Don't Miss This Year's Edition of a French Favorite: Entre2 BIAC Festival

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Don’t Miss This Year’s Edition of a French Favorite: Entre2 BIAC Festival

Fans of French circus rejoice: after a downscaled 2021 edition of the Biennale Internationale des Arts du Cirque (BIAC) festival, Archaos National Circus Centre of France has grand plans for their 2022 event. With tents popping up in Marseille and the surrounding region of Provence, Entre2BIAC will feature circus shows well-known and brand-new; professional development opportunities; and performances from groups around the world. The festival will celebrate the breadth of contemporary circus and the crucial role that art plays in life and in humanity. 

The 4th edition of Entre2 BIAC will be an exceptional, unmissable event.

Since its creation in 2015, the Biennale Internationale des Arts du Cirque (BIAC) has quickly emerged as a can’t-miss event for audiences and cultural professionals alike. Held on odd-numbered years, the Biennale takes place in January and February, during the heart of winter. It offers a creative program in conjunction with more than 50 other cultural organizations based in Marseille and all across France’s Sud-Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur region (Région Sud), each one harnessing their strengths to make the festival an exceptional cultural experience.

Over a one-month period, the BIAC showcase reveals the scope and diversity of contemporary circus, presenting more than 300 performances of over 60 different shows. It welcomes locals and tourists alike, bringing hundreds of international professionals to its “Professional Forum.” During BIAC, the Région Sud comes alive with circus tents that host the most technically demanding and popular shows, with the Tent Village in Marseille acting as the beating heart of the event.

To maintain its connection with audiences and ensure a strong circus presence every year, Archaos National Circus Centre created Entre2 BIAC, a smaller-scale festival, in 2016. Held during the same month as BIAC, Entre2 unfolds in even years around the greater Marseille area. Both BIAC and Entre2 BIAC are major international events that draw people into the region and contribute to its cultural influence.

The circumstances of last winter forced Archaos to limit BIAC 2021 to showings for professional audiences only. For 2022, the company is making up for lost time with a particularly spectacular event.

This year’s Entre2 BIAC will have 44 shows— including 10 brand-new creations— totaling 140 performances in venues from Istres to Gap, from Marseille to Antibes, and in 31 other cities across the Région Sud. This means circus performers and fans can come together once again and enjoy this beautiful, dynamic artform. Thanks to the flexibility of BIAC’s partners, Archaos was able to postpone many of the shows on last year’s program until this season. Their adapted program allows for performances to take place in theatres or tents.

Entre2 BIAC will feature sensational performances. Attendees can seeJohann Le Guillerm in his creation, Terces, under the big top in Marseille, then visit Gap towatch Cie Baro d’Evel perform their show Falaises, and head over to La Seyne-sur-Mer for Cie Akoreacro’s Dans ton cœurMany companies from Marseille and the region appear on this year’s program, reflecting the dynamic nature of the contemporary circus scene across our territory.

This year’s event is proudly international and will feature a three-day professional forum based on theCircusLink project. Coordinated by Archaos, CircusLink is a European project to promote circus mobility co-financed by Creative Europe, with support from the Institute Français. Within this three-day framework, a series of meetings and roundtables for international performing arts professionals will be held, centered on the themes “Contemporary Circus and Digital Tools” and “Supporting Creation Internationally.” The forum will also feature special performances at Archaos, Mairselle, including two creations from CircusLink associates: Otus by the Oliveira & Bachtler Company (Portugal) and Heroes by the Losers Cirque Company (Czech Republic).

Circus helps people learn how to surpass their limits. It creates solidarity, instills perseverance, and fosters imagination. It is for these reasons that Entre2 BIAC is committed to holding artistic and cultural initiatives for local communities. These initiatives include workshop productions of long-term circus creations such as Origami, which explores the notion of circus and the collective body in a hospital setting; Capuche, which addresses the prevention of violence in schools; Ça tourne pour moi, which uses the circus arts to foster self-expression and opportunities for job-seekers through creating video CVs; La classe cirque, which accompanies middle school students for three years with an innovative educational approach; and the intergenerational project Le fil de la Vie. With the support of public and private partners, these initiatives put circus at the heart of our shared efforts to create a common good.

Closing out the month-long program, Archaos is offering a free day of shows for all ages on Sunday, February 13, on and around La Canebière, in downtown Marseille, as part of the event “Au bout, la mer: Cirque!” The circus— a connection between sea and air!

In a joint statement, Archaos and BIAC co-directorsRaquel Rache de Andrade and Guy Carrara encompassed their excitement for Entre2 BIAC 2022, saying, “We are proud to reaffirm our belief that art is essential, and that cultural life is a fundamental part of society. The fact cavepeople left paintings behind shows how indispensable artistic expression is to humanity; they show us how we have always tried to share our thoughts, to lift each other up and reach ever-higher… circus was born from this very spirit, and it will remain eternally essential!”

Source: Entre2BIAC Press Release. 

Image credits: cover image of Akoreacro's "Dans ton Coeur," taken by Richard Haughton. First gallery, left to right: Richard Haughton, Phillipe Laurencon, Francois Passerini. Second gallery: Frantise Kortman, Ashleigh Georgieu, Julien Fortel.
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