The Antipode - from the MJC of Cleunay to the BAM

The Antipode MJC (Youth and Culture House)  is a historic facility in Rennes and for the residents of Cleunay. Now located in a new neighborhood that is still largely undeveloped and marked by symbolic boundaries with the Cleunay district, thoughtful planning and support are needed to ease the transition. In September 2021, the Antipode MJC moved into its new premises located in the "Courrouze" neighborhood. A historic facility in Rennes, this MJC—alongside which a Concert Hall is attached—originally opened its doors in the 1970s in the priority neighborhood of Cleunay.  The former building is set to be demolished to make way for housing. At the end of 2021, the City of Rennes launched a call for temporary occupancy projects for a period of three years, starting in 2022, aimed at social and solidarity economy organizations.

Since 2022, the BAM has been open to the public—and to projects! One of the site’s main strengths is precisely this: offering a shared space for experimentation, open to citizen and artistic initiatives. Over the past few years, BAM has hosted dozens of diverse projects, ranging from participatory construction workshops to music festivals, all while staying true to the site’s original mission and the values of its occupants. Many associations, collectives, and contributors have come and gone—and continue to fuel life at BAM today—with a strong focus on sharing and passing on knowledge.

Rooted in its local community, BAM is a lively space, shaped by ongoing projects. Come work, eat, or take a break in the various areas available to the public. You're likely to meet members of BAM’s permanent organizations—a diverse group of everyday contributors who each, in their own way, help build a space for civic engagement and community living. Since 2024, BAM has also been hosting events in its performance hall. Come and enjoy a rich, independent, and varied program throughout the year. Food services are also available to provide a complete experience. Finally, to ensure everyone feels welcome and safe, anyone who walks through BAM’s doors is expected to respect its manifesto: a list of simple yet essential rules designed to create a shared, comfortable space for all.

“When I arrived at BAM, my first task was to find projects that could bring the space to life. We had several team discussions, which helped spark a few ideas. During one of them, Alexandre said: ‘We’ve got kilos of archives.’" Alice T. 

Some of these archives date back to when BAM was still the MJC Cleunay—schedules, programming documents, general assembly reports, old posters, photographs, handwritten Post-it notes… There really are kilos of archives. The field to explore is vast, and the stakes are multiple: creating BAM’s first archives with local residents, understanding what this place used to be, how it has evolved to this day, and what the future might hold.

Through this project, the idea is also to question what an archive means in the age of social media—where a TikTok post vanishes into the depths of the internet moments after being uploaded. And what is a 50-year-old archive? Photographs on film, handwritten invoices, stories passed down orally. So, what constitutes an archive today? How do we create a collective archive for tomorrow? How do we make archives with people who cannot picture what tomorrow might look like? And for children—what does an archive mean in a neighborhood undergoing urban renewal? How do we archive BAM?

At the heart of the Cleunay neighborhood, BAM offers a strong local foundation—it’s a shared space for life, dialogue, and connection. The place has evolved over the past decades, alongside the life of the neighborhood. However, BAM is a temporary project. Its current occupation is set to end in 2025. This also raises the question of BAM’s future. What is BAM? What makes BAM… BAM? How can we keep it alive beyond its temporary existence?

Something is coming...