The 17th edition of EN RESiDÈNCiA kicks off with the participation of La Central del Circ and the artist Vivian Friedrich

This week marks the beginning of the 17th edition of the EN RESiDÈNCiA project, an initiative promoted by the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona (ICUB) and the Consorci d’Educació de Barcelona (CEB) that connects contemporary creation with public secondary schools in the city. The program invites artists from various disciplines to develop a shared creative process with students throughout the academic year.

In this new edition, La Central del Circ is taking part in collaboration with Vivian Friedrich, a creator, researcher, and author of performative circus. Friedrich will work with students from Institut Doctor Puigvert, in the Sant Andreu district, on a creative process centered on the themes of trust and fragility.

Vivian Friedrich

Trained in circus arts and movement languages in Tilburg, Hamburg, and Barcelona, Vivian Friedrich combines her artistic background with studies in Psychology and a Certificate in Circus Dramaturgy from CNAC (France) and ESAC (Belgium).
Specialized in U-Rope, the artist has developed her own vocabulary that merges techniques from slack rope, aerial rope, and trapeze. Her career includes participation in projects such as LaRed within the Fam collective, the creation I Love My Car, and the dramaturgical direction of Breach by the company Som Noise.

In 2022, she premiered Kristall Bohème [Excavation of a Memory] at the Mercat de les Flors, a piece inspired by her family’s tradition of glass craftsmanship. More recently, she presented Sklenka Melta, a quintet premiered at the Fira Trapezi de Reus and the Grec Festival of Barcelona.

Circus as a language of trust and risk

The project that Friedrich will develop with the student group begins with an essential question: What is trust, and where can it be found in a society that tries to control everything?

Through the language of circus, the artist proposes to explore the boundaries between control and letting go, working with materials such as glass, a metaphor for the fragile balance between what breaks and what endures.“Circus cannot exist without trust. Risk, intuition, and feeling are incompatible with constant control.”

The work process—open and evolving—invites students to experience circus as an art of the body and of inquiry, where objects become physical and emotional extensions of movement.

The key moments of the project can be followed through the EN RESiDÈNCiA blog, which will document the evolution of this shared creative process between artist, students, and teachers.