Negotiating distance: 2 letters and 3 conversations on artistic research in contemporary circus

Negotiating distance: 2 letters and 3 conversations on artistic research in contemporary circus is a small collection of texts and conversations which arose in the context of a four-year artistic research project on artistic research in contemporary circus. In this project Bauke Lievens holds a light to a moment of European circus creation. She does that with the gaze of the dramaturg, critic, (circus-)maker and spectator. The goal was not so much to create one binding truth about what artistic research in contemporary circus is. Rather, it was to work with different discursive and artistic forms of dialogue. As such, the research project leaves a number of traces: a booklet entitled Is there a way out of here?, two Open Letters to the Circus, two performances that test the boundaries of circus as an artistic language, genre and tradition, a few articles in magazines, a website with letters and video material of collective conversations, and several dramaturgical collaborations with different circus companies. In no way do all these conversations, images and performances form a finished entity. They are starting points and openings for dialogue. Material for further conversation.