Process, Practice, Perspective: Spark and Origin in Contemporary Circus

Editorial by Elena Stanciu and Signild Thygesen for upcoming DYNAMO Magazine #4 

https://www.dynamomagazine.dk/

In 1997 multidisciplinary artist Francis Alÿs pushed a massive block of ice through the streets of Mexico City, until it melted. It took the ice nine hours to melt, turning from something into nothing, and resulting in a five-minutes film titled ‘Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes making something leads to nothing)’. The paradox, we would argue, is that this practice did not lead to nothing. Yes, the trace of ice is liquid on the ground, eventually turned into vapour, therefore unseen and perhaps inconsequential to the process to begin with. Moving through the city in this manner made Alÿs’ block of ice a medium to experience the city, and allowed, at the time, a political message to be expressed, one of discontent and disillusionment at the state of urban space. Outside of this context, the work proposes interesting questions: What should we make of invisible traces of artistic process? How do we (or should we) differentiate between the work of art and the work of the artist?

How does a piece of art come to be - what was the initial spark? What is the first idea? And what came in between that and the finished product? What do we take out of it, in the absence of a finished product?

This issue of DYNAMO Magazine zooms in on artistic processes, on how they make up and sustain an artist’s practice. We believe that looking at how circus art is being created today can illuminate and inspire better and more balanced models for work and creation in the future.

But what is an artistic process and where does it start? Is there a size or shape that we can recognize the artistic process by? Does (or should) an artistic process have a clear purpose in service of a finished work, or does the process have a value of its own? It’s hard to say where a creation process begins and ends, and even to recognise that a process took place, when no final product came out of it.

During creations, a lot more is created than the final product. The beauty and strength of art is often found in the studio, behind the scenes, at the end of a long rehearsal day. Artists make art because they want to change the world, because they can’t imagine doing anything else, because it’s urgent and necessary. It’s their voice, their life – art is relation, it is showing care, a wanting to be in the world and move it in new and surprising directions. For this issue, we step behind the scenes and meet artists to hear the stories that first inspired the pieces that saw the stagelight, as well as those ideas that never ended up on stage.

The interviews with Wes Peden, Laura Murphy, and Signe Løve Anderskov start from performances that are genre-defying, pushing limits and redefining rhythms of creative and production work. We hear from these artists both on aesthetic directions, as well as relational ones, on active choices to work, create and tour differently. A red thread through these interviews is an awareness that values that permeate the circus arts can (and maybe should) inspire desires and designs for a better future – within and without the arts.

Asking more broadly what the role of artists can be in this imagined and desired future has inspired us to start a new interview portrait series, where we talk with people at the forefront of circus today. Leaders, producers, artists, or directors who show great capacity and passion for the art form, and who directly or indirectly impact the shape of circus entrepreneurship in Europe. In this first portrait piece, Jakob Jacobsson gives us an insight to the complex puzzle of being a self-producing artist.

At the other end of the spectrum, we consider how much the infrastructures and institutions for art and culture in a given context impact the work of artists. Whereas circus artists often pride themselves with an ultra-resilient attitude, in recent years we’ve come to appreciate and seek out structures and systems that allow for art (albeit punk) to be made in conditions of safety, stability and sustainability, both mental and environmental. In two extensive dossiers, we look at what it takes to work towards the establishing of an art scene for contemporary circus in countries where the artform has trouble to take root. We talk with circus artists and pedagogues who have had to shape their own career, with non-existing structures. We go behind the scenes with festival directors, to hear about their curatorial process and explore the role of festivals in the broader ecosystem of European circus. In a piece authored by artist and professor Harm van der Laan, we take a look at circus history and heritage, which traverse our contemporary experience with the art form.

Elsewhere in the issue we turn towards research in circus and the speculative potential of artistic exploration for its own sake. The work by Karoline Aamås for The Pregnant Rope Climber is an example of work never meant to lead to a finished performance, which nevertheless entered an important conversation about the pregnant body in a performative setting. Her work is an example on how an artistic process can become political.

Another artist that explores the impact of an artistic process for this issue is Hendrik Van Maele. He offers a unique take on the notion of creation through performative writing and stream of consciousness, while in residency in DYNAMO during a big renovation of our building, a very physical and impactful experience of a work in progress.

Curiosity for the artistic process at different stages led us to consider the speculative, the potential, the intention — we look at relevance, in the absence of finished work, with two collections of moodboards and sketches, as well as unfinished/abandoned/postponed projects. Unfinished work, work in progress, sketches, or rough ideas represent a point of interest in this issue.

Looking at the shape of the artistic process, we question how dialogue in the form of feedback between artists and audience can become a constitutive element in the process of creation, in a practical guide created by dramaturg Maja Ravn.

Awareness of space is also what partly traverses the cover story in this issue. Photographer Lily Schlinker produced a commissioned series, shot in Odense, in which the capacity of circus to reimagine urban space is explored.

***

Art has the value that we give it, but how do we construct, control, and challenge our individual and collective validation systems? A recalibration of the parameters of how we celebrate and value art might imply returning to the artistic process – acknowledging the worth of ideas, attempts, and curiosity; showing care and understanding to unfinished, rough proposals, uncertain positions, or complicated questions, and accepting that art and artists don’t have all the answers.

We acknowledge the privilege in some of the positions we propose, as well as the privilege of our own positionality. As editors, we are sending this issue out into the world from a white, cis, privileged situation, which ultimately comes with its own biases. We operate in a part of the world that allows us to be free from various dependencies and make room for concerns about art, poetic spaces and curiosity, at a time when the world struggles to grapple with extreme uncertainties, conflict, and abuse of human rights. We wish, however, that the stories we offer here will give you reason to resist despair and keep up hope for a future where art can help us create a better, more free and equitable future on a liveable planet.

Happy reading!

Photography by Lily Schlinker