To promote contemporary circus creation, from 2019 till 2022 we offered an artistic residencies program.
Here the selected artists and companies have the opportunity to further develop their artistic projects for two weeks at different locations in Cologne. An overview of all residencies can be found here.
Overhead Project continues its work on the piece Circular Vertigo within the residency. The duo between the dancer Mijin Kim and a 100kg pommel horse suspended from the ceiling is a deepening of a research with a motor-driven aerial object. „Circular Vertigo“ deals with the geometric form of the circle as the archetypal form of attraction and thus establishes, among other things, a historical reference to the management circle in the Cirucus. Resulting from the art of horsemanship in the 18th century, women in particular were able to find a place in the circus, among other things as celebrated female artist stars on horseback, far removed from classical family roles. With the playful occupation of the centre by an abstracted object of power that dominates the circle, Tim Behren reflects a social space in which female creative freedom, equal treatment and self-determination have to be worked out again and again.
Since 2020, Slovakian-born Roman Skadra has been working on his play Absurd Hero, which is largely inspired by the philosophy of Albert Camus. The piece is a solo and combines contemporary circus with absurd theatre and is characterised by a state of mind à la Buster Keaton. Presented in a minimalist setting, the focus is on the relationship between the performer and a large, red, heavy walking ball. Reminiscent of the great slapstick artists, the circus is shown here as a potentially joyous yet endless effort. "Absurd Hero" is planned as a full-length piece for audiences of all ages.
As the festival’s own production, the TPZAK Circus and Artistic Centre hosts the ten-member team of the production What is left.
The intertwining of (spatial) geometry and politics is currently at the forefront of the artistic work of the company Overhead Project: What role do architecture and spatial arrangements play in a political context and how do they influence social „power structures“? How can these observations be choreographically and dramaturgically translated into a performative space that dissolves the classical passive arrangement of the spectators, thus creating an open field for interaction between performers and audience?
Since 2008, Overhead Project has been developing pieces on the border between contemporary dance, circus and performance in the independent scene and for guest choreographies at municipal theatres.
The group „Critical Mess“, led by the Berlin-based juggler and performer Stefan Sing, was in Cologne for a two-week working residency for Dodai in autumn 2019, which included a free workshop for exchange with the local scene. This ended in a subsequent city intervention tour with site-specific improvisations in public space. The focus of the workshop was on exploring a metaphorical approach to movement. Movement is communication, is language, is legible. It reaches a higher, more intense level when it is a medium for something else: a feeling, a mood, a thought, an image – a content of consciousness. It is not we who move, but something that moves us. The workshop was led by Stefan Sing and incidentally enabled the Berlin group to get in touch with the local scene. Critical Mess was founded by Stefan Sing in 2016 with the aim of combining dance, theatre and juggling.