Bagneux

Le Plus Petit Cirque du Monde/

circus arts

Le Plus Petit Cirque du Monde

Photo Club Bagneux Photo Club Bagneux

Le Plus Petit Cirque du Monde (PPCM) is an association created in 1992. It is a school for the arts of risk, an artists' residency, a performance factory and a main actor in the development of the heritage of urban peripheries. Inscribed in the values of the social and solidarity economy, the PPCM mobilizes the circus values to the service of the emancipation for everyone and the social link. It is a place of practice, experimentation, exchanges and meetings.

 

THE HERITAGE SITE

The PPCM, located in the Tertres Cuverons political district of Bagneux (92), has a building of nearly 2000m2. The wooden tent, reminiscent of fairground architecture, reaches 28 meters high. Built by Loïc Julienne and Patrick Bouchain, this place is part of a heritage environment made up of social housing from the 1950s and 1960s designed by great architects such as Bodiansky, Gillet and Gomis.

The construction of the building in collaboration with the architectural firm "Construire" has led the PPCM to develop an axis linking artistic permanence, valorization of suburban heritage and innovative architectural approaches. This artistic, cultural, civic and participatory project has enabled Le Plus Petit Cirque du Monde to acquire expertise in the field of city building: artistic and architectural permanence, collective expression of needs and embodiment of transformation processes through multidisciplinary artistic interventions combining circus, dance, urban cultures and music.

THE CULTURAL PROJECT

The PPCM has a popular and demanding artistic project that places encounters and experimentation at the center of its actions. Through its activities carried out in collaboration with multiple partners and artists in residence, the PPCM aims to be an actor in the social and urban transformation of its territory: it promotes social diversity and access to artistic and cultural practices for the working class, and encourages the participation of all in the life of the neighborhood.

Beyond the circus, the PPCM's artistic line is that of a laboratory for experimentation, the creation and promotion of new forms of expression, the accompaniment towards professionalization of young artists and the implementation of innovative relationships between artistic creation, society and the social and solidarity economy. The PPCM thus favors the creation of works and artistic forms that are flexible, combining creation and artistic action.

The cultural project places at its center the multiculturality of the priority territories of Île-de-France, the popular, cultural and artistic traditions of these territories. The approach of cultural rights, which the whole PPCM project is marked by, contributes largely to this objective of developing cultural democracy, culture "with all".

The PPCM is one of the major actors of the creative circus and its hybridizations at the national and international level: it initiates and accompanies artistic projects that experiment with new forms of creation, new relationships with the inhabitants, the heritage and the city.

ACTIVITIES

The PPCM develops artistic practices through the school of amateur practices as well as through its preparatory training for young people wishing to become professional in the circus world.

As a place of artistic residencies and show diffusion, the PPCM accompanies emerging artists from all over the world, notably through the Pépinière Premiers Pas, which responds to the problem of accompaniment and professional integration of young artists who have just graduated.

Fully invested in the transformation of its territory, Le Plus Petit Cirque du Monde wishes to put cultural democracy at the heart of the neighborhoods by allowing the city's youth to learn about the circus arts free of charge and to get involved in the daily life of their neighborhood. Involved in the reflection on the City of tomorrow, Le Plus Petit Cirque du Monde is committed to the transitional urban planning project "Le lycée avant le lycée", co-sponsored with the city of Bagneux and La Preuve par 7, a national experiment initiated by Patrick Bouchain. This place of collective construction has been designed with a view to the arrival of the first general high school in Bagneux in 2028.