Trànsits

The Charge Maximal de Rupture company (CMR) was born within the 31st CNAC 2019 promotion, composed by Fernando Arévalo, Marica Marinoni, Pablo Pe.ailillo, Héctor Díaz and Ma.l Thierry. They begin their journey under the wing of Galapiat Cirque, and then look for their own creative colours and their own ways of conceiving the collectivity.

Winners of the circus commission of the Beaumarchais-SACD Association in 2021, the company begins to consolidate itself with the parallel creation and distribution of Quiproquo (creation 2021) by Hector and Ma’l; and 9.8 by Pablo and Manuel (creation 2022).

This company is based on its plurality, thus carrying different creative projects at the same time, each developed by at least one of the members of CMR in collaboration with other artists to establish creative collectives. The collective gathered around the QUIMERA project is composed of Pablo Penailillo, Nicol·s Palma and Cristóbal Espoz, and this is the team involved in the creations with the aerial tapes.

QUIMERA

QUIMERA is a circus project that addresses the close bond that exists between the concept of “attachment” and that of “belonging”. Considered for the hall, in front format adaptable to the circular, it is performed by three circus artists united around the same apparatus: aerial straps.

 The center of our project is our relationship to this object and how this common bond expresses the relationship between us. The starting point of QUIMERA is the essential condition (and also the constraint) of straps: the attachment. This apparatus has the principle of connecting a body to ceiling, and the fact of being attached to this object suggests a fusion between the acrobat and the object, which thus become a single entity. 

The aim is to develop and divert this principle to discover how it is applicable to a group. Anchor yourself into the sky, to earth, to others, and become together one single creature. We start from the desire to make a journey together, that goes from three individuals to one creature, from personality to entity, from individuality to collectiveness.

Starting with us, three people that develop their personalities and relationship between them, until transform into a one single whole.This is an evolving journey that goes from a single unitary organism which grows, develops, adapts, separates and dismembers until it comes back into three individuals, into three beings humans. We dive into collective thinking, like that of a pack, of a flock of fish or birds, and in a thought of unity, like that of a cell or an organ. We therefore switch from the development of our humanity and individuality into a form of a united organism, and then come back transformed in the process. Then a question is posed: what to do now with this humanity? The idea is to take this question as a springboard to share our questions about this that defines us as people: our experiences, traumas, dreams and frustrations, and above all the relationship that exists between the three of us

Clara Prieto Boix starts her professional training at the Rogelio Rivel Circus School in Barcelona, and next to Codarts, University of Arts of Roterdam (Holland), where she specializes in rope. She also discovered the pole.

She has performed at various festivals in Catalonia, Belgium, Lithuania, Mexico… And she has participated in projects such as the Combinat de Circ from the Ateneu Popular 9 Barris, C%RC at the Antic Teatre in Barcelona, Balade de Cirque from Companie BAM, Nilak Circ Teatre Itinerant, among others. She’s interested in the social part of the circus and she has taken her to participate as a volunteer in projects in the southeast of Turkey and Tunis.

Her idea is to create a fluid and natural language, quality she is looking for through dance and movement. Her last discovering has been the tap, which together with dance, theater, humor and absurdity, are resources to achieve a more complete and diverse language.

‘Bennescuda’

Dice que en el manicomio, un día, el director coge a tres locos para ver si les puede dar de alta. / Dice: veniu aquí. / Se acercan los tres. / I li diu amb un, li diu: ¡a ver tú! 6×6? Y dice el tío: ¡Febrero! / Diu: vale nen, de puta mare. / Diu: tú, al segon, tú: 6×6? Diu: 1000! / Diu: molt bé! Deu ni do també. / Li diu al tercero: a ver tú!, ¿6×6? Y el tío: ¡36! / Diu, coi, diu: y ¿cómo has llegado a esta conclusión? / I diu: ¡fácil! He dividido febrero por mil.

Marc Bosch Mola (Vic, 1992) studies biology and neuroscience, while forming in circus. Later, with the aim of professionalizing as an artist, he studied at the Rogelio Rivel school in Barcelona. He performs in various pieces, such as ‘Gender’, under the direction of Tere Celis, and in the 58th Combinat de Circ of the Ateneu Popular de Nou Barris, under the direction of the Cia. Zero en Conducta. He also participates in various circus galas with his fixed trapezium show at the Mercateatre 2022, at the Cronopis Circ de Nadal 2023 and at the Gala Mara Mara in 2024.

In the attempt to continue expanding, he began to work with Andreas Avgousti (Nicosia, 1992), a gender researcher and queer philosophy. With this cross-contamination, between the physical practice of the circus and the queer philosophical discourse, the project ‘Escorça’ is born.

Escorça

Wrapped in a warrior’s armor, like a hard and heavy shell, I conceal an unknown part of myself.
Can’t you sense it when you embrace me? My hooked fingers tear at the protective remnants of wood, like an hourglass, revealing fragments of what’s beneath.
Slow and steady.
To uncover each piece and see others for who they truly are; will you really see me? Today, I could strip bare like a winter tree.
I wonder, is there more to me beyond this shell, or is bark all I am?
I wonder, do I have anything in common with you, or am I a monstrous creature?
Escorça materializes into a circus piece for two people, an interpreter and a technician; a puppet and a puppeteer. An attempt to (de)construct a circus piece following a learned vital recipe, where the discourse on human essence becomes the guiding thread. A tragicomic experience that speaks through layers, inviting the audience to self-reflection.

“Escorça” is an attempt to (de)construct a circus piece following a learned life recipe, where the discourse on human essence becomes the guiding thread. A tragicomic experience, speaking through our layers, inviting the audience to self-reflection.

Photo: Aina Barril

Borja Nou graduated in Social Education and is a Sociocultural Animation Technician. He also trained at the school of social theatre and performance La Roda in Madrid. As a circus artist, he trained at the Escuela Internacional de Circo y Teatro CAU in Granada, where he specializes in hand-to-hand discipline, as a base and flyer. Currently, he is in the process of creating two projects: ‘Requiem’, with the QIIMERA collective, and ‘Nébula Dermis, a solo show.

‘Nébula Dermis’

Nébula Dermis is a multidisciplinary piece of solo circus-mediation in which circus language, physical theatre and the will of the public are put into dialogue. It is a condemnation of the declaration of vulnerabilities, crossed by dissident identity. A popular sentence is proposed in which the apparent centre of condemnation is the artist, who, without being aware of it, also puts the public to trial with the blames attributed to them. A journey through the fragilities of the scenic body and the collective self-reference that is born from the need to share in a vulnerable way and to recognize oneself in it.

Photo: Fede Nieto

In 2022 Maria Paz brought together four circus artists – Jesu, Africa, Júlia and Maya – from France, Catalonia and Chile to create the company La côte folle. The collective is created, on the one hand, with the desire to create an acrobàtics and dance creation and, on the other hand, by the desire to share collective ethics and the question of how we make circus.

Entre bous i vaques

Five acrobatic bodies that are carried and accompanied, use a structure that is transformed to explain ‘Entre bous i vaques’. The collective La côte folle proposes – through the acrobatics and dance – a scenic narrative about memory, forgetfulness, old age, dementia and the passage of time, inspired by real anecdotes and testimonies.
A street proposal and for everyone. A journey between the memories of a ruined brain, between sensitivity and humour.

Photo: Andreu Casadellà Oller

Phonophobia is a company formed by Karita y Maristella, multidisciplinary artists who explore different forms of scenical art such as circus, singing, physical theatre and dance. Currently, they are in the process of creating their second project ‘Fast food emotion’.

Silvia Capell (Catalonia) studies psychology and is trained as a professional circus artist at the La Tarumba school in Lima, Peru. Later he returns to Barcelona where he builds his artistic life and works in different companies and projects, such as Les Capgirades, Colectivo La Persiana, Los Galindos, La Virgueria, Les Impuxibles and Companyia Voël.

In 2015 she created her own company with a solid commitment to contemporary art and with the aim of generating risky art and direct dialogue without anesthesia with the public. After ‘Homenaje’, her first creation, she’s currently in the process of creating ‘Ángela Caído’.

Ángela 

Born in Argentina, she trained there as a circus artist, focusing on aerial acrobatics. She obtained the title of Professor of Body Expression-Dance at the University of Arts of Buenos Aires; complementing her training with other arts of movement. She is professionally dedicated to aerial disciplines and scenography.

She participates as a performer in the ‘DanzAbismal’, a group of dancers dedicated to researching, experimenting and producing performative interventions in non-conventional spaces. She co-founded ‘Companyia Anexo23’ with Meme Canziani. Together, as directors and performers, they created the piece ‘PVC (C2H3Cl)n’, which was presented in various locations in Buenos Aires.

Recently, she has created her company to carry out and deepen her new contemporary circus project, ‘Tension’, which was selected by CircusNext 2024.

Tension

It is the intimate space where discomfort resides. It’s this lift, the staircase, the emergency exit. A body in contact with the object. A hostile object that damages its skin; it becomes skin, flesh; it could be another body, perhaps this body attacking, manipulating, sniffing. Bodies talking about their limits, playing with the abyss: How much pain can we endure? How much tension can we resist? Hold on!

Hold on? It could break at any time. A large latex wall that divides the interior of the exterior. Domination, submission, subjugation. From pleasure to pain and grief to aggression. The exhibition of fragility fighting to feel safe. A party with balloons: the celebration of order and disorder. The jump, the fall. Chaos, what a great chaos! It is freedom to submit!

Photo: Flavia Andolfi

Alexandre Duran Davins (1997, Catalonia), trained in circus at the Rogelio Rivel school in Barcelona, the Lyon Circus School and the ESAC (École Supérieure des Arts du Cirque), where he specializes in pole. It is also trained in theatre, with the Stanislavski method, in martial arts, in dance-theatre and Krump dance. He currently resides in Catalonia and is in the process of creating the piece ‘Insula’.

Insula

It’s a moment, like those moments in life, that are not understood but that appear and cross through us. Even though we are social beings, the reality is that the only thing that belongs to us is ourselves. By choosing solitude, I take control over the only thing I have control of—myself. But it’s not easy.

La 3 et demie is a company composed of five circus artists, specializing in acrobatic: Chiara, Hannah, Apolline, Baptist and Elie. Between 2019 and 2022 they trained at the International School of Circus and Theatre CAU, in Granada, where they met and created the company. Since October 2022, they continue their acrobatic training with the artist Amer Kabbani. In 2023 the company began its first creation with the show ‘Será peor después’.

‘Será peor después’

‘Será peor después’ is a show for all kinds of audiences that mixes circus, theatre and object manipulation. Hand to hand and acrobatics of all kinds are at the service of this company, crossing its emotions and its questions.

In an absurd and bewildered universe, five individuals walk paths from the possible and feasible to the limit of danger. Change of situation, false steps and body deformations. Movements contribute to imagination, rhythm is an inclusive language between artists and the public, in this exchange with the sound of asphalt.

Through tehir comprehensible, conflictive, foolish play, their choreography is a journey in motion. They go from solitude to being together, from absurdity to method, from floor to sky, from sweet to deafness.

Photo: Lisa Lambrech

Dora Komenda is an architect and self-taught circus artist from Split, Croatia. In 2015 she achieved a master’s degree of architecture and simultaneously discovered circus, developing in both disciplines ever since. Her portfolio of performances, shows and multimedia exhibitions is rich in collaborations with architects, musicians, visual artists and animators. Since 2018 she has worked as an artistic director in Cirkus Kolektiv, and in 2021 she founded the architectural office Kolektiv tri along with two partners.

Konstrukt

Konstrukt speaks about failure and dealing with wrong choices. Aerial equipment in the show is altered so it becomes fragile, unsafe and unsuitable for use. The characters are mad men, fools who keep trying to perform on it, and invest a lot of effort into a battle that is already lost. They ultimately face a question – how to deal with failure? Acceptance, giving up, stubbornly defying to the point of exhaustion, or a deus ex machina that rescues us all from this curse by a supernatural force, because no solution grounded in reality is possible.

Photo: Jakub Dusek