INTERRUPCIONS is an artistic and intellectual programme linked to the Living Circus Archive, one of the 14 measures of the Plan to Promote the Circus in Catalonia (2023–2026) coordinated by La Central del Circ. The Living Circus Archive aims to create a space for documentation and archiving dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the heritage and artistic value of the Catalan circus. It also seeks to build a bridge between new generations of artists and a whole lineage of creators from the region, sharing their journeys and the cultural legacy they have built.
INTERRUPCIONS is the outreach initiative of the Living Circus Archive, scheduled to take place in 2026, which proposes to draw on memory to understand the present and imagine possible futures for the circus arts. It is neither a festival nor a showcase of performances, but rather a living space for encounter, experimentation, reflection and collective dialogue between artists, communities and audiences in Catalonia.
This project, spearheaded by La Central del Circ, is carried out in collaboration with Antic Teatre and Artefactum, which acts as a mediating body to facilitate activities centred on the question: Can one create without memory?
The programme’s first event is the revival of the street performance El veí del balcó, by the Circ Perillós company (1994). This piece, which at the time brought theatre out onto the streets from the privacy of people’s homes, is being revived as a symbolic act to connect the past and the present and to rekindle the memory of the circus as a form of urban and political intervention.
Over the course of a few weeks, and centred around the revival of El veí del balcó,, various artists will carry out interventions in public spaces — streets, squares and balconies in the neighbourhoods of Sant Pere, Santa Caterina and La Ribera — which will engage with their surroundings and relate to the project’s central question.
These actions aim to ‘interrupt’ the city’s daily rhythm, create poetic and critical situations, and stimulate new ways of perceiving our surroundings. Each artist will create a site-specific, performative or participatory piece, tailored to the characteristics of the space in which it is presented.
Drawing on hybrid artistic practices, INTERRUPCIONS opens up new ways of looking at the circus and engaging with it, expanding its boundaries and placing it in dialogue with other artistic, social and political languages, as a space from which to generate diverse ways of presenting, experiencing and perceiving reality.
Each intervention is shaped in direct relation to the context in which it takes place and actively involves local residents, collectives, communities and neighbourhood organisations. The project views the neighbourhood as a living space for participation and exchange, in which artistic practices unfold in contact with the people and dynamics that inhabit it.
The project also seeks to consider the circus from different angles, putting it to the test, challenging it and making space for practices, narratives and forms of knowledge that are often overlooked or unrecognised. In this sense, INTERRUPCIONS works to stimulate thought through circus practice, viewing art as a tool for collective reflection and transformation.
Rather than offering definitive answers, the project fosters open-minded thinking, creates meeting places and shared experiences that connect artistic creation, memory, territory and community.
