There's a new Circostrada dossier for December, How do you spell circus?, which presents a taster of content from Stradda magazine. As always it's available to download free of charge, in French and English.
Inside there's a mini-article from Pierre Hivernat, which starts off by relating various circus aesthetics/movements to psychiatric disorders then branches out into a list exercise that suggests some of the great content and depth to (apparently) be found in his recent book with Véronique Klein, Panorama Contemporain des Arts du Cirque; a set of responses from the various participants in Circostrada's first Arts Writers and Circus seminar, which is framed by a call for the sort of taxonomical work that academics do in generating specialised languages (yawn) – but which can also be mined for some interesting comparisons on the state of the circus arts in a clutch of European countries, plus has the odd lucid thought on the position of the critic (Tomi Purovaara: 'The artist also must define his or her action in relation with history and different contemporary subjects. The best role that the critic can play is therefore that of a sparring partner who helps the artist to realise his or her ambitions. This implies speaking a common language.'); and, most interesting, a profile of juggler Jérôme Thomas that sheds some light on the creation process for Ici and includes an interview with Thomas that conveys a little of his character: 'I wasn’t idle, but I was lazy. I cultivate laziness to a notion of a freeze-frame imagery of things. That allows me to have a certain perspective on the arts, politics, the world. It allows me to develop cubic juggling. The very base of this practice was to look at insignificant things like a juggler with three balls for 30 minutes.'
Download the dossier here.