RotterdamResidency CircusstadFestival 01
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The goal of the project is but have not yet a profound level of intellectual, to facilitate the circulation of knowledge and cultural and institutional recognition it deserves, experience, to develop the critical discourses in Europe as well as at national and local level. of its participants, and to further the role of Thereby political and financial support to this the media within the circus arts and sector is quite low and there are structural contemporary society. weaknesses. There are strong imbalances in comparison to other creative areas, even when comparing the realities between regions or 12Residencies–120Articles countries. Unpack the Arts consists of 12 residencies in 8 countries, spread over 2 years (August 2012 Despite the growing success of circus by the – February 2014). Each residency is set within the audience and programmers, circus arts are not framework of a festival and follows the same covered by abundant literature, academic format: over the course of 4 days, the participants research, in-depth articles, reviews,... and artists contribute to a series of moderated thematic themselves often experience difficulties in discussions, attend lectures by key circus experts, producing theoretical writing that communicates see 3-5 shows, and meet with and interview their practice, their creative processes and their programmed artists along with a representative productions. They rarely have the chance to of the host festival. After the residencies, each exchange with critics and experts from the participating journalist delivers one article. These performing arts on theoretical or conceptual texts are collected, translated and turned into an terms. online, multilingual publication. Also, many art writers are clueless about This sixth publication collects the texts of contemporary circus. Cultural journalists don’t 10 European journalists who attended the know the disciplines and techniques and overall residency at Circusstad Festival in Rotterdam, they lack the contextual understanding to tackle The Netherlands, 1 to 5 May 2013. a piece’s dramaturgical choices, to reference other productions, or to interview artists creating We wish to thank all participants and all non text-based works. collaborators who made this residency a success. That’s why Circuscentrum and 9 important circus festivals all over Europe conceived Unpack the Arts. Unpack the Arts is a European project K o e n A l l ar y – granted by Europe Culture – that provides Director, Circuscentrum (project leader) residencies for cultural journalists in the context y o h A n n F l o c h of twelve major festivals programming Adviser 2 Artvscraft incircus B R y A n B i R t l e s The circus of our collective imagination is define it for them: art is whatever a self- the one performed by Barnum and Bailey’s identified artist says it is. company: elephants stand on their hind legs and trumpet, lions are tamed with overturned But such a definition is problematic, and we as chairs, and the trapeze swings back and forth a public or as journalists define art all the time: over a net while tumblers, clowns and jugglers no one would indulge the idea that pictures sold make merry on the floor. In the centre of three as decoration at IKEA qualify as ‘art’ in any real rings, under a tent, the ringmaster bellows for sense, nor would we allow that your uncle the crowd to show its appreciation, and they juggling beer cans at a barbecue qualifies as do: they call out for the acts to go higher, circus. to move faster, to increase the danger and therefore the spectacle. Circus performers have a certain humility about their work: many of its practitioners shy away That circus still exists, somewhere, but over from an ‘artist’ label. They prefer to think of the past half-century a new circus has emerged, themselves simply as ‘clowns’ or ‘tumblers’ one that does away with the animals and the or ‘jugglers’, technicians with a serious and trickery for trickery’s sake. One that reaches well-developed skill. Many are loathe to define for deeper meaning, a larger goal than juggling themselves with the hoity-toity vernacular ten or twenty clubs at once, that tempers its of artists. elements in service of a story or a feeling. A circus filled with artistry. Some performers however – whether willing to claim ownership of the label or not – are indeed It keeps, however, elements of the traditional artists: their work goes well beyond that of a circus: all the feats are there in one form or person simply juggling and enters a realm of another, nomadism reigns as a lifestyle, and larger thought that defines art. They move past the structure of ‘acts’ forming a larger whole the poster-of-the-New-York-skyline world of remains, however abstract the interpretation. IKEA decoration – or the drunk-uncle-at-a- New circus, or its even more abstracted barbeque version of circus – and into the realm progeny the contemporary circus, moves circus of art. from a craft – a series of technical skills put to use as entertainment – toward an artform. How, therefore, do we pinpoint the moment But how much art is there in circus? Where when that happens? does the craft of the past end and the art of new circus begin? Art critic and philosopher Arthur Danto put forth a definition of art in 1964 that might shed :Whatisart? some light. His definition boils down to this Before exploring how much art exists in the a context and a discourse about art is required circus of today, it’s important to figure out to define art. exactly what is meant by ‘art’. Many arts journalists have grave reservations when it He used, as an example, Andy Warhol’s Brillo comes to defining what it is they write about. Boxes: whereas Brillo cartons in a supermarket Instead, they rely on artists themselves to fulfil a practical function (to transport Brillo BRyAnBiRtles 3 pads and draw attention to them through Elements of circus’ history make impressions bright, eye-catching colour) Warhol’s were on the circus of today: the contemporary specifically engineered with an art-aware circus may have shed the big top in favour public in mind, were divorced from their once- of the theatre, and may create work that is pragmatic function, and invited the discussion sometimes unrecognisable as circus – certainly of the larger artworld. Such an exercise makes unrecognisable to Barnum or Bailey – but there the boxes more than what they are and imbues are elements it cannot leave behind. It’s in the them with meaning that goes beyond selling prouesse, the ‘feats’ of circus, that a through- a cleaning product. line can be discerned from the travelling circuses of the traditional period to today’s Does the circus fulfil this definition? Sometimes contemporary circus. it does and sometimes it doesn’t. Traditional circus certainly doesn’t: with its composite Circus is defined by its feats. Acrobatics, structure filled with acts of varying intensities tumbling, trapeze, tightrope, clowning, and difficulties, a traditional circus invites balancing, juggling, all are skills that set circus the audience’s attention and appreciation, apart from aesthetically related artforms such but doesn’t move beyond. It doesn’t invite as dance or theatre. a discourse, its effects don’t progress beyond amazement at its trickery. New circus and It’s these individual acts that a circus performer contemporary circus brought these tricks into concentrates on within the context of a circus the abstract, separated them from their origins, school, and they define themselves by them. and gave them a new larger function while These feats are often fraught with real danger maintaining links to the historical idea of what in a way that other artforms are not. a circus entailed. Circus, as a wide definition, can be many things, Whatiscircus? but these feats are at the heart of it. They are New and contemporary circus is difficult to the heart of a Barnum and Bailey’s-style define. Many circus artists shun the circus label traditional circus, the heart of new circus, and in favour of one that more closely defines their the heart of contemporary circus, the last two particular skill set – instead of ‘circus artists’ in varying degrees and in various states of they are jugglers, tumblers, clowns – or else deconstruction, as we shall see.