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Machines. Magie. MédiasConstellation dynamique où se croisent, s'entremêlent et se redéfinissent les pratiques comme les savoirs, la magie se déploie en multiples facettes en se nourrissant des avancées de la connaissance dans les domaines les plus divers : de la physique à la religion, de la chimie à la linguistique, de la philosophie aux technologies, des théories de la communication et des médias au corps performant. C’est dans le but de cerner les principaux enjeux de ce vaste ensemble mouvant que nous avons convié des spécialistes à l’aborder, à partir de leur pratique et de leur discipline d’origine, en se concentrant sur sa dimension spectaculaire.
De la scène au cinéma, de la télévision aux réalités augmentées et virtuelles, des spectacles de cirque aux spectacles aquatiques, la pratique magicienne n’a pas cessé de se renouveler et de se métamorphoser, perpétuant cette aura de mystère et de secret qui ne cesse de fasciner mais qui représente aussi, il faut le dire, un sérieux défi pour tout chercheur du domaine. C’est la raison pour laquelle nous avons tenu à intégrer, en plus des théoriciens et historiens, des magiciens à ce vaste projet qui marque un premier aboutissement des travaux du groupe international de recherche Les Arts Trompeurs. [résumé de l'éditeur]
Thinking Through CircusThinking Through Circus gathers ten dialogues with and between circus artists. Each entry bears witness to how a specific circus practice is (also) a practice of critical thinking, revealing how feminism, queerness, dramaturgy, love, disobedience, posthumanism and the aesthetico-political imaginary are rethought in and through contemporary circus practice.
With this book, The Circus Dialogues wants to tend to the embodied relationships between contemporary circus and today’s world, defending circus as a field in which experimental thinking is already happening and can continue to happen. Doing so, we hope to contribute to a more sustainable circus, expanding both accountability and agency within our field.
The Circus Dialogues is a two-year artistic research project at KASK School of Arts Ghent (BE) led by Bauke Lievens (BE), Quintijn Ketels (BE), Sebastian Kann (US/DE) and accompanied by Vincent Focquet (BE). Our work delves into and makes space for encounters between theory and artistic circus practice. The Circus Dialogues aims to shine a light on the circus as a field in which experimental thinking is already happening, and we work to ensure the ongoingness of such thinking in an artistic and institutional ecology that’s long-term sustainable. We do this first and foremost through our diverse artistic practices. In parallel, we organize reading groups and collaborative gatherings for circus artists. We have also published several Open Letters to the Circus. Our activities are conceived with the intention of helping to imagine the circus field as both important and political. Most importantly, we defend circus as an open and undefinable form. [editor summary]
Narcisse et ses avatarsEn vingt-six entrées vives et accessibles, Yves Michaud pose son regard de philosophe sur les mutations à l’œuvre dans notre société. YouTube, Narcisse, la Com’, le Design, l’Hédonisme, le Sexe ou encore le People, s’entrecroisent et se répondent dans ce petit précis philosophique ultramoderne. C’est à contrecourant des discours alarmistes que le lecteur retrouvera son quotidien, ses obsessions et névroses. Il entrera dans cet abécédaire comme on tend devant soi un miroir, ou un smartphone, et se verra délivrer des clés à la compréhension du monde d’aujourd’hui et de demain. [résumé de l'éditeur]
Support and alignment : in search of balance : sensation, development and creation in equilibristrics : pedagogical guide"It is on the basis of field observations and concrete pedagogical issues that several texts are suggested to deepen, explain or question the notions linked with balance, while giving the floor to those who have animated or participated in the training. While this book is not meant to describe the exercises involved in these practice times, their observation has made it possible to draw threads and to propose different tools that can be transferred to the pedagogical practices of each one. The two main parts of the manual are: building balance and developing a connection with balance. More than methods that impose rules or protocols, these sensitive approaches allow, at a given moment, to formalise the practices and to spread them. For all that, they go far beyond speech and writing and find their full realisation only when the body is in motion. "
The manual makes it possible to formalise the practices of the professionals of today and to disseminate them. The proposals are transferable from one apparatus to another and from one practice to another and allow to start a transversal reflection on aerial skills or, more generally, on the way in which the circus arts are constantly facing, the stakes and difficulties of vertical work, weight and gravity. [editor summary]
Jaune : histoire d'une couleurAujourd'hui, en Europe, le jaune est une couleur peu présente dans la vie quotidienne et guère sollicitée par le monde des symboles. Il n'en a pas toujours été ainsi. Les peuples de l'Antiquité voyaient en lui une couleur presque sacrée, celle de la lumière, de la chaleur et de la prospérité. Les Grecs et les Romains lui accordaient une place importante dans les rituels religieux, tandis que les Celtes et les Germains l'associaient à l'or et à l'immortalité. Le déclin du jaune date du Moyen Âge qui en fait une couleur ambivalente. D'un côté, le mauvais jaune, celui de la bile amère et du soufre démoniaque : il est signe de mensonge, d'avarice, de félonie, parfois de maladie ou de folie. De l'autre, le bon jaune, celui de l'or, du miel et des blés mûrs : il est signe de pouvoir, de joie, d'abondance.
Toutefois, à partir du XVIe siècle, la place du jaune dans la culture matérielle ne cesse de reculer. La Réforme protestante, la Contre-Réforme catholique, plus tard les « valeurs bourgeoises » du XIXe siècle le tiennent en peu d'estime. Même si la science le range au nombre des couleurs primaires, sa symbolique reste équivoque. De nos jours encore, le jaune verdâtre est ressenti comme désagréable ou dangereux car il porte en lui quelque chose de maladif ou de toxique ; au contraire, le jaune qui se rapproche de l'orangé passe pour tonique, joyeux et bienfaisant, à l'image des fruits de cette couleur.
Abondamment illustré, Jaune est le cinquième ouvrage d'une série commencée en 2000 et consacrée à l'histoire des couleurs en Europe, de l'Antiquité à nos jours. Il fait suite à Bleu. Histoire d'une couleur (2000), Noir. Histoire d'une couleur (2008), Vert. Histoire d'une couleur (2013) et Rouge. Histoire d'une couleur (2016). [résumé de l'éditeur]
The art of collectivity : social circus and the cultural politics of a post-neoliberal visionAmidst epidemics of youth alienation and cultural polarization, community-based artistic practices are sprouting up around the world as antidotes to policies of austerity and social exclusion. Rejecting the radical individualism of the neoliberal era, many artistic projects promote collectivity and togetherness in navigating challenges and constructing shared futures.
The Art of Collectivity is about how one such creative social program deployed this approach in service of a post-neoliberal vision. Focusing on a national social circus initiative launched by a newly elected Ecuadorean government to help actualize its “citizens' revolution,” the book explores the intersection between global cultural politics, participatory arts, collective health, and social transformation. The authors include scholars and practitioners of community arts, humanities, social sciences, and health sciences from the Global North and Global South. Sensitive to hierarchical binaries such as research/practice, north/south, and art/science, they work together to provide a multifaceted analysis of the way cultural politics shape policy, pedagogy, and aesthetic sensibilities, as well as their socio-cultural and health-related effects.
The largest study of social circus to date, combining detailed quantitative, qualitative, and arts-based research, The Art of Collectivity is a timely contribution to the study of cultural policies, critical pedagogies, collective art-making, and community development. [editor summary]
Making spaces safer : a guide to giving harassment the boot wherever you work, play, and gatherShawna Potter, singer for the band War On Women, has tackled sexism and harassment in lyrics and on stage for years. Taking the battle to music venues themselves, she has trained night clubs and community spaces in how to create safer environments for marginalized people. Now she’s turned decades of experience into a clear and concise guide for public spaces of all sorts, from art galleries to bagel shops to concert halls, that want to shut down harassers wherever they show up. The steps she outlines are realistic, practical, and actionable. With the addition of personal stories, case studies, sample policies, and no-nonsense advice like “How to Flirt without Being a Creep,” she shows why safer spaces are important, while making it easier to achieve them. Eschewing theory, she assumes the reader is already an ethical creature and jumps right in with candor, punk passion, and righteous anger to get the job done! [editor summary]
The other within : the genius of deformity in myth, culture & psycheDaniel Deardorff knows otherness firsthand. This highly regarded “singer” in the old sense of that word—musician, storyteller, maker of ritual—had polio as an infant and has used a wheelchair most of his life, giving him a lived perspective that deeply informs his views on this subject. In The Other Within, Deardorff starts with a radical notion: to disclose the blessings of outsiderhood, the many gifts and insights contributed to culture by the marginalized and outcast. Unlike studies that stress the plight of the outsider, this one asserts that to be cast down and out of the consensus-worldview affords a difficult yet significant opportunity: to encounter oneself, not as defined by society but as one actually is. An eloquent spokesman for “the man or woman on the weird road,” Deardorff presents dozens of powerful examples from myth and literature to illustrate his message in a richly allusive, complex series of essays. Drawing on the work of mythologians, poets, psychologists, and scholars, The Other Within takes readers on an initiatory journey, uncovering the roots of human identity and imagination and offering insights–including “trickster wisdom”—revealing the mythic underpinnings of everyday life. [editor summary]
Contemporary circusIn this volume, twenty-four creators come together with three scholars to discuss Contemporary Circus, bridging the divide between practice and theory.
Lavers, Leroux, and Burtt offer conversations across four key themes: Apparatus, Politics, Performers, and New Work. Extensively illustrated with fifty photos of Contemporary Circus productions, and extensively annotated, Contemporary Circus thematically groups and contextualises extracts of conversations to provide a sophisticated and wide-ranging study supported by critical theory.
Of interest to both practitioners and scholars, Contemporary Circus uses the lens of ‘contestation,’ or calling things into question, to provide a portal into ways of seeing today’s circus performance.
Conversations with: Lachlan Binns and Jascha Boyce (Gravity and Other Myths), Tilde Björfors (Cirkus Cirkör), Kim ‘Busty Beatz’ Bowers (Hot Brown Honey), Shana Carroll (The 7 Fingers), David Clarkson (Stalker), Philippe Decouflé (Compagnie DCA), Fez Faanana (Briefs), Mike Finch (Circus Oz), Daniele Finzi Pasca (Compagnia Finzi Pasca), Sean Gandini (Gandini Juggling), Firenza Guidi (ElanFrantoio, NoFit State Circus), Jo Lancaster and Simon Yates (Acrobat), Johann Le Guillerm (Cirque Ici), Yaron Lifschitz (Circa), Chelsea McGuffin (Company 2), Phia Ménard (Compagnie Non Nova), Jennifer Miller (Circus Amok), Adrien Mondot (Compagnie Adrien M and Claire B), Charlotte Mooney and Tina Koch (Ockham’s Razor), Philippe Petit (high wire artist), and Elizabeth Streb (STREB EXTREME ACTION). [editor summary]
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