Project & Open Call

Deadline: 3 December 2020

Organised by 8 partner organisations and co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, CIRCUS WITHOUT CIRCUS is an interdisciplinary research project for artists from the circus field and from all other artistic fields such as music, film, dance, theatre, design, architecture, visual arts, etc.

16 individual European artists, 8 from the circus field and 8 from other artistic fields, will be selected for a residency programme aimed at sparking artistic exchange between disciplines by facilitating one-on-one research residencies.

The overall aim is to facilitate cross-boundary research and to develop and explore cross-disciplinary working methods. As a participant you are invited to step out of your comfort zone, let go of habits, give up control, and open up your artistic process in the encounter with another artist.

Artists who are at the beginning of their career or changing direction in their career can apply. Artists will be paired as duos – 1 artist from the circus field with 1 artist from another field. Each participant will take part in two residencies between spring 2021 and summer 2023. The residencies will be hosted by the project partners, taking place in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark and France.

The pairing of artists will be made by the project partners. As an artist you will therefore not know beforehand who you will get to work with – only that it will be an artist from a different artistic field than your own. Artists from all art forms are equally encouraged to apply.

The selected duos will benefit from a residency programme and an accompanying support programme.

Residency programme

Each selected artist will take part in two 12-day residencies, each residency with a new artist from another field. One part of the duo will always be a circus artist. You will be working on equal terms. The duo will work together focusing on the process of cross-disciplinary collaboration through exchanging, sharing, experimenting and researching.

There are no expectations of a specific artistic outcome. The primary goal of the residency is to enrich and broaden the artistic practice of the participating artists and through this to create inspiration for the wider performing arts field. You will be asked to document and share your research at a public presentation.

The residencies will be hosted by the project partners and will thus take place in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark and France between summer 2021 and spring 2023.

Support programme

The support programme will facilitate relevant encounters with professionals from the performing arts field during the residency. The programme will be designed specifically for each residency and may include artistic mentorship, feedback sessions, meetings and networking. These sessions are aimed at developing and inspiring the artists and at enabling them to pursue a sustainable, international career.

Documentation and sharing

CIRCUS WITHOUT CIRCUS is a research project, whose experiments and findings are intended to benefit the broader performing arts field. If you are selected, we therefore expect you to be open for collaboration, experimentation and sharing, both with the artists you are paired with, and with the mentors/facilitators you meet as part of the support programme, as well as with the general public and professionals.

As part of this research project, an online portal will be created with documentation, interviews, tools and best practices developed during the residencies by the participating artists and the project partners. You will also need to commit to sharing your research after the residency at a public presentation, which can be in any suitable format for your work – talk, performance, photos, video, etc.

This programme is for you if:

You are an artist in the beginning of your career, but not currently studying – or if you are in the process of changing direction in your career.
You live and/or primarily work in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark or France.
You are min. 18 years old.
You are open-minded, curious and eager to work and experiment in an interdisciplinary way.
You speak and understand English well. English is the working language.
You are applying as an individual artist. Duos or groups will not be taken into consideration.

Commitment

The project takes place 2021-2023 with the first round of residencies April-September 2021 and the second round of residencies June 2022-April 2023. The public presentations will take place immediately at the end of your residency period and/or at another time with one of the other residency hosts.

As a participant, you are committing yourself to being part of the project for the whole two-year period with activities including two residencies, public presentation(s), knowledge sharing, etc.

Conditions

The project will cover travel expenses, accommodation and food (travel by train is encouraged).
You will receive a fee of €170 brutto per working day during the residencies.
The project provides a working space, support programme, and technical support.

How to apply

If this way of working resonates with and inspires you, and you live up to the formal criteria, we will be thrilled to receive your application.

A mandatory registration form can be downloaded below.

Additionally, we ask you to send us your CV as well as links to photos/videos of your previous work (max 10 photos & 4 videos).

When filling out the application form, we ask you to mark all the periods you are available. Your flexibility is necessary for the project partners to be able to form the most relevant duo combinations.

All material (registration form, CV and photo/video links) should be sent in one mail to: info@circuswithoutcircus.eu

Application deadline: 3 December 2020

We strive to let all applicants know about the decision before 15 January 2021. We will do pre-interviews with relevant candidates via Zoom.

Download the full call (.docx)
Download the application form (.docx)

If you have any questions regarding the programme and application process, please contact the partner in your country:

Belgium: Circuscentrum – contact Maarten Verhelst, maarten@circuscentrum.be
Croatia: Room 100 – contact Antonia Kuzmanić, peculiarfamilies@gmail.com
Denmark: Metropolis – Københavns Internationale Teater – contact Louise Kaare Jacobsen, lkj@kit.dk
France: Le Manège de Reims – contact Bruno Lobé, b.lobe@manege-reims.eu, and Nina Vandenberghe, n.vandenberghe@manege-reims.eu

Partners

MAIN PARTNERS

Circuscentrum (Belgium)

Circuscentrum is the interface organisation and expertise centre for the Flemish circus sector. They invest in the professionalization and sustainable growth of the circus arts, both through active services for the sector and through the further development and disclosure of knowledge about and within the sector – all this in close collaboration with partners within and outside the circus field. Circuscentrum connects and inspires across all kinds of borders and puts the Flemish circus in all its diversity and uniqueness on the map.
Circuscentrum website

Le Manège de Reims (France)

Le Manège, the Reims National Theatre, is a multidisciplinary venue dedicated to performing arts that are “100% movement”: dance, circus, puppetry and the transversal forms in-between these disciplines. Le Manège aims to support creativity and to propose a varied multidisciplinary programme with a focus on contemporary creation; to be an important actor in the regional cultural landscape; and to promote access to culture for all members of the population, whatever their socioeconomic background. Le Manège is an active player within the local community as well as at a broader international level. It hosts two resident companies for a period of three years and is currently supporting two artists through its mentorship programme for the 2020/21 season.
Le Manège de Reims website

ROOM 100 (Croatia)

ROOM 100 is a contemporary circus collective from Split founded by Antonia Kuzmanić and Jakov Labrović in 2010. With their first performance, C8H11NO2, they were awarded as Jeunes Talents Cirque Europe laureates in 2011. Besides producing and distributing contemporary circus performances and other artistic works of the collective, ROOM 100 manages HALA 100 – a venue hosting residencies, performances and workshops for international contemporary circus as well as a programme of film screenings, Kino Cirkus, in several Croatian cities and implementing other projects for the development of the audience in the contemporary circus sector. Since 2020, they also organise a contemporary circus festival, Peculiar Families Festival. ROOM 100 is a partner in the EU-supported circusnext PLaTFoRM and a member of Circostrada network.
Peculiar Families Festival website

Metropolis – Københavns Internationale Teater (Denmark)

Metropolis is an annual curated platform for international performance and art in urban space. Metropolis is organised by Københavns Internationale Teater, which for more than 40 years has created change and development in the Danish performing arts scene through the introduction of new genres and formats. During the summer season, Metropolis presents a site-specific, outdoor programme of performances and installations. They also organise an international residency programme in public space as well as workshops and seminars in the intersection between art, culture and urbanism. Metropolis explores the city, physically and metaphysically. The methodology is the restaging of the everyday through the intermingling of fictive scenarios and real situations.
Metropolis website

ASSOCIATED PARTNERS

nona arts centre (Belgium)

nona arts centre emphatically underlines its role as a breeding ground for new artistic work. Artists are given plenty of opportunities to develop themselves and enter into dialogue with the public in Mechelen and far beyond. nona also works with a number of regular partners in crime: the internationally renowned theatre company Abattoir Fermé, directed by Stef Lernous, and Voetvolk, the Belgian contemporary dance and performance company, founded in 2007 by Lisbeth Gruwez and Maarten Van Cauwenberghe. Since 2017, nona has been organising the Contour Biennale, a unique platform for anyone interested in the moving image which has made a name for itself far beyond Belgium.
kunstencentrum nona website

Césaré (France)

Césaré is one of the 8 national centres of musical creation spread throughout France. Its mission is to foster the emergence of original works at the frontier of musical styles and artistic disciplines through a policy of residency, production and transmission. They are a privileged partner of the artistic and cultural sector of the Grand Est: producer of La Magnifique Avant-Garde, co-producer of FARaway, and today partner of Exhibitronic - Strasbourg. Césaré aims to be a meeting place for artists and the public, open to the world and sensitive to the slightest tremor of creation.
Césaré website

Arts Academy Split (Croatia)

The Arts Academy in Split was founded in 1997. It consists of three departments: fine arts, music and theatre arts. The activities include artistic creation through production and public presentations and various professional and artistic training programmes that are part of the concept of lifelong learning. The Film and Video Department offers an education in the field of film and new media. The BA students acquire theoretical and practical knowledge in video, film and digital media and the MA degree provides highly professional profiles for fully independent activity in motion picture media such as film art, animated film or media art. In this project, the Film and Video Department is represented by tenured teacher Veljko Popović, an awarded and internationally renowned author of animated short films.
Arts Academy Split website

Dynamo Workspace (Denmark)

DYNAMO is a workspace for circus and performing arts located in the middle of Denmark at Odense city harbour. As a production house and cultural gathering place, DYNAMO wants to create sustainable conditions for performers and increase the quality of artistic production through mutual aid. DYNAMO opened in January 2017 in an old warehouse that now houses productions from national and international performers and a yearly festival. They also facilitate the framework for artistic work in progress, development of ideas, residencies, courses, masterclasses, and open training. DYNAMO is a driving force for the development of the cultural life of Odense, primarily for circus and performing arts, and also reaches out with out-of-house activities and collaborations.
Dynamo Workspace website