hqLX opens a new artistic research space in the former fire station
Vacated in 2021, the former Luxembourg Fire and Rescue Service site is being preserved and given a new collective purpose. Its heritage lives on – in its spirit of camaraderie, rational use of space and human-centred approach to rescue – shaping both the lives that once unfolded here and those yet to come. Reflecting a logic of its own, this training and living environment is constantly preparing to respond to whatever lies ahead.
At the heart of the laboratory is a research unit known as "4L", which engages with neighbourhood life, particularly that of the future "Wunnquartier Stade", while drawing on the area's wider international dimension – as evoked by traces of the former Josy Barthel Stadium. It does so by bringing together local associations, services and institutions. Every three months, a new resident practitioner is welcomed to the space with support from the Œuvre Nationale's Culture and Creation Prize Fund (Fonds Prix Culture et Création), fostering research and debate and, in turn, new forms of community and neighbourhood engagement.
As a space for artistic freedom, hqLX is firmly focused on the future and on the careers it helps shape – and that, in turn, shape it – while acknowledging the support of a City willing to venture into new territory.
