From the museum staircase emerge two hairy legs with feet wearing espadrilles. On the ramp, a young woman launches into a slide at full speed. A few seconds later, all the first-year college students at the École de cirque de Québec stormed the entrance hall of the Musée de la civilization with their show Gaps. Because it is in situ, almost everywhere in the museum building designed in the 1980s by architect Moshe Safdie, that they present their show.
Thursday morning, a class of primary school students enjoyed this addition to the more traditional visit to the museum. “ Oh my God ! » exclaimed the children, as if in canon, in front of the prowess of the circus artists. In this museum setting, their bodies become sculptures erected in windows, on walls or on stairs. Living art mixes with visual art in complete harmony.
It is the director Ludovic Fouquet, who has worked extensively on site-specific performances, notably at the Louvre Museum and on the Quebec Bridge (Where do you go when you sleep while walking…?), who led the students in this project. “I like brutalist architecture,” he says of the Museum of Civilization. Here, the heat of the bodies contrasts with the cold of the granite and concrete where they rest. “At the beginning, I asked the students to caress the materials as if they were skin,” he says.
This year, at the time of the show, the students circulate throughout the museum: they join the exhibition on wrestling, playing strong men or brawlers, or the one on rap and hip-hop. “When we designed the show, the exhibition Quebec, in other words was not yet open,” explains Mr. Fouquet. Last year, the presentations were mainly concentrated in the museum hall.
Another place, another audience
The performances will take place at the rate of two per day, two to four times per week, until June 5. In this setting where there is neither circus apparatus nor carpet, we favored group scenes rather than individual acts, the artists not being able to use their usual equipment. These artists who run, dance and jump also have to deal with crowds and public circulation in the museum.
“We don’t have many opportunities, outside of schools, to work in an environment like that, playing with architecture, with a director. People come to the base to see the museum, not to see us. So, it’s a little different from when we present a usual show,” remarks Samantha, 28, who is participating in the show.
“We had a lot of constraints during the creation period, because there are a lot of people moving around. As we do a lot of acrobatics, we always have to be careful – especially with children and the elderly – but it’s a great place to show circus,” says another artist in the group, Méroine, 23 years old.
Between these walls where you don’t expect it, and which the artists highlight with their movements, the circus actually becomes what it should be: offbeat and surprising.