MAGIE NOUVELLE - Circostrada Network

stradd a 

Dossier excerpt 

from Stradda no. 16 

April 2010 

le magazine de la création hors les murs 

MAGIE 

NOUVELLE 

NEW MAGIC, 

A CONTEMPORARY ART 

Circostrada Network 

dossier from stradda #16 / page 1

dossier 

NEW MAGIC 

THE EMERGENCE 

OF A CONTEMPORARY ART 

Over the past eight years, the field of magic has had 

enough of rabbits and virtuosic sleight-of-hand 

tricks. It has been affirming itself as an independent 

artistic movement aiming to get back in touch 

with the feeling of magic. 

While we often may remember magic as mere entertainment, 

the discipline also contains several 

other elements. It is often used in ritual, traditional, 

religious and medical domains and it deals with the 

great human fantasies (flying, resurrections, mindreading, 

etc.). It is essential to reinvest this creative 

potential with issues that, although they are contemporary, 

have been neglected for many years. 

Determining the grammatical structure of this language, 

studying the real in all of its forms in order 

to take hold of it, making use of old techniques 

along with new technologies: the idea is to always 

be giving new life to the creative act, using magic as 

means of endlessly transforming the world. Balls 

flying over the heads of the audience, shadows that 

take on a life of their own, a floating cloud beneath 

a glass bell... 

Through its ability to divert the real within the real 

– by making the imaginary tangible, by giving life to 

the invisible, by playing with our perception – the 

language of magic is as diverse as the artists who 

put it to use. 

Just as the initiators of this movement are compiling 

the “For a new magic” manifesto, Stradda is 

transmitting the tools necessary to appreciate this 

artistic movement, which allows for all new fields 

of possibilities. 

★ DOSSIER COORDINATED BY JULIE BORDENAVE. 

contents 

Five thousand years of enchantment p. 2 

“An ability to infinitely transform the world” p. 5 

Training. The transmission of a language p. 6 

“All of our research can be helpful to art” p. 7 

The heralds of the magic revival p. 10 

Thierry Collet. The primitive concern p. 11 

Kurt Demey. The mentalist city p. 11 

Cie 14:20. The spectacular 

at the service ofsensations p. 13 

Olivier Poujol. Answering history with magic p. 13 

The great illusion p. 14 

An active principle p. 15 

Distribution. From Rouen to Rome, 

enthusiasm is on the rise p. 16 

Who’s who in new magic p. 17 

New magic videos can be found 

on the website www.stradda.fr 

Five thousand 

A few historical landmarks to understand the 

★ The term magic is the result of an initial 

ambiguity: for your average person the word has 

a symbolic connotation to charms, spells and 

the sublime. The term magic appeared in 1535, 

formed out of the Greek mageia, the Latin magia 

and implicitly related to magi, a caste of Persian 

priests who were worshipers of Zoroaster. A cluster 

of magical practices then became generally 

noticeable. The Inquisition would associate magic 

with witchcraft, closing it up within a defamatory 

model that would remain until the disappearance 

of religious tribunals in sixteenth century France, 

and in 1831 in Spain. The terms of conjuring 

and illusionism appeared conjointly at the end 


years of enchantment 

© CLÉMENT DEBAILLEUL 

context that has led up to new magic. 

of the Inquisition and formed the vocabulary of 

modern magic. During the same period we find 

the appearance of the terms medium, shaman, 

spirit: these words allowed for the separation of 

fake and “true” magic. 

★ The first traces of magic, 3000 years 

BCE, accentuate the close relations between illusion 

and survival. The practices of mimicry that 

allowed archaic societies of hunters and gatherers 

to incite the gods to provide them with game (trapping 

techniques, covered traps, leaves, caves with 

trap doors...) were all precursors of a necessary form 

of magic. By mimicking nature and exploiting the 

limits of common perception, humans forged a 

creative magic subject to the view of the other. 

★ We find uses of magic as entertainment 

in pharaonic Egypt. The Westcar 

papyrus tells of the exploits of the magician Dedi, 

who was at the service of the pharaoh Cheops, 

who reigns at around 2550 BCE, suggesting the 

rulers’ interest at the time in the development of 

the magic arts. A juggler sculpted on a bas-relief 

on the tomb of Beni-Hassan (around 2500 BCE) 

suggests a link with subterfuge and manipulation, 

important elements in the portrayal of the themes 

of magic. 

➜ 

The danser 

Fatou Traoré, in 

“Vibrations”, 

by Cie 14:20. 


NEW MAGIC 

THE EMERGENCE 


The magic 

rope, which Ibn 

Battuta spoke 

of as early as 

1355. 

➜ 

dossier from stradda #16 / page 4 

★Performance magic 

first appears in ancient 

Greece. The theatre of the 

day would develop a repertory 

where trapdoors and 

secret passageways used as 

special effects would become 

central to plot developments. 

In the sixth century BCE we 

find examples of flight. A 

certain effect allowed actors 

playing gods to take to the 

sky within the theatre and to 

move about through the air, 

as if by magic. The function 

of the Master of secrets of 

medieval mysteries originated 

from the same source. 

The idea was to transpose 

and transform the real upon 

vast plateaux, where angels 

and devils require a different 

kind of attention but incite 

the same fascination. 

★ The Inquisition, 

which was implemented 

in France in 1234 by Pope 

Gregory IX, would stop the 

development of magical 

practices for nearly six centuries. 

The condemnation of 

heresy would spread to all 

phenomena considered to be 

paranormal or supernatural, 

causing a scarcity of magicians 

throughout the West. 

★ In the rest of the world, however, 

other practices of traditional magic were available 

to curious travellers. In 1535, the tireless pilgrim 

geographer Ibn Battuta observed and related in 

his “Road Journal” the spell of the “magic rope”, 

a future object of fascination for a generation of 

magicians. 

★ In Europe, modern magic emerged 

in the nineteenth century as a skill of illusion: 

a term that goes back to the period of modern 

arts, indicating a discipline that uses technical 

progress as much as it uses the interest in physical 

sciences at the time. In 1845, the Frenchman 

Robert-Houdin, an ingenious watchmaker and 

scientist, opened his Théâtre des Soirées Fantastiques. 

Dressed in traditional eveningwear, he 

prefigures a new relationship with magic, which 

was theatrical and elegant, but above all which 

© FRAMEDARTPICTURESCOM 

denoted a space where the 

magic arts would soon be able 

to thrive. The opening of the 

Egyptian Hall in England in 

1873 at the behest of Jonh 

Nevil Maskelyne was also a 

part of this notion of holding 

gathering places for practitioners 

of a modern magic destined 

to become increasingly 

spectacular. 

★ A repertory of gestures, 

codes and conventions governs 

modern magic. The close up, 

which favours the manipulation 

of cards, coins or cigarettes, 

is intended for a very 

small audience. Salon magic is 

practiced for about a hundred 

or so spectators. The magician 

then uses ropes, scarves, doves 

and playing cards... The great 

illusionist work performed 

on stage in the large theatres 

develops a repertory based on 

the use of boxes and spectacular 

theatrical techniques. The 

woman cut in two, the zigzag 

woman, the magic trunk and 

the many transformations 

that reveal wild animals and 

elephants appearing on stage, 

all allowed some magicians to 

become true stars: Siegfried 

& Roy, David Copperfield or 

Criss Angel amaze and fascinate 

millions of spectators from the four corners 

of the globe. 

★ Seven main categories of effects can 

found in the realm of human fantasy: levitation, 

appearance, disappearance, transformation, teleportation, 

invulnerability and mentalism. From 

these main ideas magicians are endlessly inventing 

new tricks or new ways to perform them. 

★ New magic came to life in 2002, 

wanting to free the discipline from its familiar and 

formal limits. Echoing the definition of modern 

magic proposed by Robert-Houdin – “the magician 

is an actor who plays the role of a magician”, 

new magic evokes “an art whose language is the 

diversion of the real within the real”, called to make 

use of the different functions taken on by magic 

throughout history, to become its own artistic 

form. ★ PASCAL JACOB

“An ability to infinitely transform 

the world” 

New magic offers a way to get back in touch with the feeling of magic. Its creative principle 

appears independently, but also within dance, the circus, theatre... Raphaël Navarro 

and Clément Debailleul, both initiators of this movement, talk to us about the foundations. 

Stradda: What is new magic 

Raphaël Navarro: It’s an art whose language is the 

diversion of the real within the real. Magic is a 

way to situate oneself in relationship with the real 

– space, time, objects... – in a specific kind of way. 

Movies and painting divert the real in the physical 

space of the image. Theatre and literature suggest 

it within a metaphorical space. New magic plays 

with the real within the real: that is to say, within 

the same space-time offered by perception. Images 

no longer correspond with an illusionist act. They 

make up a proper order to reality. 

Clément Debailleul: Magic has always existed and 

conceals many realities other than the form of 

the modern performance, which was born in the 

nineteenth century, when it was limited to a repertory 

of objects, effects and attitudes. New magic 

asks questions and opens up pathways: stepping 

out of the limits of the performing arts, imagining 

effects without a magician, going beyond the visual 

domain to address the other senses – smell, hearing, 

touch, taste... ; asking questions about the dizziness 

of the perception of space and time... a square rainbow, 

a meat-flavoured strawberry, an object that 

falls in silence... are all new images offered up to the 

imagination of artists and capable of taking on new 

life and meaning. We suggest getting back in touch 

with the feeling of magic. Being in the country of 

the new wave, new cuisine and the new novel, and 

coming from the new circus ourselves, it seemed 

logical to us to call this movement new magic. 

What do you thing the feeling off magic recovers and 

what place might it have in our time 

R.N. : It’s an ancestral and healthy emotion! Since 

magic is a threshold to the invisible, its goal is to 

bring into existence what does not exist. As an 

artistic form, it represents an ability to infinitely 

transform the world. 

C.D. : If one defines contemporary art as an appropriation 

of a vision of the world by the outlook 

of the artist, magic is an eminently contemporary 

form. It suggests another approach to reality. And 

as a first form of human creation, it is also intrinsically 

popular. 

R.N. : The idea of this movement is to develop and to 

showcase magic, to reveal its different approaches, to 

support artists looking for innovative practices and 

to grow together. We also want to offer support 

and tools for a demanding kind of composition and 

efficient means of distribution for new and current 

creators as well as for those to come, who are speakers 

in their own right. New magic also offers a different 

approach to modern magic, complementary and 

precise, so as to make the magic arts a specific and 

independent form of language. 

“If painting diverts the real 

in the space of the image, 

new magic diverts the real 

within the real.” Raphaël Navarro 

“To represent the 

impossible, new magic 

uses existing techniques 

or creates new ones.” 

Clément Debailleul 

What are the specificities of this language How do 

they influence the creative process 

R.N. : A language defines a way to express the world. 

There are certain things that one cannot translate 

into another language, because each one carries 

within it, in its vocabulary, its grammar, its dialectics 

or its history, a way of situating itself in relation 

to the world. This is also the case in the language 

of magic. It is governed by technical constraints, 

grammatical rules and a certain number of psychological, 

mechanical, material, bodily or scenographic 

principals that influence the way in which a 

show is written. A magic effect never works ➜ 

Raphaël Navarro is 

a scenographer, 

juggler, magician 

and theorist. 

Clément Debailleul 

is a scenographer, 

juggler, magician 

and multimedia 

artist. In 2000 they 

created Cie 14:20, 

now associated 

with the 

Hippodrome in 

Douai, and began 

working for the 

emergence of an 

original artistic 

form: new magic. 

In 2005 they 

opened the first 

training 

programme in the 

magic arts, 

recognised and 

supported by the 

Ministry of Culture 

through the Cnac. 

The “For a new 

magic” manifesto, 

drafted by Clément 

Debailleul, 

Valentine Losseau 

and Raphaël 

Navarro is due to 

be released in 

2010. 

http://cie1420. 

free.fr/www.cnac. 

fr 


“Les Impromptus 

2009”, by Cie 

14:20, at the 

Académie 

Fratellini. 

“Solo S”, by Cie 

14:20. 

➜ on its own. It must be coupled with processes 

that play with the attention or respiration of the 

audience. These processes must have an influence 

on the pace, the creation of movement. They can 

inflect the entire scenography. But beyond its 

specific written form, the language of magic is the 

vehicle of issues that are all its own. 

C.D. : In this language, the technical gesture takes 

on new meaning. The imbalance of the real is envisioned 

as an artistic question. In order to represent 

the impossible, new magic uses existing techniques 

or creates new ones, but it does not lock itself up in 

a repertory of effects, a single message or aesthetic, 

nor does it reduce itself to one single form of artistic 

expression. Clouded perception is a creative 

principle that can reach other fields. This is why 

we think of new magic as an artistic movement and 

not as a form of internal, aesthetic revolution. 

© CHRISTOPHE RAYNAUD DE LAGE 

How does that translate concretely 

C.D. : For example, cubism corresponds to an aesthetic 

revolution within painting. Its principles are not 

transferable to other forms of expression. Inversely, 

a movement like surrealism of course involved literature 

during its time, but it also involved painting, 

sculpture, photography, film and theatre... 

Likewise, new magic – as a language based on the 

diversion of the real within the real – can be a valid 

creative principle within many domains: theatre, 

circus and puppetry, as well as painting, cuisine, 

haute couture, land art and architecture. That is 

the kind of artistic movement that it is. 

R.N. : Magic can influence and inspire a number 

of creations, for it allows one to make the invisible 

visible, to animate the inanimate, to materialise or 

suggest the unreal, to create doubt, to work on our 

identity and our perception... It’s also one of the 

rare techniques that are not embodied from the 

start. It can take on any form, as long as it manages 

– within the real – to embody that which does not 

exist. Paintings remain pictures, choreography a 

body in movement... Magic recovers the field of all 

that is not real: its space is, by definition, broader 

than the real and has no predefined appearance. 

Its images cannot be contained within any list, as 

exhaustive as it may be. It gives birth to images, 

processes and emotions that are all its own. That 

is what makes it an art in its own right! 

★ TEXT COMPILED BY JULIE BORDENAVE 

© MANUEL COUETTE 

Training. The transmission of a language 

In a domain where the 

secret is king, a gesture 

of open transmission is 

already an indisputable sign 

of progress. Five years ago, 

Raphaël Navarro and Clément 

Debailleul put into place, at 

the Centre National des arts 

du cirque in Chalôns-en- 

Champagne, the first new 

magic training programme. 

This course can be followed 

as part of the general training 

programme, through writing 

and composition workshops, 

or as part of ongoing 

professional training (as a 


350 hour course). Classes 

discuss theory, practice and 

creation – from the history 

of magic to stage work, 

including technique and 

direction – allowing students 

to master this “language” and 

to enrich their compositions. 

This is accomplished with 

the help of instructors with 

backgrounds in performance 

and in theory – along with 

ten or so magicians. There 

are also anthropologists, 

historians and criminologists, 

as well as the choreographers 

Kitsou Dubois and Philippe 

Decouflé, the dancer and 

actor Pierrick Malbranche (the 

Philippe Genty company), the 

architect and scenographer 

Pascale Lecoq (daughter of 

Jacques), the actress and 

director Coline Serreau, one 

of the co-founders of the 

Cirque Plume, Jean-Marie 

Jacquet, the jugglers Etienne 

Saglio and François Chat... 

This instructional programme 

proves that magic can be 

more than a simple cabaret 

attraction. It can build 

bridges between the arts. In 

parallel, and as a sign of its 

commitment, the Cnac, is 

putting into place the largest 

European resource collection 

on magic. 

Elsewhere, and on a more 

theatrical note, Thierry Collet 

also intends to support the 

renewal of codes, aesthetics 

and dramaturgy. He trains 

professional artists, most 

notably at the Conservatoire 

national supérieur d’art 

dramatique, and also offers 

classes to amateur actors, 

teachers, prisoners and 

architects... 

★ ANNE QUENTIN

NEW MAGIC 

THE EMERGENCE 


“All of our research can be helpful to art” 

Let’s travel to India to find street magicians, collaborations with philosophers, ethnologists, searches through 

old archives, work on current technologies... new magic can lead to all different kinds of studies. 

Stradda: New magic is also 

interested in the humanities. 

Can you tell us about your 

areas of research 

Raphaël Navarro: A first 

section concerns research 

techniques, which include several 

components. The historical 

field – based on the means by 

which magic was conceived in 

relation to different time periods 

and geographic zones, notably 

in search of forgotten thought 

patterns – is coupled with an 

ethnological and anthropological 

aspect, in collaboration with 

Valentine Losseau, (doctoral 

student at the laboratory of 

social anthropology at the 

Collège de France), a scholar 

in constant contact with new 

magic. She carries out studies in 

the field with Lacandon Mayas 

in Mexico. The question of 

magic in different parts of the 

world – whether its function is 

religious, pre-scientific, esoteric 

or traditional – is for us a crucial 

element of understanding the 

role of perception of the real. 

Could you describe for us your 

fieldwork on traditional magic 

R.N.: Our movement also 

works to build bridges between 

modern Western magic and 

traditional forms of magic. For 

example, India is a case in point: 

traditional street magicians 

represent a separate caste. 

We conduct on-site research 

regarding lost or forgotten tricks, 

not only to give them back to 

the magic community, but also 

to understand the elements 

behind these tricks and what 

kind of symbols they put into 

use. Yearly trips are made to 

India, to which we invite modern 

French magicians in collaboration 

with the Fédération française 

des artistes prestidigitateurs. 

Conferences are also organised 

in France to encourage exchange 

between the network of 

subsidised performance spaces 

and artists from variety shows 

or traditional magic, who do not 

know each other. For example, 

in 2008, such a gathering was 

organized near Paris at the 

Chaufferie of the Compagnie DCA 

– Philippe Decouflé. 

Are these field activities 

accompanied by academic 

research 

R.N.: We do draw from the 

philosophy and history of 

religions through exchange with 

scholars like Xavier Papaïs, a 

lecturer at the École Normale 

Supérieure, or Jean-Pierre 

Warnier, co-founder of the group 

of researchers Matière à penser. 

The academic network is essential 

for us. The erudite points of 

view that develop there put forth 

aesthetic or social proposals that 

can nourish art. 

Is there another study section 

for different techniques... 

R.N.: We work on the history 

of techniques, both magic 

– by looking at old engravings, 

theatrical machinery or optical 

principles – and mechanical, 

in the nautical domain, for 

example. The resurgence of all 

of these forgotten procedures 

since the arrival of motors or 

of electricity add to the current 

experiments – on new material 

or new technologies – to perfect 

innovative magic techniques. 

We are thus in partnership with 

many state-of-the-art companies 

for the first aspects, and we are 

creating software for the second. 

Would you say that you are 

trying to outline the perception 

of the real by multiple entry 

points so as to better divert it 

R.N.: These various experiments 

are inspired, lastly, by research 

on the workings of perception 

of the real from a mental and 

physiological point of view: 

brain activity, memory, social 

psychology, psychoanalysis... We 

thus open pathways alongside 

ethology (the study of animal 

behaviour) to try to understand 

if magic is an innate principle 

of life – since animals use 

techniques of illusion and 

mimicry in both the hunt and 

seduction – or to know if 

animals might have some kind 

of perception of the surreal. All 

of this research can be helpful to 

art; these domains are still very 

airtight, but they have a lot to 

offer each other. 

How is the research formalised 

R.N.: The transmission takes 

place through training and public 

events: conferences, seminars, 

exhibits... 

We also carry out legal work 

with the jurist and magician 

Guilhem Julia, aiming to propose 

copyright laws for magic. In the 

end, we would like to create a 

research centre for new magic. 

Because aside from being a 

creative movement, it is truly an 

independent artistic principle: 

a motor that is becoming the 

vector of different expressions, 

aesthetics, or even techniques 

regarding the arts, carried out by 

many artists and companies. 

★ TEXT COMPILED BY J.B. 


A PHYSICAL 

JOURNEY IN 

SEARCH OF 

A PLACE 

TO CALL 

HOME 

( * ) 

6 - 8 AUGUST 2010 

EDINBURGH 

MELA 

11 - 22 AUGUST 2010 

EDINBURGH 

FESTIVAL FRINGE 

 

 

( * ) Un voyage physique à la recherche d’un chez-soi 

 

 

More info: 

www.iron-oxide.org 

www.edinburgh-mela.co.uk 

Supported through the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund 

CIRQUE JULES VERNE - AMIENS 

SOIRÉE MAGIQUE 

Mardi 11 mai à 20h30 

© Christophe Raynaud de Lage

publicité 

présente 

« Magiciens du XXI ème 

Siècle » 

ème Siècle » 

Coordination graphique : L. Athanase / E.V.A.C. 

www.spectacles-credo-music.com

NEW MAGIC 

THE EMERGENCE 


The heralds 

of the magic 

revival 

Whether it is part of a story or the 

centre of the creative act, magic is 

used today to represent the invisible, 

to perform the impossible, or to bring 

an imaginary world to life. Here is an 

encounter with a few artists among 

the thirty or so companies that 

practice a new approach to magic 

today in France. 

Going beyond the simple demonstration 

has already been an objective for 

years in the work of some magicians, 

including those from the traditional 

milieu. A king of card tricks, which 

he has been working at since the 80’s, Bebel, as 

early as 2000, was putting on “a simple mini-play” 

with the member of the Oulipi literary movement 

Jacques Jouet, putting the cards on stage as marionettes. 

Nostalgic for the magicians of yesteryear, 

who carried entire worlds in their carriages, Bebel 

is currently looking for an author to formalise 

the composition of his travelling project, “La Vie 

Secrètes des Cartes.” 

Writing tool 

Contextualising the effects of magic so as to make 

them part of a story is also the concept behind the 

work of Xavier Mortimer, who – since his first 

encounters with the world of modern magic in his 

adolescence – has worked to transform magic into 

an emotional force. “I look to develop a relationship 

with the object before doing the trick, to bring the 

spectator into a kind of surrealist poetry. My ambition 

is to tell a story, without having to prove anything.” 

His “Ombre orchestre”, which was created in 2003 

in the Latvian terrain K@2 and has already been 

performed over six hundred times, brings to life the 

fantasy of a solo musician who invents an orchestra 


© PETRI VIRTANEN / KKA 

“I look to develop a 

relationship with the object 

before doing the trick, to bring 

the spectator into a surrealist 

poetry. My ambition is to tell 

the story, without having to 

prove anything.” 

Xavier Mortimer 

through the sheer force of his imagination. On the 

screen, shadows give life to subtle and crazy images, 

in a poetically old-fashioned aesthetic that uses the 

classical repertory of modern magic in honour of 

its more traditional forms. 

The magic of the Compagnie Décalée is a collective 

practice on stage, and serves as a writing tool, 

just like juggling or music. The trio shares with 

Jani Nuutinen (Circeo Aereo) – who will offer an 

outside perspective on their first creation “Living” 

(2006) – the desire to “include magic in a natural 

way, without diverting objects from their main func- 

“Keskusteluja” 

by the WHS -Ville 

Walo & Kalle 

Hakkarainen 

company. 

“Partons pour 

Pluton”, by the 

Compagnie des 

Femmes à barbe.

tion: their presence is justified.” Here magic is a 

way of developing a situation within a codified or 

routine framework, such as that of hearing for “La 

Parade des hiboux” (2010). The musicians’ agony 

takes shape through a rebellious piano or a fabric 

that transforms into a ghost to haunt the thoughts 

of the pianist... 

Contemporary psyche 

Because of the fantasies that it taps into – reading 

minds, telekinesis... – mentalism is rooted in 

contemporary issues. In the vain of modern magicians 

demystifying fake spiritualists at the end of the 

nineteenth century, Gwen Aduh, from the Compagnie 

des Femmes à barbe, scoffs at “the paranormal 

and its impostures”, from the sale of fake miracle 

pills (“Les Gélules 4 couleurs de M et Mme Li”), to 

the telepathy of ufology (“Partons pour Pluton”), 

or the simulacra of shamanism (“Amanita Muscaria”). 

The artist uses techniques of magic – illusion, 

physical conditioning – in fully thought-out worlds 

“Influences”, by the company, Le Phalène - Thierry Collet. 

Thierry Collet The primitive concern 

should be a contemporary form, in touch with the 

political, social and religious questions of its time”; as early 

“Magic 

as his first encounter with magic – and his discovery of the 

visual theatre of Philippe Genty or Mummenschanz in the 70’s – Thierry 

Collet was driven by the desire to give meaning to a discipline that 

seem to sorely need it. After his training as an actor and four shows of 

narrative magic, his last two creations have centred around mentalism: 

“We manipulate thoughts, not objects. Something very profound about 

magic is expressed: the relationship to power. The frame of the show is, 

of course, harmless. But the idea is nonetheless to represent a mental 

authority that takes control over a group with its tacit permission.” 

The societal angle, which was outlined in “Même si c’est faux, c’est 

vrai” (2007) with the theme of the mindset of the consumer, continues 

with “Influences.” Playing the role of the expert, the professor and the 

sales representative, the artist offers a series of shared experiences, 

indicating the mechanisms at work in the manufacturing of consent. 

Beyond a denunciation of these methods, there is also a desire to 

question its roots. “I bring together the feeling of magic and a primitive 

concern. I am interested in looking for the need that sets off the desire 

for enchantment, utopia, the will to hand oneself over to a mental 

authority.” ★ J.B. 

www.thierrycollet.net 

© NATHANIEL BARUCH 

that always offer a double interpretation: “For me, 

magic is an extension of religion. In the end, I am 

always confused by human credulity, the enthusiasm 

for paranormal phenomena... which all help me to 

create my shows!” For Scorpène, mental magic is 

a way of playing with one’s points of reference to 

allow a different perception of reality. Sharpening 

an astute observation of the other acquired in a 

career as a chess player, then looking to destabilise 

the real by bringing the visible and the subliminal 

together in live video performances, the artist makes 

use of three major pillars – “alchemy, quantum ➜ 

© PATRICK BOSC 

© SATYA ROOSENS 

Kurt Demey The mentalist city 

the most fertile terrain for cultivating illusions.” That is how 

Kurt Demey, the Flemish multidisciplinary artist describes the 

“It is 

public space. After “L’Homme cornu” (2008), he is again using, 

in “La ville qui respire” (2010-2011 creation), mentalist techniques as 

artistic tools and thus makes magic a fundamental ingredient in his 

dramaturgical work. The spectator, taken in by five short sequences 

with a minimalist aesthetic, is plunged into “small urban rituals that 

destabilise their usual context of references”, provoking confusion and 

uncertainty. Such is the case in 

the enigmatic scene where a liquid 

contained in a glass jar turns out to 

be flammable... while a spectator has 

just taken a drink out of it as if it 

were water. For Kurt Demey, the city 

is full of tales and stories hidden in 

its recesses; invisible remains of past 

lives. Magic is an opening toward 

this invisible element, the fault line 

from which poetry springs out, when 

logical deductions fail. ★ A.G. 

www.rodeboom.be 

“L’Homme cornu”, 

by Kurt Demey / Rode Boom. 


NEW MAGIC 

THE EMERGENCE 


“Le Soir des 

monsters”, 

Compagnie 

Monstre(s) - 

Etienne Saglio 


➜ physics and ‘The Songs of Maldoror’” – for his 

new creation of mentalist magic, “Réalité non ordinaire”, 

in which word games of the language of 

birds and magic effects aim to plunge the spectator 

into a receptive state, making room for intuition 

and improvisation: “Mentalist magic mixes performance 

and mystery: the strange, the being-out-there, 

this thing that reaches us all.” 

Parallel realities 

Through the specificities of its composition, put 

into emphasis in new magic, the language of magic 

guides the creations of certain artists to make them 

“authors of magic.” By stepping onto the road 

of new magic at the Cnac in 2005, the juggler 

Etienne Saglio discovered a way to formalise the 

artistic intentions of his first creation, “Le Soir des 

monstres.” A character surrounded by cumbersome 

objects – monsters – compensates for his loneliness 

by bringing them to life. His mental switch-over 

is made concrete for the audience: “Magic allows 

me to perform, within the real, this mise en abyme in 

relation to the creative act of the artist: moments of 

illumination and moments of total solitude where the 

mind can wander.” 

Presiding over the writing of the show, the 

language of magic imposes three dramaturgical 

different realities: normal reality, wherein the 

character is developed; magical reality, expressing 

in a tangible way the distorted activity of the mind, 

with, for example, a pipe that transforms into a 

snake; and emotional reality, creating timeless 

bubbles with suspended sketches, like a juggling 

sequence with a plate of polystyrene. Instilling itself 

even in the reality of the spectator (the house, the 

wings of the theatre), magic guides the scenographic 

choices: “From creating movement, to the choice 

of lighting, the whole thing is set against the idea of 

navigating between different strata of reality, which 

is the very heart of the message.” Etienne Saglio has 

continued his technical research in the performing 

arts (slow-motion diabolo with Antoine Perrieux) 

and the visual arts. He thus created two installations, 

a mini-couple of paper dancers, spiraling 

into a furious tango on an old wooden table, and 

levitating clouds under bells made of glass. “From 

this apparatus there is a relationship with frozen time, 

we work to create movement, like by making the cloud 

rain...” 

An encounter with new magic also allowed the 

director Olivier Porcu (compagnie Pentimento) to 

bring to life ideas that had for a long time been 

dormant within him, “about the small death, 

about absence.” Located in the future, the world 

of “Manipulation(s)” – uchronia in the vain of 

Orwell, Kafka and Calvino – depicts a totalitarian 

universe. Transformed into a digital population, 

© CHRISTOPHE RAYNAUD DE LAGE 

“Movement, choice 

of lighting, the whole 

[scenography] is set 

against this navigation 

between different strata 

of reality” Etienne Saglio 

the audience has its papers examined by the actor 

playing a public servant of the future. Magic, 

through the manipulation of objects and predictions, 

puts into place this omnipotent and omniscient 

matrix, where the actor and the spectator are 

placed within the same momentum. The author 

is currently working on an adaptation of “Dans 

la solitude des champs de coton” by Bernard-Marie 

Koltès, revisiting the famous dialogue between the 

dealer and the customer through the hologram: 

“The direction of an actor simultaneously portraying 

two characters on stage allows one to look for more 

intimate elements.” 

The impossible instant 

Magic can also be extracted from a story to seize 

on an impossible instant. Romain Lalire plants 

his “Instants magiques” within the city, like in 

situ mini-performances, which also work on the

Cie 14 : 20 The spectacular at the service of sensations 

Created in 2000 by Raphaël Navarro and Clément Debailleul, Cie 

14:20 explores new magic. As early as 2004, “Solo S” placed 

magic in resonance with poetry and painting, juxtaposing 

the presence of two jugglers to put into play the randomness of 

the echoing collapse of the words of Michel Butor, the ephemeral 

of suspension as seen by the durability of the line set on a canvas. 

The 2009 creation “Vibrations” centres around four solos, creating 

spectacular images to bring into play the movements and the states 

of the body: free from gravity, the dancer Fatou Traoré explores a new, 

gestural language, levitating two metres above the ground, before 

encountering her holograms, immanent alter egos revealed by fixating 

a movement in space, like fragments of residual memories finding 

independence so as to become partners in their own right; the juggler 

François Chat starts up a sensual double act with his shadow, which 

eventually will literally absorb him; the juggling of Etienne Saglio 

follows the movement of the stars, inciting a spiral of twenty-five 

phosphorescent balls in exponential rotation above the audience; the 

movement is instilled in a visual work, through a picture with shifting 

visual content. Magic techniques and digital arts are put into use to 

create states of global immersion, nestling in the spectator’s sensations 

so as to generate memory. The nomadic structure inaugurated for 

“Vibrations” is the company’s Monolith (a black cube, 8m x 12m x 

8m), which is presented as an itinerant laboratory on new magic, 

placing itself within the public space so as to host distribution events, 

residencies, or gatherings.★ J.B. 

cie1420.free.fr 

magical gesture of sign language with the deaf 

actor-magician Bastien Authier. An enthusiast 

of visual theatre, the Finnish Kalle Hakkarainen 

offers, as a duet with the juggler Ville Wallo, and 

with the WHS company, performances with a refined 

aesthetic, alternating between incongruous or 

anxiety-ridden instants; interaction with the actress 

of an old Russian propaganda film transformed as 

a romance; bullfight with the images of a bus on 

the run... The important thing is the impact of the 

created image: a confusion of the senses resulting 

from the association of incongruous images, like 

oxy-morons of the senses, such as “the delicacy of 

a nearly imperceptible movement – a piece of paper 

that crumbles up right away like magic, for eight 

minutes – accompanied by an incredible sound, that 

is heavy on the bass.” For his next solo performance 

(“Nopeussokeus”, 2010), Kalle will try out magical 

effects that play with the perception of speed. 

Confusion of sound 

Confusion can also be expressed through the 

domain of sound. With the duet Kristoff K. Roll, 

the musician Jean-Christophe Camps has, since 

1990, been carrying out research on the natural 

theatricality of sounds: “Making the object produce 

a sound is already to give it another meaning. Magic 

also allows one to play with the potential of set sound: 

substitution, de-synchronism...” Demonstrations 

with listening stations and the creation of 

➜ 

Olivier Poujol Answering history with magic 

Olivier Poujol has been at the head of the Élan Bleu company 

since 1995. This enthusiast of classical authors like Shakespeare 

and Flaubert paradoxically does his best to get away from 

the text: dance, circus, new technologies... all ways of expressing 

emotion while stepping away from the word alone. He is versed in 

the exploration of identity and its metamorphoses and his work on 

the heteronyms of Fernanado Pessoa as early as 2007 called for an 

apparatus of optical magic so as to render the interior world of the 

writer in its many incarnations. New magic is at the source of his latest 

creation, a “Faust” transformed for the age of the Internet. “I decided 

to rewrite the play and to start with the possibility of magical effects 

that inflect its constructions. My focus was to respond to history 

with magic effects.” A way of recognizing the calibre of Mephisto: “I 

wanted this character to surprise us constantly, without making him a 

magician doing tricks. I wanted the audience to see him in one place 

and all of a sudden he pops up elsewhere, even in the house with the 

spectators. Creating tricky moments without really identifying them, 

switching over to a somewhat frightening malaise.” Magic is also a 

way of bringing out 

what can’t be said: 

“Materialising images 

from our unconscious, 

from our fantasies that 

we often hide. Seeing 

them appear before 

our eyes creates very 

strong emotions.” ★ J.B. 

Compagnie l’Elan bleu 

“Faust”, Compagnie L’Elan Bleu. 

www.clebarts.com 

© EMMANUELLE DE MAISTRE 


NEW MAGIC 

THE EMERGENCE 


“It is the modification of 

the real in the time of 

the encounter with the 

audience that interests me, 

not the illusion in terms 

of effects.” Marco Bataille-Testu 

➜ tandems all offer alternatives to the traditional 

codes of the concert: music with no musician 

– an echo of magic without a magician, one of the 

themes proposed by new magic, which plays a role 

in the research carried out for the Kristoff K. Roll’s 

next creation, “L’Egaré.” “The idea will be to plunge 

the magic of the phenomenon of sound into the world 

of visual magic, where the objects can have their own 

autonomy of movement and the thoughts of a visual 

materialisation.” 

Modified spaces 

New magic allows the Théâtre du Signe to pursue, 

in an original way, its questioning about the representation 

of the real in theatre. 

Since 1992, the company has used new technologies 

to address societal or philosophical questions 

meant for a young audience (absence, borders, the 

origin of the world...): “Through the research taken on 

by Alain Bonardi, composer and researcher at Ircam, 

we have explored, for “Les petites absences” (2009), 

the tension and the impact of the emotional state of the 

actor-performer on the elements of the performance in 

real time”, explains Marco Bataille-Testu, co-director 

of the company with Sylvie Robe. “We envision 

magic as a sum of tools and processes aiming to open 

our perception of the real. It is the modification of the 

real in the time of the encounter with the audience 

that interests me, not the illusion in terms of effects. 

Our goal is the resonance of crossed compositions, 

which allows the spectator to reconstruct the space. 

The intrinsic strength of the magic tool also allows one 

to go further in the performance of modified spaces.” 

As part of its next creation (“J’ai brûlé mon nom 

d’enfance et je suis parti”, 2011), the company will 

begin research sessions on the fields opened up by 

new magic. Eventually, professional gatherings in 

Caen will provide the opportunity to invite artists, 

theorists and technicians to discuss the theme of 

the representation of the real. ★ J.B. 

magicbebel.jimdo.com; xaviermortimer.com 

www.compagniedecalee.fr; www.femmesabarbe.com 

www.scorpenehorrible.com; pentimento.free.fr 

www.lalire.com; www.taikuri.org 

kristoffk.roll.free.fr; www.theatre-du-signe.org 


© LAURENT PHILIPPE 

The great illusion 

From the Théâtre de Chaillot, to the Théâtre de 

la Bastille, magic has been infiltrating, invisible 

but powerful, into the diverse forms of the 

performing arts. 

“Sombrero”, by 

the compagnie 

DCA, Philippe 

Decouflé. 

Each beginning of a movement can be observed 

through the growing interest that other 

artists may have for its techniques. Just as one 

sees more and more circus artists in theatre performances 

or choreographers in the public space, 

today magic can be found in a growing number of 

productions. Certain creators are interested in this 

new tool, in this language, and integrate them into 

their creative world. 

Fantastic images 

The result is images that cannot be forgotten... the 

body of a dancer that struggles between the giant 

shadow of nimble fingers (“Sombrero”, Philippe 

Découflé, 2007); an actor in a raincoat and a hat 

that flies away on large paper planets (“Boliloc”, 

Philippe Genty, 2008), the bust of a woman who

lifts up into the air, leaving her legs on stage (“Sur le 

fil de minuit”, Luc Petton, 2002). When one speaks 

figuratively of the “magic” of these shows, one 

could not put it any better. There most certainly is 

something magical about them. 

Opening the doors 

At the service of these illusions, a handful of shadow 

artists are contributing to the larger presence of 

magic within the cultural space. Philippe Beau 

is one of them, as are Abdul Alafrez and Thierry 

Collet. While they develop very different artistic 

worlds, they share a similar approach to magic. 

Their magic blossoms when in contact with other 

arts. Abdul Alafrez is a Beaux-Arts graduate and, 

early on, became very interested in music and art 

in its most contemporary forms. He “quickly pulled 

away from a rather dusty old way of doing magic”, 

so as to explore other possibilities. The list of his 

collaborations attest to his open-mindedness: from 

the jazz collective ARF (Association à la recherché 

d’un folklore imiaginaire) to the stage director Dan 

Jemmett (for “La Grande Magie” by Edouardo De 

Filippo at the Comédie Française), not to mention 

his current work with Julie Brochen on Chekov’s 

“The Cherry Orchard” (at the Théâtre National de 

Strabourg). 

We find the same atypical profile with Philippe 

Beau, who has made shadow work (magic work 

with shadows and hands) his specialty. After a few 

fateful meetings (with, among others, Philippe 

Découflé and Robert Lepage), he now focuses on 

collaborations, and is driven by a desire to “bring 

magic and shadow work to arts that would not have 

thought to use them.” In magic, “everything is possible. 

To say that to stage directors or choreographers, it 

opens up doors for them.... 

Exchange of good practice 

The key to collaboration is in exchange. The magician 

puts his skills and technique at the service 

of the project. In return, he finds new means of 

exploration. “I work in close detail with my hands”, 

Philippe Beau tells us, “Collaborating with dancers, 

I can explore ideas that their bodies make possible. 

They become shadow performers.” 

According to whether he is present on stage or 

not, the demand and the time available, Abdul 

Alafrez intends to “permanently reinvent the trade. 

When I arrive at a theatre, everyone has his place. 

I don’t, I have to find it, create it. It’s a fulfilling 

experience every time.” Each show is a chance to 

invent or to test new effects, but also to advance 

the art of magic itself by putting it in contact with 

other artistic disciplines. These magic effects must 

transcend their technical side to insert themselves 

as well as they can into the dramaturgy, the ➜ 

© CATHERINE-ALICE PALAGRET 

“39GeorgeV”, a giant 

trompe-l’œil by Pierre 

Delavie and Frédéric 

Beaudoin, 2007. 

“Le Défilé”, an exhibit by 

Jean Paul Gaultier and 

Régine Chopinot at the 

Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 

in Paris. 

An active principle 

New magic wants to build bridges between artistic disciplines. Outside 

of the borders of the performing arts, it is already taking its place as the 

active principle of ritualised moments like the haute couture fashion 

shows: weightless collections, metamorphoses of models in plain view 

imagined by Cie 14:20 for the exhibit “Le Défilé”, by Jean Paul Gaultier 

and Régine Chopinot at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 2007. It is 

also present in the transformable clothing of the designer Hussein 

Chalayan. Another ritual moment to approach is the meal, as much for 

its proceedings as for its performance of textures and flavours. Ferran 

Adrià, chef at the restaurant El Bulli, in Catalonia, speaks of magic as 

one of the emotions promoted by his culinary language. His work gives 

birth to flavours of carrot or electric cakes... At the crossroads of disciplines, 

the chemist and visual artist Laurent Duthion offers molecular 

music, sub-aquatic tastings in an aquarium and other bubbles filled 

with Antarctic odours of flowers. 

But the fields of application for magic are infinite. Its processes are 

found within several artistic approaches. They can also be found in the 

work of video artists (the optical theatre of Pierrick Sorin, slow-motion 

performances by Julien Maire), painters (anamorphose on sidewalks by 

Julian Beever), photographers (floating images on abandoned buildings, 

by Georges Rousse), or sculptors (impossible, three-dimensional figures 

by Francis Tabary)... Fleeting architecture plays with illusions, such as 

giant optical illusions to create a soft apartment building in the middle 

of Paris (39GeorgeV, 2007), an “act of urban surrealism”, according to 

its creators Pierre Delavie and Frédéric Beaudoin. At the crossroads of 

automation and design, the work in progress is already turning heads; 

interactive installations (research on the musical gesture by Blue Yeti; 

installations for museums or hospitals by Mine Control...), enchanted 

lights by Ingo Maurer, modular furniture by Kerdema Design, and the 

jacket of invisibility by Professor Susumu Tachi, promising the eventual 

creation of transparent walls or virtual windows... ★ J.B. 

© LUC BOEGLY 


NEW MAGIC 

THE EMERGENCE 


➜ story, the narration. “I never bring a purely technical 

performance”, Thierry Collet explains, “it’s also 

a matter of participating in the meaning, of offering a 

stylistic or thematic interpretation.” 

At the Opera 

The key word of this incursion of magic into the 

performing arts is illusion; an important theme in 

the stage arts. After having solicited Philippe Beau 

for “Kà”, a creation of the Cirque du Soleil, Robert 

Lepage called on him for a sequence of shadows in 

the opera “The Nightingale and Other Short Fables”, 

by Stravinsky. As for Thierry Collet, he recently 

explored the links between magic and film in a 

“Cinderella” by Massenet in the Opéra Comique. 

He is also at the side of Jean Lambert-Wild for a 

hybrid creation mixing together texts, images and 

objects, presented this summer in Avignon. 

These are all creations where magic inserts itself 

into a multi-facetted context that fascinates the 

spectator. “When events take place as if by magic”, 

writes Philippe Genty, “the spectator is propelled into 

a world where not everything is logical. A small door 

opens up. Surely, some will refuse to get involved. But 

most will tell us ‘We don’t need any explanations... We 

entered into the images as if in a dream!’ The idea is 

not to use magic for the sake of magic, but to reinforce 

what’s happening on stage.” 

★ ANNE GONON 

www.cie-dca.com (Philippe Decouflé) ; 

www.philippegenty.com 

www.lucpetton.com ; 

www.philippebeau.com ; 

http://a.alafrez.free.fr 

Abdul Alafrez 

abounds in 

collaborations, 

from the Comédie 

Française to jazz. 

© JACQUES BÉTANT 

Distribution. From Rouen to Rome, enthusiasm is on the rise 

New magic is quite certainly creating a distribution network for itself. It can now be found on national stages in Dieppe, 

Douai, Marseille or Poitier, in the ring in Amiens or Elbeuf, in festivals in Auch, Paris or Rome... 

The fascination surrounding 

new magic can be found in the 

programming of an ever-growing 

network. The Hippodrome, the national 

performance space in Douai and a major 

supporter of the movement, partnered up 

with Cie 14:20 for three years because, 

as its Director Gilbert Langlois explains it, 

“their movement brings out thought and 

meaning. Magic crosses over civilisations 

and cultures. It resonates with everyone.” 

On the programme we find shows, 

exhibits, films and conferences on new 

magic. 

Modern and new. In Marseille, Le 

Merlan is extending the worked it started 

last season. In October it will be organising 

a 10-day festival to bring modern 

and new forms of magic together. It 

hopes to make a regular occurrence of 

these gatherings up until Marseille 2013. 


The Norman stage, where this movement 

began, has since been a staunch supporter. 

DSN (Dieppe Scène Nationale) and La 

Foudre in Rouen have taken on the work 

of new magicians. In Paris, the Théâtre 

National de Chaillot will open a pavilion 

on magic in July 2010, during the festival 

Imaginez maintenant (put in place by 

the Council for artistic creation) and has 

called on Cie 14:20 for its next season. 

On the circus end, Roger Le Roux in 

Elbeuf has programmed several events 

based on new magic forms (magic 

shows, gatherings and meals). At the 

Cirque Jules Verne in Amiens, Jean- 

Pierre Marcos is organising an evening 

of discussion between modern and new 

forms of magic. In the Paris region, the 

Académie Fratellini is actively supporting 

the movement. It regularly hosts the 

“laboratory” of experimentation and 

of residency for new magic. And in 

Auch, Circuits will be offering several 

shows coming from this movement. The 

Festival mondial du cirque de demain 

created a new magic section in 2009. 

Brothers of Calcutta. Abroad, Roma 

Europa is including a wide range of 

magic for its autumn festival. The Indian 

Brotherhood of Magicians (Delhi) and the 

Magic Research Society (Calcutta) will, on 

an increasingly regular basis, host new 

magic artists for their festival. The Big 

Apple Circus from New York aims to create 

American exposure, bringing its help to 

the work of Cie 14:20. A growing and 

composite network reflective of the kind 

of work and potential found in the field 

of magic, or rather a rhizome with both 

visible and underground roots, all promise 

a wonderful flourishing, necessary to give 

life to this emerging form. ★ A. Q.

Who’s who in new magic 

ARTISTS Here are a few artists whose work subscribes to the concepts proposed 

by new magic (non-comprehensive list): 

Cie 14:20 www.1420.fr 

Cie Décalée www.compagniedecalee.fr 

Cie La Torgnole www.cielatorgnole.com 

Cie L’Elan Bleu www.clebarts.com 

Cie des Femmes à Barbe www.femmesabarbe.com 

Cie Mobilobadour cie-mobilobadour.org 

Cie Pentimento pentimento.free.fr 

Circo Aero www.circoaereo.net 

Antoine Terrieux www.cie-tilos.fr 

Bastien Authié bastienauthietsonblog.blogspot.com 

Bébel magicbebel.jimdo.com 

Dis Bonjour à la dame disbonjouraladame.over-blog.net 

François Chat www.francoischat.com 

Kristoff K.Roll (J-Kristoff Camps) kristoffk.roll.free.fr 

Kurt Demey www.rodeboom.be 

Le Phalène (Thierry Collet) www.thierrycollet.net 

Les Décatalogués www.decatalogues.com 

Monstre(s) (Etienne Saglio) www.ay-roop.com 

Porkeno membres.multimania.fr/porkeno 

Romain Lalire www.lalire.com 

Scorpène www.scorpenehorrible.com 

Théâtre du Signe theatredusigne.org 

Tide Company www.tidecompany.fr 

Tour de Cirque www.cirk.fr 

WHS (Kalle Hakkarainen) www.taikuri.org 

Xavier Mortimer www.xaviermortimer.com 

Yann Frisch 

Yvan Gauzy yvangauzy.canalblog.com 

SITES Through key events that are made part of their performance programme, supportive 

actions or gatherings, these structures have expressed their interest in new magic: 

IN FRANCE 

★ Académie Fratellini, La Plaine Saint- 

Denis. The Académie Fratellini wishes 

to play an active role in supporting the new magic movement and the 

recognition of magic in the broadest sense of the term: regularly hosting 

the Compagnie 14:20’s Monolith, an itinerant, new magic laboratory; 

conferences; classes available to apprentices of the CFA (Conservatory 

for the circus arts); the booking of magic shows in the future... 

www.academie-fratellini.com 

★ Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon. www.bm-lyon.fr 

★ La Chaufferie / Cie DCA. www.cie-dca.com 

★ Circuits, state-recognised performance space, Auch. 

www.circuits-circa.com 

★ Cirque Jules Verne, Amiens. For this new 

season dedicated entirely to the circus, the 

Cirque Jules Verne in Amiens will be setting up 

a special event for magic on May 11 with a new 

magic conference, followed by a magical evening: “a panel of acts 

representative of the way in which New Magic has presented itself as 

an independent artistic movement, with a very strong link with modern 

magic, at the crossroads of all disciplines, form the arts of time to 

those of space, the visual and the performing arts.” Among the artists 

present, there is Bebel the magician, Cie 14:20 – Kim Huynh and François 

Chat, Norbert Ferré, Gaëtan Bloom, Philippe Beau and Olivier Porcu, 

with the special participation during the week of Jacot the Illusionist. 

w2.amiens.com/artsducirque 

★ Cirque Théâtre d’Elbeuf, Elbeuf. www.cirquetheatre-elbeuf.com 

★ CNAC, Châlons-en-Champagne. Since 2006, 

the Centre National des Arts du Cirque has offered 

a unique training programme in new magic. It is 

intended for all professionals of the performing arts wishing to broaden 

their knowledge or to perfect a new approach to magic (artistic 

aspects, technical aspects, etc.). Furthermore, a writing and composition 

workshop is offered to students of the CNAC: theoretical tools 

for comprehending the structures of circus creation, as well as the 

aesthetic and performative notions that they imply; with a practical 

application of new magic tools and the compositional potential that 

they offer, all taking into account the specialities of the students. The 

resource centre of the CNAC constitutes a unique source of information 

on new magic. It currently includes 250 reference works - and 

some are very rare, as most of them have been released in only a 

small number of copies. These are the only open-access resources 

for magic professionals, artists interested in object manipulation and 

scholars. www.cnac.fr 

★ DSN Dieppe Scène Nationale. www.dsn.asso.fr 

★ Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain. 

www.cirquededemain.com 

★ FFAP (Fédération Française des Artistes Prestidigitateurs). 

www.magie-ffap.com 

★ L’Hippodrome, Douai. This national performance 

space of Douai persistently offers a multi-disciplinary 

performance programme (theatre, dance, 

concerts, circus...) and is a strong proponent of new magic, with a 

three-year partnership with Cie 14:20 (on-site artistic and cultural 

education), the creation and distribution of shows, exhibits, cartes 

blanches, seminars, conferences, itinerant research laboratories... 

The Hippodrome has also partnered with the universities of Artois 

to develop research on new magic. www.hippodromedouai.com 

★ Ay-roop [production group] www.ay-roop.com 

★ Le Cube, centre of digital creation (creation hub). 

www.lesiteducube.com 

★ Le Rayon Vert, subsidized performance space of Saint-Valeyen-Caux. 

rayon-vert@ville-saint-valery-en-caux.fr 

★ Le Merlan, scène nationale, Marseille. www.merlan.org 

★ TAP, Scène nationale de Poitiers. www.tap-poitiers.com 

★ Théâtre de la Cité Internationale, Paris. 

www.theatredelacite.com 

★ Théâtre National de Chaillot, Paris. www.theatre-chaillot.fr 

★ Théâtre de La Foudre, scène nationale Petit Quevilly/Mont- 

Saint-Aignan. www.scenationale.fr 

★ Théâtre Romain Rolland, state-recognised performance space, 

Villejuif et du Val de Bièvre. www.trr.fr 

★ The City of Tremblay-en-France. www.tremblay-en-france.fr 

ABROAD 

★ Big Apple Circus, New York. www.bigapplecircus.org 

★ Indian Brotherhood of Magician, Delhi. 

★ Magic Research Society, Calcutta 

★ Roma Europa, Rome. romaeuropa.net 


stradda 

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PUBLIC RELATIONS, DISTRIBUTION Violette Bernad 

diffusion@horslesmurs.fr 

ADVERTISING Lucien Athanase evac@athanase.fr 

SUBSCRIPTION MANAGEMENT Sophie Bibard accueil@horslesmurs.fr 

NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTIONS DIF’POP’ – Fax: 01 40 24 15 88 

– infos@difpop.com 

A publication by HorsLesMurs – national resource centre for the 

circus and street arts – subsidized by the Ministry of Culture – 

DMDTS 

Registration of copyright April 2010 

ISSN: 1950 – 4713 – CPPAP 1008 G 88469 

Revue publiée avec le concours du Centre national du livre 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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a quitté Paris pour sʼinstaller en bord 

de Seine et sʼintégrer à lʼéco-quartier 

des « Docks de Ris » à Ris-Orangis (Essonne), 

à 30 minutes de 

Châtelet (RER D). 

Ce nouvel espace de 

cirque contemporain, 

direction artistique 

Adrienne Larue et 

Fabien Demuynck, 

accueille sous ses 

chapiteaux des compagnies 

en résidence, 

des artistes, et lʼatelier Cirque pour les amateurs Rissois. 

Créations 2010 

C ie Arts des Airs, Armance Brown/Bruno Krief 

Sieste cubaine les 11,12 et 13 juillet 

C ie Rialto Fabrik Nomade, William Petit 

Préliminaires 

C ie Etokan, Dan Demuynck, Fabien Demuynck, 

Daniel Buren Nord/Sud 

C ie Avek, Ludivine Narès ANIMAL(s) 

Les créations dʼAdrienne Larue 

Le tarot des destins croisés (reprise) 

Les baraques foraines (création) 

qui mettent en piste ses personnages de magicienne 

très décalée. 

www.chapiteau-adrienne.fr ● contact@chapiteau-adrienne.fr 

Nouveau téléphone : 06 83 63 20 94 

K2CIRK/FABIEN DEMUYNCK


This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication 

[communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held 

responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 

circostrada network

MAGIE NOUVELLE - Circostrada Network

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