Le Petit Cirque [The Small Circus] is a complex sound object made of wood, plastic, strings, springs, and fragility. A mere breath can set it vibrating. Twelve small microphones draw resources from its interior. Le Petit Cirque is a circus. Its handling is perilous, the danger of falling ever-present. In the same way that theater can be musical, Le Petit Cirque is a “circus of sound.“ It is also a theater of objects. Le Petit Cirque is made from odds and ends, salvaged material and cheap gadgets, but never relies on anecdote. Sound emerges frommise en scène. Action nourishes sound and sound gives new meaning to action. Improvisation and the chance of mechanics. This theater of sound objects explores two distinct and interacting concepts. The first is how stereotypical circus imagery alters one’s perception of the performance’s musical aspect. The second and more abstract is how sound allows the spectator to see these theatrical situations from a different perspective. The random trajectories and perpetual movements, which redirect script and nourish improvisation, are captured simultaneously from different sound angles and re-mixed. The spectator skips from one point of view to another, watching with his ears, skin, his ideas and thought associations.
Watch the video here
Composer and musician Laurent Bigot have long been interested in the relationships music can create with other artistic fields, as well as with its surroundings and the objects and subjects of everyday life. He has developed his ideas through various productions and encounters with musicians, dancers, film directors, writers, actors and visual artists, among others. A saxophonist, he plays with the group Musicabrass, an outdoor orchestra which incorporates its surroundings—urban or natural—into its performances.
An electro acoustician and do-it-yourselfer as well, he composes and performs using different analogical devices, privileging the creation of live sound.
The performances of Le Petit Cirque are made possible thanks to the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and Institut Français.
Photos by Simon Courchel
Dates + Times
Saturday, March 3 at 6–8pm
Sunday, March 4 at 4–6pm
Admissions
Free
Reserve by email here
$10 Suggested Donation
Location
The Main Gallery
51 Bergen St.