Trànsits

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

He has had circus, dance, currently two theatre companies; bands, orchestras, dúos and solos. He has been a musician since he has memory, accompanying the creation processes of Losin’Form’Alls, Circ Vermut, Alba Ramió and Ildor Llach, and a string of French companies such as INO Kollektiv. He has worked as a sound technician, light technician, distributed magazines and stacked powdered detergent packages on a pallet in a warehouse. He has also worked as a music teacher.

4A

Ideally it would be a lot of things, objects and techniques and records and shadows; but since it’s a simple inquiry now, I’ll stick to music and circus, mechanics and trajectory.

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

Cia. La Bel•Bel is formed by Marta Punsola, La Tona, (Cia Zero, Spazio Bizzarro, Cronopis Espai de Circ), and Jordi Puigoriol, el Putxi, (Cie Cirquons Flex, Cie Les Pieds Sur Terre, Cie XY). After their respective training and some professional experiences, in 2023 they exchange artistic ideas and embark together in the creation of a piece that is currently provisionally called ‘Guillem’.

‘Guillem’

Contemporary circus piece narrated in first person. It combines acrobatic balances, movement, text and audiovisuals.

All wounds leave a mark. Sometimes this mark is perceptible and trauma can be recognized as a scar. However, there are experiences that, despite not leaving a physical mark, are housed in the deepest of the soul, hidden in some corner.

The tingling, diplopia and loss of sensitivity corresponds to each of the phases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, which attacks the nervous system. This loss of sensitivity is reflected in parallel with the loss of social sensitivity in all areas.

Even so, light always sneaks through some crack, and therefore, awareness of the wound leads to acceptance and the will to rebuild.

Foto: Oriol Segon

TENSA company is formed by the circus artists Joan Sala and Anna Montaner. They are currently in the process of creating ‘Butza’.

‘Butza’

Inmunda

A wax heating machine, a swivel chair; a person waiting for herself. The intimacy of thought in front of the bathroom mirror. The dialogue that exists between what we expose about ourselves and the space where we allow ourselves to see, feel, hear.

D’Amore e di Peperoni

A journey into mind and memory, where lust and ecstasy surface, rotting in pain and anger. Through attraction-repulsion the criminality of romantic love becomes evident.

Cia. Bragacadavra is composed of Lola Carandell and Amalia Hidalgo. The two artists meet in 2020 while attending higher training at Escola de Circ Rogelio Rivel. After a few months of testing the waters, they realize they are part of a similar creative universe and so, they decide to start working together and stage the result. Thus, in January 2021, they set up their first act -on which they continue working- where they combine acrodance, the absurd and physical theater into a stage code.

Mid 2022 they decide to embark on a journey to create a 45 minutes performance, “Caída libre para personas con vertigo”.

‘Caída libre para personas con vértigo’

– I was leaving.
Each step I take is closer to the inevitable fall. Are you falling? I see you a bit unbalanced.

I fall, weight, I precipitate towards reaching an objective that keeps moving away with each step I take. Infinite precipitation.
But if I fall and you support me, I’m stable. I’m balanced. Paused fall, weight break. Shared weight helps stopping. Counterweight. The counterweight are two falls interrupting each other. Or an infinite fall.
How many ways to fall are there? How many ways to arrive are there? How many different roads can I walk to arrive at the same spot?
I put myself at the journey’s obstacles’ disposal. The beginning of the end.
With this process we analyze the subject of falling. Physically, as well as psychologically. Through a game of clown characters, we’re transiting different stages which, together with the main premise of falling, take us through daily and absurd conflicts. Conflicts where contradiction is the constant. We’re contradicting the body and the word. We play with extremes, opposites, repetitions, loops.
– I was leaving, right?

Of Chilean and Croatian nationality artist. Born in 1996 in Chile. Begins her professional training at the Circus of Arts circus and dance school, in Argentina. After, she trains at the FLIC Scuola di Circ circus school in Italy (2015-2017) and at the ACAPA, Academy of Circus and Performance Arts from Netherlands. Currently, she resides in Barcelona and attends the experimental theater training courses at the Laboratori Escola.

She works as a performer at the Theater Tol company’s Jardin de los ángeles show, at the Santiago a Mil Festival and at the Leyendas, a Circ Patagònia company’s show, in Chile. She also takes part as a performer at the Mirabilia and La isola che non che en un Festivals, a collective directed by Francesco Sgro in Italy.

Creator and performer of the Esvair act, at Nunart Guinardó, Amalgama Festival, Utopia Festival and Escena Circ Festival. She’s an aerial rope and fabric teacher at the Trackdance Dance School, Piccolo Circus, Casa Buf Cultural Center, La Figuera Cultural Center and Espai 7siete in Chile and Spain.

‘Flores a un pedazo roto’

‘Flores a pedazo roto’ is a solo act that involves circus, voice and body to talk to us about frailty and solitude. Everything takes place in a bedroom full of clothes and objects that take us to an infantile universe. Throughout the act, the room gradually deforms in order to make us feel places where the mind can take an intimate trip: memories, desires, nightmares.

It invites us to value and appease vulnerability, to embrace it, remembering childhood, defending that which is corny, frailty and sensitivity from a very feminine point of view.

“Quede tan sola, al fin, tan sola,
que pude llorar por toda la casa,
mi mundo era solo deshacerse,
deshacerme con suavidad,
como una caricia,
por fin me quede sola,
no tuve que explicarle a nadie.

La niña que sigue viva me toca la puerta,
no me molestes ahora que soy otra,
que tu ya te has ido.
hoy nadie me va preguntar,
hoy no voy a abrir la puerta,
quizás este día me siento menos sola que nunca.”

Alexandre Duran Davins (1997, Mataró). Trained in theater, physical theater, Stanislavski and dance theater. Trained at the Rogelio Rivel, Ecole du Cirque de Lyon and ESAC circus schools. And integral part of The Chosen Haram performance, winner of various awards at the FRINGE Festival in Edinburgh.

Pep Duran (1942, Agentona). Gestalt therapist, trained in psychomagic (Alejandro Jodorowsky). Specialized educator, member of amateur theater groups. Honorary member of AEDA (Association of Oral Narrative Professionals in Spain).

Professor at the Ateneu Barcelonès writing school. Honorary member of the Consell Català del llibre infantil i juvenil (CCLIJ).

Oral narrator since 1976. As a bookseller, he’s a member of the Chamber of Books, Booksellers’ Guild and CEGAL.
Part of TVE’s PLANETA IMAGINARI (1984-1988) children’s TV show.

‘Com matar el pare’

Two lives, two eras, two beings.

A son and a father, a circus artist and a storyteller, one young and one old.

They dive into stories with which they grew up, memories of what they lived, losses they’ve suffered.

Using the word and movement, father and son explore their relationship, their fears and illusions, life and death.
Killing the father is an expression from the Freudian field, which refers to, leaving aside the sexual allusions, the need felt by sons to assert themselves in their convictions. They’re aiming at an autonomous life, faced with the unavoidable fact that an important part of their life will unfold without the protection and guidance once given by the fatherly figure.

Stemming from this human necessity, we’re exploring the individual’s dependency and independency, empathy and rejection.

The shadow of senile dementia and death are present in this creation as a piercing and inevitable reality.

Kolektivo Konika was born out of the necessity to gather into a community to create, evolve as artists and examine the discipline of acrobatic balance between women. Its members are Candela, Elisa, Greta, Hannah, Michela and Shakti. In March 2021 they premiered the La punta del meu nas performance. While touring with this performance, they realize they have so many ideas that only one production doesn’t suffice and the only thing left is to dive head-first into a new creation. That’s when they think about collaborating with Ino Kollectiv.

Ino Kollektiv
A collective created by Alba, Chloe, Eva Luna, Lav, Noémie, Raphaëlle and Rebecca, six nationalities, five different languages and each of the members with a personal universe boasting a strong identity. All this diversity presents to them a world of beautiful complexity, which makes them want to share. In 2021 the collective opens up to new collabs, like a collective creation about improv and circus, together with Kolectivo Konika.

IMPROPORTES

There will be circus and improv, sixteen women on stage in a mix of hand to hand, music and song, in a Varieté Cabaret setting.

Everything is created on the spot: each performance is unique, different and magic. A show which the audience can repeat without repeating.
We feel for playing. A meeting point will be the hand to hand, a discipline that compels us to gather and secretly recreate ourselves into a pattern that, in each interaction, singularizes our particularities into a fleeting encounter, again.

Thirteen artists, one presenter and two musicians. A unique and unrepeatable circus experience: nothing can go wrong because it never happened.

Picture: Clara Pedrol

liturgia atómica

‘liturgia atómica’ is a stage play that inquires into and brings together various personal and global concerns through circus, dance and physical theater. Focusing on Butoh and Trapeze techniques, it plays with fragmented memories of a traumatic past and their manifestations in the body.

Through a soundscape that combines whispers, music and whale sounds, the show recreates a kind of ritual from all that is hidden, and opens the door to the possibility of diverse encounters with faith and enlightenment – this in the face of the existential void that is presented by multiple contemporary crises: climate change, violence, the pandemic, etc…

Crèdit: Katarina Rothfjell

‘Mariage’

Based on the idea that all stage scripts include people, objects, and actions, Collettivo Collettivom creates a code called a “POA system”. This path of conceptual and scenic exploration leads them to a series of reflections: on the behavior of a group in relation to elected rules; on the process of appropriating a rule; on interactions between different communities that do not have the same rules; and on the search for the moment that leads us out of pre-established agreements.

The aim of the research is to observe all the reactions of adaptation, resistance and personal interpretation that occur in this process of translating theory into reality; in this context, it focuses on everything that cannot be controlled or predicted. Despite the codes and formulas: the human variable.

‘Apus’

The Apus apus (black falcon) is a bird that has adapted extremely well to a life lived completely in the air and can spend nine to ten months flying non-stop. That’s why this bird eats, copulates and even sleeps while flying, and only lands to nest.

Through movement, the techniques of hand to hand and handstand, Guillermo and Enrico investigate how they can stay airborne as long as possible without touching the ground. What relationship does the role of the top mounter have with the air? What about his base? How long can the base carry his colleague without him touching the ground? With these premises, the two artists aim to generate a language of the body between them that extends from but is more than mere technique, and to carry to the end the resistance of their two bodies.

‘La punta del meu nas’

This collective was born from the need to come together as a community to create, develop as artists and be able to investigate the discipline of hand-to-hand. With this new work, they return to their origins to reconstruct a common memory.

Six bodies in play, six worlds. Drifting towards a joint and shared reality. We take care of each other, we behave, we slip, we push each other. Hand-to-hand and singing as an opportunity to change everything and invite you to discover our peculiarities at close quarters.

Picture: Clara Pedrol