LACRIMAE description
CAHIN-CAHA establishes a nomadic framework for research, a space for developing new languages for contemporary circus - the freshest of contemporary arts. This project of european dimension started with partners in Sweden and the Czech Republic to be developed with others regions and specially with the Mediterranean basin. It is now a major partner in the european research project CARE.
The project is constructed on 3 objectives :
•Fluidification of the transmission of knowledge
Collaborations structured between confirmed and emerging artists in 3 European regions ; collaboration between artists and operators and between the academic and artistic milieu.
•Confluence of artistic creations
A creation in each region to tour in its regional and national networks.
The establishment of a triptych, the result of the three creations for a European tour built with our reference operators.
•Shifting of citizens’ imagination
A series of participatory laboratories open to the general public, to link artistic research with civic action.
An area of possible errancy
Research leads to the consideration / reflection upon the role of the artist in society and the place of a social being in the natural world. This is a “field of practice and exploration of interdisciplinary staging opportunities ... an apparatus of exchange and of fragile ephemeral confrontation, a utopian space for the conservation of the work of Art in its original powers."
The state of artistic research at the European level : on the one hand, the role of research as a component of a creative process appears regularly as a theme in seminars and conferences. On the other hand, new legislation aims to standardize artistic vocational training qualifications across Europe.
In certain European countries the circus/university link is more advanced, with degree programs in Sweden, Finland and soon in England. For the Nomadic Creation Laboratory, relations with the representatives of these universities are important and formative.
Cahin-Caha crafts in the space between folk art and conceptual art, working to reconcile theory and practice through creation at the international level. This job requires a fallow time - open research that enriches performance. This time is as essential to emerging artists as to confirmed artists in redefining their performance language in the face of society’s evolution.
A South-North-East triangle
LACRIMAE is seen as a means of developing circus research through various European networks, by exploiting the inherent strengths of each region. The project is structured into three regions :
_Mediterranean
Scandinavia
Vysegrad
The primary link in each region is made with another performing company, dialoguing on the sharing of artistic process and means of transmission. This work, upstream of the creation, but after training, is the backbone of innovative forms of expression.
The work places vary for each region : theaters, universities, circus schools, festivals, but also art galleries, warehouses, social centers. In each region we work with reference operators (festival or creation-based institution), a reference company and a reference training center (university, circus school...). Around the project participate confirmed and emerging artists, amateurs, researchers, and local residents. We ask each operator supporting the project to twin up with an operator from another region to reinforce the web above and beyond the project of LACRIMAE.
Reference operators
France
The National Mediterranean Pole for Circus Arts en préfiguration (CREAC -http://www.archaos.fr/- , Marseille and Théâtre Europe, la Seyne-sur-Mer)
Scandinavia
the Göteborg Dance and Theater festival
Cirkus Cirkör, Stockholm (director Tilde Bjorfors) http://www.cirkor.se/
Czech Republic
_the Physical Theater department of the National Theater Academy (JAMU)
Festival Letni Letna in Prague - director Jiri Turek -http://www.letniletna.cz/- (Grimm 2002, Moby Locked Up 2004, REV 2010)
Cirk Laputyka http://www.laputyka.cz/