About

One platform, two purposes

Y-Collective is a Brussels-based artist collective with a dual purpose, operating through two distinct yet closely connected branches:

YOUNGSTERS

We came together in 2022 to form our first branch, YOUNGSTERS, in response to a shared necessity and desire to engage more meaningfully with local youth: to create with them, teach and learn from them, and to confront and be confronted by them.

Through YOUNGSTERS, we aim to create spaces where youngsters in Brussels can gather and take part in social and cultural activities conceived as experimental and creative rather than educational or recreational. Through discussion and artistic exploration, the platform seeks to bridge social and cultural gaps, with a strong focus on diversity and accessibility. Every activity is shaped by the interests and aspirations of the young participants.

Y-Creations

The second branch, Y-Creations, is a production platform dedicated to our individual artistic practices. It functions as a shared framework within which the six artist-members of the collective develop their work, whether for productions or artistic research.

Operating in a spirit of mutualization, the platform allows us to support one another in navigating the current precarities of the artistic field. This collaborative environment fosters the exchange of knowledge and encourages the sharing of resources. As a platform, Y-Creations nurtures a plurality of artistic visions and experiments while building on a common foundation of overlapping working approaches.

The beginning

Y-Collective emerged in 2022, in the aftermath of the pandemic—a moment that exposed the limitations of the artistic spaces we had long inhabited. We shared a growing frustration with the lack of diversity in the audiences we encountered—audiences that were strikingly homogenous, composed largely of upper- and middle-class adults. These spaces rarely reached younger or more varied publics, nor did they prioritize meaningful engagement with those unfamiliar with conventional modes of experiencing art.

The pandemic disrupted the production cycle we had been part of and offered space for reflection. In response, we formed Y-Collective—a collective rooted in a desire to connect more deeply with local youth: to create, exchange, teach, learn, and be challenged in return. As our projects have evolved, so has our ongoing research into practical, grounded approaches to mediation and facilitation—tools we continue to shape through lived experience.