Curating circus nowadays is not just a question of organising shows on a stage but rather involves holding a dialogue with the fragility of our time. In a society that demands results, control and certainties, circus becomes a refuge for the error, the fall and the truth of the body. Above all, curating is about deciding which questions we can ask the present through movement.
The circus that interests us does not seek out what is impossible, but rather what is profoundly human. The body emerges as a poetic arena: a place of cruelty and beauty, of addiction and resistance, of failure and transformation. The materials – iron, glass, air – are not just tools but also living memory: fragments of an identity that changes form, multiplies itself and is recognised in the other.
This programme defends circus as a collective, political act. A space of resistance, where humour is a survival strategy, and a space for community as a response to violence and the absurd. A space that allows for presence, vulnerability and the possibility of sustaining ourselves together.
For the first time, we invite Elena Zanzu to present their perspective within the programming of Circ d’Ara Mateix. They will share four projects that place the focus on other ways of thinking and experiencing contemporary circus. Their work includes a change of focus that reminds us that the circus of today is also constructed through critical thinking, a diversity of perspectives and a reflection on language itself.
Because the circus is not only about what happens onstage, but also about the crack that opens up inside us when we watch it. And in this crack, perhaps there still exists the possibility of feeling alive.
Marc Olivé (Programmer – Mercat de les Flors)
