Creativity and innovation in the contemporary circus - Circostrada ...

Fresh Circus – European SeminarTEAM NetworkIn the hopes of promoting an increased level of internationalcooperation as well as the open exchange of ideas,the constitution of TEAM (Transdisciplinary EuropeanArt Magazines Network) has spoken out in favour of acommunal discussion of various essential issues, as well as acommon, collegially agreed-upon definition for an ensembleof projects.Confronted with the current restrictive economic reality andwith the need for strong political and intellectual discussionof contemporary creative works, theses magazines felt theneed to share and contrast their critical perspective andpractices as independent publishers.TEAM was founded two years ago by ten magazines–Alternatives Théâtrales (Belgium), Art’O (Italy), Ballet-Tanz(Germany), Danstidningen (Sweden), Highlights (Greece),Maska (Slovenia), Mouvement (France), Obscena (Portugal),Scènes (Belgium), Stradda (France)– and aims to contributeon both the European and international level to the circulationof writing, ideas and knowledge in the domain of the arts.It also aims to contribute to greater mobility for workerswithin the cultural sector; to open communication betweenindependent publishers of all countries; to the promotionof intercultural dialogue and respect for cultural diversityand multilingualism; to increased awareness of cultural life;and to the defence of contemporary artistic creation as anessential, cross-border element of our societies.TEAM network has conceived of several types of actions toaccomplish these missions: editorial exchanges betweenmagazines, the publication of a yearly, communal andmultilingual magazine issue, the creation of a resourcewebsite and the distribution of e-newsletters, the organisationof workshops for young critics as a part of internationalfestivals.www.team-network.eurary', which is broader and emptier and which does not actuallyoffer anything new?The term 'contemporary' says everything and nothing with regardsto the theatre and dance, for example. Today it serves as an excuseto say, and especially to do, anything one wants. One can say that itis the zeitgeist. We have once again committed errors in the nameof contemporaneity. We have forgotten about heritage, evolutionand the true desire to communicate, as we are faced with theopportunism of certain artists, programmers and audiences thatsay “well, its of our time”.So what does the circus want? Does it want to recover a definitionthat no one believes in? Does it want to use a rather generic andparticularly rhetorical word to define itself? Today, is being traditionalnot the most radical, innovative and intelligent gesture there is?To know how to gauge references, recognise influences and set adiscourse without bogging it down with a demand for novelty? Isthat not the reason why you have abandoned the expression 'newcircus'? The reason why you do not wish to remain trapped in artisticemergence? Because, like yogurt, 'new' has an expiration date?If you have decided not to go on being thought of as yogurt, thenwhy believe that you can be fusion cuisine?I wanted to talk about the lessons that critics could learn from circuspractices. I have to tell you that when I said that to my colleaguesand friends, most of them looked at me with suspicion. “What doyou mean 'lessons'? Critics don’t need 'lessons'“, I was told. But Iam becoming increasing cynical and pragmatic –an occupationalhazard, surely.However, to respond more concretely to both the invitation thatwas extended to me, and to your curiosity, if you allow me to believethat it exists, I will tell you this: if the circus is synonymous with alaboratory, then the critic must also be thought of as a permanentand intense research laboratory, less concerned with the establishmentof an objective and more focussed on a diagnosis that leadsto deep reflection and discussion. This is why we created a programof action for the circus critic at TEAM Network: “To become travelcompanions with creation”, as Hans-Thies Lehmann said.This is also what we should expect from a discipline that has hadthe courage to abandon its classification as 'new', not in order tosay that it is 'contemporary' –for we are all contemporary but itdoesn’t necessarily bring us together– but to say, as I hope it will,that it is 'of today'.I heard a wonderful definition yesterday: classical circus and circusof today. Meaning that one understands that being contemporarydoes not help a discipline that does not want to include itself in thecontext, but rather to passively say that it is part of the context. Noone can say, “I am contemporary” without bursting into laughter.It’s like saying “I am honest”. A person who would say that is notreally honest. A person who says, “I am contemporary” wants tobelong to a context but does not take part in it. And I hope thatperson will never be part of it. To be 'of today', on the other hand, isan entire agenda in that we do not need to say that we are current.We just are, that’s it. We simply use whatever skills we have to indicatewhat it is that we belong to. And, above all, we do not proposeanother world within this one. We transform the world. Isn’t thiswhat we are really after, not as a utopia, but as reality?I like to quote a phrase from Homi Bhabha, who specialises in reflectingupon the state of the world: “when the world becomes darkdue to contradicting and ambivalent opinions, aesthetics –fiction,February 2009 / 34