“Inertia”: a huge success of a creative circus in public

The Shalon In The Street Festival It counts, under the artists programmed in what used to be the IN and is now called “partis pris de création”, Underclouds Company. established in 2022, deactivationIt is a small meditative circus arch built around an original sculptural apparatus.

Originallydeactivation, a circus object we mistake for a Cyr wheel, even if it looks a lot like it. The fruit of the work of the sculptor, Ulysse Lacoste, is a large circle of metal to which rods could be welded fixed at strictly opposite points on the perimeter of the body, tilted at an angle of 45 degrees with respect to the axis. This unique and majestic object, strong in its presence, is presented to the eyes of the spectators invited to the banks of the Saône in the morning, and is placed on a circular platform that bears and accentuates it.

Nevertheless, it remains a circus machine, or at least a “inhabited mobile sculpture” as the company profile describes it. From the moment Matthew Hibbon puts it gently in motion—necessarily circular, because of its weight and structure—the sculpture changes its direction thanks to the only grace of human intervention and intent. These lines of moving metal, the translator, soon joined by Chloe Mora, will explore, tame, and inhabit them after all. Risk, endangerment, soon gives way to a kind of osmosis, in which the performers and their “frame” are in sync, in harmony.

Indeed, through its inertia, the device imposes a form of percussion, at the same time having the power to crush fragile human bodies that might get in its way. But by pairing with the chassis, performers are able to find balance, swing, or, conversely, combine their forces to become masters of the machine. Moreover, it’s not quite a machine: what makes it more interesting is that it operates mainly by the impetus provided by the performers, who also explore all ways of transmitting motion to it, by throwing and pushing it. , raise it…

The way the bodies are arranged relative to the device is sometimes reminiscent of the Cyr wheel, and sometimes the Chinese pole, but it remains unique. The trap of this kind of proposal is to try to get the most spectacular effects out of the device, and since in a few weeks of stay it is difficult to reinvent the circus, the result is often a little disappointing. deactivation This predicament is frustrated by siding with poetry, and by respecting the ability of sculpture to exist on its own. Artists give themselves space to breathe life into imagination and the relationship – among themselves and with the device – without giving up the material and technical commitment. The balance reached is made ofdeactivation Harmonious scene, this type of writing should be saluted.

It is a beautiful work, almost peaceful, original, balanced, offering something vaguely poignant.

she has Lots of dates this seasonIt’s a suggestion to watch out for the corner of your eye…

qualitative

Arrangement: With: Chloe Mora, Mathieu Hibbon / Sculpture: Ulysse Lacoste / Outside view: Vasyl Tasevsky / Music Composition: Valentin Musso / Vocal universe and spatial sound: Sylvain Noguerre / Costume: Delphine Delavalade / Broadcast director: Hugo Claude / Administrative Producer: Sarah Al-Duhair

Matthew Duchtermann

Passionate about live performance in all its forms, puppet theatres in particular, circus and street art too, and still the theater for comedians after all. Practice clown a little, story, more, theater, always, laugh, more often. The central criterion for good presentation: the one that moves and touches the delicate object at the bottom of the box. The rest is gossip. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matdochtermann