshops. She will guide us in vocal explorations throughout the week.

Eve Chariatte is a choreographer. She is passionate about fascias (connective tissues in the human body) and their ability to make us sensitive/ attuned to an environment. She will propose exercises for activating the web of the fascial system, as well as scores of sensitive cartographies that she has imagined in recent years.

Gregory Stauffer is a choreographer and researcher. His work draws as much on movement and the expressive arts as on drawing and writing. In recent years, he has been conducting research into sustainability and resilience in creative processes. Inspired and instructed by plants and ecological gardening for 20 years, he weaves links between these fields.

Price

Per adult: accommodation, full board, workshops: between 400 and 600 euros, depending on income.

Per child: accommodation, full board, workshops: to be discussed according to number of children

These rates are made possible by a research grant.

However, if you find it difficult to pay and would like to take part, please write to us.

Registration

deadline: June 15, 2025

The summer school is open to a maximum of 14 adults.

To apply, please send us a short cover letter describing your wishes, motivations and/or research intentions for this summer school#2 (max 1 A4 page). We want to understand how/if our visions resonate with each other.

Please specify if you would like to bring your child/children, how many and what ages.

more info:

www.malvaux.net

more activities at MALVAUX

https://malvaux.net/accueil/ateliers-publics

Theme

For this first edition of the Malvaux summer school, we want to return to the foundations of our bodily and eco-somatic practices, namely our capacity to listen. For one week, we’ll be forming an ephemeral community of explorers of our bodies, located in the Malvaux forest. Listening to ourselves, to a group, to a forest and its inhabitants. Listening to enter into a relationship with oneself and beyond oneself in a specific environment. Like a pre-movement, a prerequisite for gesture and interaction. To be abundant together, to sing, to dance. To be silent, on the lookout, at rest. Every day our practices will be transdisciplinary, involving movement, voice, drawing and writing.

Guests

Joanne Clavel is a researcher in Ecological Humanities at the CNRS. She will share with us her sensitive knowledge, at the crossroads of art and science. She examines how thinking-feeling-acting is articulated in the interweaving of the living, or how experiences of situated natures transcend the great Western dualisms.

Noemie Wyss is a vocal coach. For several years now, she has been combining her passion for singing, dance and nature in various workshops. She will guide us in vocal explorations throughout the week.

Organizers

Eve Chariatte is a choreographer. She is passionate about fascia (the connective tissue of the human body) and its capacity to make us sensitive/aware of an environment. She will propose exercises to activate the web of the fascial system, as well as scores of sensitive cartographies she has imagined over the last few years.

Gregory Stauffer is a choreographer and researcher. His work draws as much on movement and the expressive arts as on drawing and writing. In recent years, he has been conducting research into sustainability and resilience in creative processes. Inspired and instructed by plants and ecological gardening for 20 years, he weaves links between these fields.

Dates

Monday August 19 to Friday August 23, 2024.

From 9am to 5pm every day.

Thursday August 22 from 18:00 to 20:00 lecture at the Pasquart center for contemporary art in Biel/Bienne.

We ask participants to be available for the entire duration of the school to facilitate group dynamics and research.

Programme

La journée sera divisée en deux temps de pratique: les matins de 9h00 à 13h00 et les après-midi de 14h00 à 17h00. Entre deux nous passerons la pause de midi à la cabane des scouts. Other times of exploration can be organized outside this framework, according to the wishes of the group.

On Thursday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, the documentation center will be inaugurated at the Pasquart – Biel Art Center, with a lecture by Joanne Clavel on ecosomatics.

Who is the Summer School for? : The summer school is open to anyone interested in practicing movement, voice and improvisation, and curious about the forest.

Location: Forêt de Malvaux. Living and meeting place at the Orion scout hut, Ried, Biel. 5 min walk from bus stop 8. From Biel station, take bus 8 towards Fuchsenried and stop at Ried. Follow the Orion sign.

Meals: Food is included, and meals are prepared by a cook. Please let us know in advance if you have any food intolerances or preferences.

Accommodation: For those who wish, there is the possibility of sleeping at the scout hut in Orion, places limited to 22 people. The house has 4 dormitories, sleeping 4 to 8. You can also sleep in tents in the vicinity of the house, with your own equipment.

Arrival on Sunday afternoon, August 18. Departure on Friday, August 23 from 5:00 pm or Saturday morning, August 24 until 12:00 am.

Price: For those staying overnight: accommodation, full board, workshops: CHF 400

For those not staying overnight: lunch and workshops: CHF 200

Ces tarifs préférentiels sont possibles grâce à une bourse de recherche de la CICAS. Merci à elle ! However, if you find it difficult to pay and would like to take part, please write to us.

Children: We would like to organize the possibility of day care for the children, so that parents can participate in the workshops during the day. Nothing is certain yet, but if you’re interested, please write to us as soon as possible so that we can work out something together.

Registration deadline: July 22, 2024

The summer school is open to a maximum of 22 people.