Just for the Money: circus lives and contemporaneityABSTRACT
Just for the Money: circus lives and contemporaneity – This article analyzes circus life as a model of adaptation to the tensions of contemporary life, characterized by the increasing dissolution of the boundaries between the work and personal spheres. Through the knowledge passed down from generation to generation in the circus tradition, we examine how this space configures practical tools to face uncertainty. Likewise, the art of circus, through its everyday patterns of communication and comprehension of the environment, is positioned as a critical questioning of traditional narratives about work, community and belonging, and at the same time it is proposed as a representative example of emerging ways of life.
Keywords:
Circus; Affections; Post-Fordism; Precarity; Art-Life
RESUMEN
Solo por el Dinero: vidas circenses y contemporaneidad – En el presente artículo se analiza la vida circense como un modelo de adaptación frente a las tensiones propias de la vida contemporánea, caracterizada por la creciente disolución de los límites entre las esferas laboral y personal. A través del conocimiento transmitido generacionalmente en la tradición circense, se examina cómo este espacio configura herramientas prácticas para enfrentar la incertidumbre. Asimismo, el arte del circo, mediante sus patrones cotidianos de comunicación y comprensión del entorno, se posiciona como un cuestionamiento crítico a las narrativas tradicionales sobre trabajo, comunidad y pertenencia, al tiempo que se propone como un ejemplo representativo de las formas de vida emergentes.
Palabras clave:
Circo; Afectos; Postfordismo; Precariedad; Arte-Vida
RESUME
Juste pour l’Argent: vies de cirque et temps contemporain – Dans cet article, la vie circassienne est analysée comme un modèle d’adaptation face aux tensions propres à la vie contemporaine, caractérisée par la dissolution croissante des frontières entre les spheres professionnelle et personnelle. À travers les connaissances transmises de generation en generation dans la tradition circassienne, il examine comment cet espace façonne des outils pratiques pour faire face à l’incertitude. Par ailleurs, l’art du cirque, par ses schémas quotidiens de communication et de compréhension de l’environnement, se présente comme une remise en question critique des récits traditionnels sur le travail, la communauté et l’appartenance, tout en se proposant comme un exemple représentatif des formes de vie émergentes.
Mots-clés:
Cirque; Affects; Post-Fordisme; Précarité; Art-Vie
Introduction
This paper examines an essential facet of artistic work within the circus, that is, the dissolution of the boundaries between personal and professional life. According to the philosopher Paolo Virno (Eliécer Martinez, 2006), this phenomenon is at the same time a distinctive characteristic of life in post-Fordist cities. This analysis is undertaken by investigating the creative process of the piece Just for the money. Una historia de circo (Iribarren; De la Riva, 2015a; 2015b), which delves into the living and working dynamics of two circus families.
Based on the premise of Alain Badiou, who argues for the need to “reinvent risk and adventure in the face of safety and comfort” (Badiou, 2009, p. 6), this study proposes a critical dialogue between thought and practical experience in the circus environment. It examines some of the most significant changes that have had an impact on the bodies that coexist in the cities of the 21st century. An analysis of concepts such as nomadism and impermanence is also proposed, which will be used as tools to describe and understand the complexity inherent to the contemporary circus phenomenon, as well as its relationship with contemporary forms of life.
In the piece Just for the money - Una historia de circo, or simply Just for the money, there is an interest in escaping traditional dualities and addressing what takes place in the in-between places, and what is not seen in the circus ring. As an anchor point, the authors use the text Hay veces en las que uno tiene que poner en escena su propio fracaso (Sometimes you have to stage your own failure) (2006) by the Basque sculptor Txomin Badiola, in which he reflects on his own creative methodologies. Badiola considers it essential to talk about modes of production, as they allow him to speak from experience about the intermediate space that exists between what is and what is not, between idea and execution, between language and action. Badiola wants to stage his own failure in order to approximate that which is difficult to tackle with words and which is embodied in the body, that which is between two polarities that coexist even though one of the two is always considered more relevant. Order - disorder, up - down, cleanliness - dirt, premiere - process, are some examples of these dualities in which visibility is always in one of the poles while the other is hidden. To approach these places the artist has to position himself in that same space in order to, quoting Badiola (2006, p. 3), “not know what we want and yet succumb to something we know we don’t want, only to drift from where we don’t know to where we don’t know”. This almost maniacal state, as the author describes it, situates the artist in a place of constant recommencement and denial of the known that will allow him to approach this in-between place by showing not only his abilities but also his shortcomings and weaknesses. Consequently, as Badiola (2006, p. 4) says, the artist will achieve results “whose main content is the very problematization of his production, baring his scars and thus including the spectator in the responsibility for his being in the world”.
The circus, known for being an art that is geared towards success, technical dexterity, skill and the absence of failures, contrasts with the interest shown by the authors and captured in the work Just for the money, in relation to what goes on behind the mask deployed in circus performances and tents. In this case, the artistic endeavor invariably unfolds in the interstices of these realities, places where they feel comfortable and where they firmly believe that the mission of the contemporary artist resides, that is, in evading the traditional duality and confronting unexplored territories without preconceived paths.
Dynamics of life in a couple: an interdisciplinary analysis
Just for the money invites us to contemplate the close relationship between life and work, an intrinsic feature of the circus world, as fertile ground for reflection on living together as a couple and as a family. In the circus context, the act of merging artistic and personal trajectories not only blurs the lines between work and home, but also raises fundamental questions about the very nature of identity and artistic authorship.
The notion of “reinventing risk and adventure as opposed to security and comfort”, articulated by Badiou (2009, p. 6) comes to life in the experience of the protagonists of the piece Just for the money; circus performers who, by challenging the conventions of an ordinary life, those that exist outside the circus, venture into a territory where mutual commitment and shared risk are intrinsically intertwined. As such, life as a couple becomes a dynamic scenario where security is constantly redefined through the mutual exploration of individual boundaries.
In this sense, two audiovisual works become references for the construction of the characters in the piece. First, the television series The Wire (2002-2008), where the protagonists’ passion for police work stands as a barrier to conventional life as a couple (The Wire, 2010). This series initiates a dialogue on the emotional challenges that arise when absorbing professions become the protagonists of everyday life. Life as a couple is then confronted with the paradox of work passion, which, while providing meaning and purpose, can also blur the boundaries between individuals. They spend most of their day at work, a job that has no schedule, is ever-changing, dangerous, exciting and, above all, absorbing. This type of activity minimizes free time and the possibility of leading a conventional life, a life that at the same time is continually being demanded by their fictional partners. The characters, who are police officers always absent from the family home, regularly have conversations about how their passion for their job prevents them from leading a more conventional life. At the same time, sentimental relationships occurring within the work context are also seen as problematic, either by producing infidelity towards their partners or by making these relationships within the work environment too demanding, too close, leading to a presumed lack of freedom. This leads to a constant discomfort in people with absorbing and exciting professions. It seems that the love of their job prevents or hinders loving a person.
Secondly, the film Wiñaypacha (2017), delivers a unique perspective by presenting a couple’s life that takes place in the arid mountains of Peru, distant from urban complexities. During the feature film, a synchronicity is shown between two people hardly imaginable for an urban citizen; continuously sharing chores and situations in which the dialogues between the protagonists are reduced to simple reminders of tasks to be performed or the recounting of atmospheric events. Without reflection or apparent conversations, the life of these peasants is reduced to an almost animalistic state in their daily chores interspersed with rituals and chants that generate a deep relationship with the environment and nature. This relationship with the environment, difficult to encompass in a film but which the author manages to capture in some of the images, suggests an intensity that unfolds beyond the actions that their bodies perform in their daily activities.
The nature of the characters in the piece Just for the money and their interrelationship between family and work invites us to reflect on shared existence. It is here that phenomena such as the fusion of identities and the constant negotiation between risk and security occur. Life as a couple is revealed as a journey where the intersection between life, work, passion and environment challenges and enriches the understanding of what it means to coexist in the complexity of the 21st century.
Alain Badiou, in the text of In Praise of Love (2009), analyzes the new ways of searching and finding a partner through Internet social platforms. A zero-risk love would be one way to put it, and this is how he describes the act of finding a partner through the Internet, drawing similarities with the old arranged marriages, which were also based on security, the denial of chance, no risks and no adventures. Consequently, the elimination of any possible threat becomes an objective to be pursued in amorous relationships. According to Badiou, this would eliminate all existential poetry. It is a concept that can be extended to all areas of contemporary life, from walking down the street to performing in a theater. First the risks are evaluated and then, depending on this analysis, one action or another is taken. Every action begins by taking into account the factors that may go wrong, making a prognosis of fatality, before continuing along a supposedly clear path, with no stones, no weeds, no holes, no risks and no failures.
How far can future risk be predicted? How many steps forward can be foreseen in order to avoid a bad move, a disappointment or a bad outcome? We can imagine a place where risk and adventure are not confronted with safety and comfort, a place where we can objectively measure the seriousness of the risk so as not to overdo it in our eagerness to avoid the discomfort of the setback. We place ourselves between the opposite poles that confront total security and complete lack of protection. By observing the behavior of certain life strategies adopted by couples composed of circus artists, we can appreciate them as a beautiful set of diverse ways of being in the world, where complicity with other people contributes to transcending the predominant individuality in Western societies and, as Badiou (2009, p. 8) mentions, “to experience the world from the point of view of difference”.
In Just for the money, the relationship between the characters becomes an experimentation of the world through alterity, exploring the other and otherness to expand ranges of experience. This experience is limited by physical and intellectual conditions that should not necessarily be determinant, as long as other perspectives are incorporated to allow a greater insertion and expansion in society, sharing responsibilities and knowledge with a minimum need for individual ownership or authorship.
Rehearsal, work and coexistence in the context of a circus creation space
Analyzing and understanding the logics that organize the spaces of training and creation are fundamental to enter into the ways of living and doing circus. Circus is about numbers, solos, shows, cabarets... but it is also about training, building structures, rehearsals, maintaining healthy bodies and safe materials.
The creation of Just for the money took place in an industrial building fitted out for circus use, managed by an association of professional artists organized through an assembly in which tasks and roles were assigned horizontally and without hierarchies. Each member paid a monthly fee and actively collaborated in its management and maintenance. The incorporation of the piece’s authors to this group took place one or two years after the group opened. Along with ten other members, they took on various responsibilities, such as maintenance, cleaning, treasury and organization of activities. The purpose of these collective efforts was to raise funds to cover the monthly rent and to meet the many expenses associated with the constant improvement of the facilities.
The organizational structure of the group, in spite of its assembly nature, was a space where the most senior members gained preeminence in spite of the ideal of de-hierarchization proposed at the beginning. This phenomenon generated positions of authority based on accumulated experience, on the responsibility assumed by each member and on the urgency to solve the problems and needs that arose on a daily basis. A recurrent tendency within these groups was the deviation from the initial purpose of rehearsing and sharing the circus practice, being substituted by the responsibilities of maintenance and perpetuation of the organizational structure. This dynamic, inescapable in many similar groups, generated a constant tension between management and artistic creation. The piece’s authors contributed with their professional and organizational skills, being aware of the deformation that everyday life produced in the desire to build a space for creation. Their need for a rehearsal space prompted them to take on responsibilities with the association. They carried out their obligations, but without allowing other people’s anxieties to subjugate them.
The multiplicity of situations that arise in the circus space, combined with artistic, manual and administrative work, constitute a unique characteristic that gives strength to the art of the circus. It is a way of life that maintains networks of affection and support similar to those of a peasant life, where the common experience is the basis for the creation of a working and living environment. In the circus, the need to generate economic sustenance is integrated into daily life, combined with the personal growth of each individual and the acquisition and improvement of manual and technical skills. The artists in this environment participate directly in all the tasks required by the theater, from the most creative to the most technical. This integrated collaboration allows for a total artistic experience, which defies conventional divisions between artists, technicians, producers and cleaning staff. Instead of separating people by class and role, it fosters a more inclusive community and artistic experience.
An approach to the content and methodologies used during the creative process
The authors’ decision to undertake collaborative work for the creation of such a show, sharing responsibilities and decisions inherent to the authorship of a work, reveals a shared awareness of the weight involved in the creative act. At that time, in 2014, they opted to turn the creative process into a constant dialogue. The growth of the piece was nurtured by continuous revisions, generating a complex fabric as new layers were incorporated. This exciting as well as demanding approach allowed them to share the workload, working together to reach goals that they would never have achieved individually.
The show had a period of research within the framework of the program “Teatralidades Expandidas - Redes de afecto [Expanded Theatricalities - Networks of Affection]” (2014), coordinated by the researcher and professor José Antonio Sanchez at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, in which they began a phase of opening and exhibition of materials. For the authors, their participation in this program, focused on writing, sought to capture the rich experience accumulated over years of circus practice in textual format. The urge to express their own experiences and ideas about the circus world led them to identify four fundamental lines of research for their project: tradition, failure, money and nomadism. The tradition inherent to an art of family origin, as well as its development in the context of the new contemporary circus schools that emerged in the 20th century. The failure manifested by many artists who are inclined to generate knowledge from the circus instead of prioritizing the development of a circus technique. Money and its relationship with the circus given the connection of this discipline with entertainment. Nomadism, a characteristic intrinsic to the circus and to the life of many contemporary artists and workers in which dynamics are produced between the romanticism of traveling and the prevailing need to be in multiple places simultaneously. These four lines were addressed in depth during the aforementioned program Teatralidades Expandidas, which explored the theme of the family as a social structure in constant transformation, providing the authors with a platform to connect circus practice with contemporary thought.
Another fundamental audiovisual reference for this phase of the creative and investigative process of the work was Aaron Schock’s documentary Circo (2010), which depicts the ways of life of a Mexican classical circus family. With the characteristics of a family unit, and wrapped in the poetry inherent to an artistic work, the Ponce family, protagonists of the documentary, constitute what Virno, when referring to people who experience contemporary ways of life, describes as individuals “accustomed to no longer having solid customs and habits, used to sudden changes, exposed to the unusual and the unforeseen. They are beings who day by day are forced to confront a reality in permanent change and renewal” (Virno, 2003, p. 31).
The conflict raised by the documentary Circo, based on the labor relations that sustain a circus family, connects the authors with concepts very close to the four lines of research raised at the beginning of this section, as well as to other similar problematics that are also frequently analyzed by contemporary scenic and plastic arts, such as precarity, hyper-mobility, excessive work and impermanence. Addressing these concepts leads us to the following question: What lessons can be drawn from a traditional circus family to help us understand the issues arising in contemporary societies?
Residing on the basis of diversity
Group collaboration and cooperation between individuals make it possible to bring about situations that would otherwise be impossible to achieve. The remodeling of a house, the setting up of an artistic space or the creation of a circus performance all translate into the emission of a voice, made up of different voices, capable of resonating strongly. Solo no puedes, con amigos sí (Alone you can’t, with friends you can), proclaimed the well-known Spanish Television program of the eighties La bola de Cristal (“The Crystal Ball”, 1984-1988), summarizing in a simple way the power of the group versus the limited capacity of individual action (La Bola..., 2004).
Although collaboration with others amplifies any action taken, it also creates tensions inherent to neoliberalism. The mantra of group work, characteristic of post-Fordist economies, weaves a web of hierarchies, interests, domination and submission that is difficult to bypass. As the researcher Bojana Kunst (2009) suggests in her text Prognosis on Collaboration: “group pressure and collective identification become the new repression of that faceless and nameless taskmaster, a taskmaster who dissolves under the concept of group”.
In the documentary Circo, the games of domination played by an omnipresent grandfather stand as a representation of situations that occur in a society where hierarchies continue to be fundamental. The key question is how to turn the group into a space where hierarchies and pressures do not reproduce the classic dynamics inherited from a society based on exploitation. It is essential to look for those moments in which the group becomes a space for dialogue and multiplication of forces, enabling the expansion of the group’s own field of action. This can happen in horizontal organizations where friendship or the desire to create predominate over conflicts or abuses. It can also happen in hierarchical organizations, where both the leader and the lower echelons of the hierarchy get involved with the rest of the group, taking on the role of facilitators and collaborators. However, it is difficult to know with certainty the reasons why some work groups are fluid and communicative, while others are closed and flawed over time.
In the text In Praise of Love, Badiou (2009, p. 9) asks the following question: “What is the world practiced, examined and lived on the basis of difference and not identity? I think that love is that”. This statement describes the ways in which the authors of the work examined in this text handle notions of authorship and ownership of their pieces. Sharing the processes of creation facilitates both the production and the experience of the works. Although the first gesture or the first idea may originate in a person, it is the process of creation that possesses the real strength and content. A creation supported by the continuous revision of the material generated implies a constant rewriting that blurs individual ownership and enables spaces for collective creation. One does not judge the work of the other; one simply receives the material and modifies it as necessary to move forward. Freeing oneself from one’s own text and trusting that the other not only corrects it, but also continues it, contributes and completes it with his or her own subjectivity, attenuates the pressures associated with a system that still elevates the genius artist as the predominant figure in art.
The authors of the work approach their artistic collaboration as an infinite journey, whose outcome is uncertain despite knowing the starting point. Collaborative work, with its own perspectives and assurances, is presented as an enriching element. The conviction that the multiplicity of minds contributes to the optimal development of a project underlines the importance of the process over the initial idea. Just for the money stands as a space where the reinvention of love is explored through the realization of a joint activity, merging art and work, and blurring the boundaries between art and life. Inspired by Badiou’s words about love as a reinvention of life, the authors build creative universes that simultaneously involve work and sentimental commitments. They propose a way of durability of loving relationships, promoting creativity and commitment as fundamental elements for the construction of a new and proper temporality, according to Badiou’s perspective, which allows for a more significant appropriation of the time available, and the time lived together.
Conclusion – Reinventing life: new perspectives in a contemporary time and space
The piece Just for the Money reflects thinker Paolo Virno’s ideas on the contemporary condition of the foreigner and the thinker, figures who share the experience of not feeling completely at home. This sensation, evident in the case of the foreigner, also characterizes the contemporary intellectual, who finds himself in a constant exploration of diverse ideas and contexts. In the case of the circus artist, this condition manifests itself through his or her nomadism, the dissolution of the boundaries between work and personal life, and the constant need to adapt to new environments, languages and communities. According to Virno, this sense of foreignness turns the intellect into an orienting compass, an indispensable tool in a world marked by uncertainty and constant change. As the philosopher points out:
Being a foreigner, that is, ‘not feeling at home’, is today a condition common to many, an inescapable and shared condition. And well: those who do not feel at home, in order to orient themselves and protect themselves, must resort to the common places, that is, to the general categories of the linguistic intellect; in this sense, foreigners are always thinkers (Virno, 2003, p. 38).
In the circus context, this intellectual compass materializes in the common places shared by people who embody various forms of nomadic life: artists who live in vans, in tents or in industrial buildings, artists who change clothes in the street, who juggle at traffic lights, who go from town to town doing their shows, artists who sleep in gyms during street festivals, artists who occupy houses while paying for their studios, others who live no more than a month in one city, who travel from place to place, from country to country, artists who every time they arrive in a city look in their contact book to see if they know anyone in that place, artists who do their laundry in a different washing machine every time, who cook and eat at a camping table, others who eat all together in a big tent, artists who separate from their family to go far away for several months, others who travel with their children and their dogs everywhere, artists without a house, others with a mobile home and others with one in which they live only during the winters. All of them foreigners, foreigners because of their mobility, for being away from their hometown, for having to speak another language to communicate, for arriving in a new place and looking for someone to talk to, for feeling discriminated against, for not fitting in with their friends, foreigners for being from somewhere else. All of them thinkers, thinkers because of their ability to be estranged from the world they inhabit, to reflect on their place in it and to find, in everyday life, ways to stay connected to what is essential.
Just for the Money transcends traditional representations of success and technical prowess associated with the circus to explore these hidden and poetic dynamics. By addressing the tensions between security and uncertainty, between community and isolation, the piece stages a living experience, where artistic creation becomes a laboratory for reinventing human relationships. It not only evidences the connection between art and contemporary thought, but also offers a critical and hopeful vision of how emerging forms of life can reimagine belonging, collaboration and identity in a changing world.
Epilogue
“You have to invest in the business, I know that, but you also have to invest in the staff.... You have to invest in people...” says the protagonist and wife of the circus owner’s son in the documentary Circo. Tired of a way of life in which her father-in-law takes advantage of the family’s enthusiasm for the profession to pay as little as possible, she demands a change from her husband, and heir to the circus. A change that dignifies the lives of workers, that values the tasks of people beyond mere investment in infrastructure. There is no doubt that this structure needs economic investment. Parts, cars, vans, materials, lights, and cables are essential for the proper functioning of the circus, but people are also necessary. She comes from a non-circus family and sees things from another point of view. Not everything is the desire to create and perform, to present the work in front of an audience and receive applause. She observes how the grandfather still has all the power. Although it is a team effort, a work in which everyone contributes from the heart, there is only one person who decides what is bought, what is invested in and how profits and benefits are divided. For him, investment in infrastructure, not in people, is the priority. It seems that artists have enough merely by showing their work, as if their enthusiasm fills their stomachs or that filling those stomachs is enough of a reward. It seems that the important thing is to have nice lights, new trucks or fancy costumes. It seems as if artists have to be content with what they are given. It seems that it has always been like that and it has to be like that forever. It would appear that the grandfather, as the person who started the circus, and who has the contacts and the most experience, is above all the others. Above the physical work, the dirty work, the work that involves continually bending down and getting up. And yes, it really does look that way. Group members are content to have quality, beautiful materials to work with; they are satisfied with walking around clean, well-organized places; they are content with pats on the back. But sometimes, and this happens very rarely, the unforeseeable, the unthinkable happens; she, the mother, goes home with her children to her parents’ house leaving the circus in the lurch. And then, something changes, suddenly there are no numbers, no juggling, no acrobatics, no creation of new routines, no muscle to lift structures and no strength to pull the animals. And it is at that moment when the grandfather alone, in his caravan, begins to doubt.
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The original text, translated by Tony O’Sullivan, is also published in Portuguese in this issue of the journal.
References
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- BADIOU, Alain. Elogio del amor. Paris: Flammarion, 2009.
- CIRCO. Director Aaron Schock. México; EE.UU.: Hecho a mano Films, C5, 2010. DVD.
- ELIÉCER MARTINEZ, Jorge. Paolo Virno. Gramática de la multitud. Para un anâlisis de las formas de vida contemporâneas. Tabla Rasa, n. 5, p. 307-310, 2006.
- IRIBARREN, Itsaso; De la RIVA, German. Just for the money. Una historia de circo. 2015a. (Obra de circo).
- IRIBARREN, Itsaso; De la RIVA, German. “Just for the money. Una historia de circo”. In: BELVIS, Esther; SANCHEZ, José Antonio (Ed.). No hay más poesia que la acción. Teatralidades expandidas y repertorios disidentes. México D.F.: Paso de Gato, 2015b. p. 149-155.
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KUNST, Bojana. Prognosis con Collaboration. In: BRANSTETTER, Gabriele; EIKELS, Kai van; PETERS, Sybille (Ed.). Prognoses über Bewegungen. Berlin: B-Books, 2009. Disponible en: http://www.ivanamuller.com/contexts/bojana-kunst-prognosis-on-collaboration. Consultado el: 30 de marzo de 2024.
» http://www.ivanamuller.com/contexts/bojana-kunst-prognosis-on-collaboration. - LA BOLA de Cristal (serie). Director Lolo Rico. Madrid: Círculo Digital D.L., 2004. DVD.
- THE WIRE (serie). Director David Simon. Nueva York: HBO, 2010. DVD.
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- WIÑAYPACHA. Director Oscar Catacora. Peru: Cine Aymara Studios, 2017. DVD.
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Editors-in-charge:
Eliene Benicio Amâncio Costa; Mario Fernando Bolognesi
