Last weekend in September, Svilara was the place where fans of the circus gathered. From 23 until 26 September, the BETA circus, which gathered 12 international artists from the Czech Republic, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Croatia, Germany, Finland, the United Kingdom and seven local circus artists, was held. During three days, they have had a chance to improve their circus skills through different workshops, discussions and performances.
On the first day, after the welcome meeting, the ‘How to Talk to Institutions’ workshop was held by Stéphane Segreto-Aguilar, from the Circostrada Network, while the following day, Kurt Demey from Belgium held the ‘New Magic’ workshop. Catherine Faudry from the French Institute and Stéphane Segreto-Aguilar participated in the discussion, which was moderated by Mira Dobrković.
The seminar on the topic of ‘Contemporary Circus and Territorial Development’ was held. Catherine Faudry from the French Institute and Vladimir Radmanović, Head of the Department of Programme Support of the ‘Novi Sad – European Capital of Culture’ Foundation participated in the seminar. An informal exchange of good practices was organised. Antonina Kuzmanić from Croatia, Dragan Jajić Vladisavljev from the ‘Cirkoneo’ circus school, Paolo Strata from the Italian ‘Cirko Vertigo’ and Ulla Hokkanen from the Galway Community Circus. The audience had a chance to see the ‘We Are Possible’ performance by Rode Boom.
BETA circus is a cooperation project launched with the aim to develop and increase capacity for emerging artists who work in the field of contemporary circus, who are in search of innovative works, trends and expressions in Europe, with the special focus on countries that haven’t reached a high level of circus education and where the circus is not recognised as contemporary art. The project presents an opportunity for the audience to experience new expressions and concepts while performing live.
During two year, the project will focus on new trends in aesthetics of contemporary circus, such as illusion and new magic. With their activities, BETA circus promotes international support for dissemination of new processes of contemporary circus, new art and research projects, increases capacities of this type of art, supports activities of transnational cooperation, which is based on mobility of artists, professionals and partner teams in order to show diverse contexts, new audience and artists.
BETA circus is co-financed by the EU programme Creative Europe, while it has been implemented by Bússola (Portugal), Teatro Necessario (Italy), Ludifico (Serbia) and Rīgas Cirks (Latvia).
Photo: Uroš Dožić
