Let's meet!

Circostrada is planning a research trip to Addis Ababa for its members from February 27 to March 4 2018. It will take place in the course of the second edition of the African Circus Festival - first Pan-African festival dedicated to circus arts - organized by Fekat Circus.

This research trip is organized in partnership with Fekat Circus, which joined the network in 2017 and works towards developing circus arts in Ethiopia.

A Circostrada delegation will be present throughout the festival. On the agenda: meetings with local circus actors, activities to better understand the stakes and aesthetics of the Ethiopian cultural scene, visits of key circus venues, networking times between professionals… A nice opportunity for the network and its members to establish contacts with the local scene and, vice versa, for Ethiopian cultural players to develop collaborative projects and partnerships with European professionals.

This research trip will be followed by a publication in French and in English, available online for all professionals eager to know more about the Ethiopian circus scene. We'll keep you posted! 

Circostrada organised the first KAHWA Meeting in Tunis on October 2-3, 2017, in partnership with L'Art Rue, the Kamel Lazaar Fundation and Dar Ben Gacem, in the context of the 6th edition of Dream City, Biennale of Contemporary Art in the public space. Implemented by the network in the frame of its brand new project (2017-2021), this informal working group aims at gathering circus and street arts professionals from the Mediterranean area in order for them to exchange, observe and get to know better the specifics of artistic creation in the countries of the region.

Tunis was the first stop on the Circostrada list but there are many more meetings to come!

A publication will be issued on the Circostrada website both in French and in English to share this valuable experience and the knowledge that came out of it. Wait just a little bit longer and it will be between your hands!

Out There International Festival of Street Arts & Circus

Friday 15 – Sunday 17 September 2017
Great Yarmouth, UK

Produced by SeaChange Arts, Out There, International Festival of Street Arts & Circus will take place in Great Yarmouth and will celebrate this year its 10th edition. Alongside a host of new Without Walls commissions, a family zone and community projects, this year’s festival will welcome companies from Spain, Germany and France. In addition, SeaChange Arts is teaming with XTRAX to host its second showcase of outdoor arts. The programme will feature SeaChange Arts’ 4th annual symposium, networking opportunities with delegates from the UK and overseas and XTRAX Shorts – XTRAX’s popular brand of artists pitch sessions.

The Fekat Circus initiative, African Circus Arts Festival will be taking place on February 16, 17, 18, 2018 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The pan African event is still accepting applications for its second edition.

It should be recalled that in November 2015, the first edition of the Festival had a line up of eight African circus teams representing different parts of the continent. With over 12,000 visitors, this 3-day circus festival was a great success, which Fekat Circus hopes to surpass in 2018.

Mark your calendar for Ethiopia on February 2018:

• 14-15: workshops among African circus performers
• 15-16: conference with circus experts from all over the world
• 16-17-18: performances by selected African circus teams

Join the Irish Street Arts, Circus & Spectacle Network for an afternoon discussion about collaboration & the rise of interdisciplinary arts.

Hear from a range of artists, practitioners and projects which have specialized in emerging art forms in new and unusual ways; uncovering new styles, new techniques, new circus, new theater, new stories and new ways of telling them, merging the old and the new, the traditional with the contemporary, the audience and the performer, the digital and the physical, the inside with the outside.

"Blurring the lines", Saturday 17th June from 2 to 4pm, at Circus Factory, Cork (IE), in association with the Circus Factory Cork and Cork Midsummer Festival. 

Breaking news! Cirkus YOUNAK is the first contemporary circus production in Slovakia. A unique combination of theater, circus and folklore. Acrobatics, dance, live music, story of the greatest legends of brigand. A fusion of traditional and modern. Original music, choreography, story line, circus disciplines, costumes and scene performed by an international artistic team.

Come to see the Cirkus YOUNAK premiere which will be presented for the first time on May 10th, 2017 in Stará tržnica, Bratislava, Slovakia!

Should you be interested in seeing the performance, please confirm your participation to Katarina Pokorna (katarina.pokorna@cirkulart.sk)

"Tales of Community Art and Art in Public Space in the Arab World" is a three-day co-writing lab bringing together artists and professionals from the Arab world with the objective to exchange artistic knowledge and to document art in public space practices and community art movements in the region.

Taking place for the first time between April 1-3 in Cairo, it is initiated and organized by Mahatat for Contemporary Art, a new member of Circostrada Network. Partner of the Lab, Circostrada will bring food for thought and share its 15-year experience in networking, observation, research and production of resources and will participate in the creation of a hands-on multimedia trilingual guide documenting these experiences. Stay tuned!

The next General Meeting will take place in Fossano, an Italian city located just an away from Turin in the Piemonte region, from June 28th till June 30th. It will occur in the frame of the 11th edition of Mirabilia International Circus & Performing Arts festival.

The festival (July 28th - August 2nd) will be the occasion to attend the performances of Italian and international contemporary circus artists, street artists and dancers. With over 80. 000 people, and almost 200 professionals attending the festival each year, Mirabilia focuses on emerging and affirmed creativity from Italy and Europe into a multidisciplinary stimulating experience. A unique opportunity to catch up with, or maybe for some, to discover emerging artists and companies, to witness innovative urban projects, dance in public space, and many other original performances.

During the General Meeting, Circostrada members will be introduced to the new network’s project for the next four years (2017-2021), co-financed by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, that is to say an exciting and important time for everyone, which is the result of a collective and productive work. It will also be the opportunity to discuss the current and upcoming activities of the 6 work groups of the network during joint sessions, and to attend professional workshops with local experts around the following themes: the use and interaction of digital tools as a means of improving cooperation processes, communication through audience participation, and integration and acceptance through performing arts.

In other words, it will be a privileged moment for the members to share, exchange and discover an exciting festival, all in a warm and friendly atmosphere!

In the frame of its European Season of Circus Arts, Jeunes Talents Cirque Europe organises a European conference entitled "Think Circus!" between May 17-19 in Paris, in partnership with La Villette (France).

Looking back on CircusNext's European cooperation project evolution and impact, "Think Circus!" is a place for exchanges, debates and reflection on the main issues at stake in the sector and beyond such as authorship, support, creation, artists' professional paths, European cooperation…

In May, "Think Circus"!

Between December 12-18 2016, nine Circostrada members went to Japan for a 1-week Research Trip with the aim of meeting fellow professionnals and discover the Japanese scene of circus and street arts.

From Tokyo to Takamatsu, passing by Kyoto, the delegation visited several cultural venues, saw an artistic showcase of 12 street and circus companies, took part to the second edition of Seto La Piste, the first contemporary circus festival in Japan run by Setouchi Circus Factory in Shikoku Island (South-East of Japan), visited the Naoshima island and its open-air contemporary arts gallery... and much more!

New opportunities for the future?

Public theaters eager to program more contemporary circus, the 2019 edition of Setouchi Triennale - a major contemporary art festival held every three years on a dozen islands in the Seto Inland Sea - opened to performing arts, an era of major cultural projects in the frame of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games... New opportunies to connect with the Japanese cultural sector are on the agenda!