Mois : octobre 2023

Not really – but since the ‘Meta-verse’ has decided it’s going to bring in subscriptions for people who don’t want to see publicity on their social network platforms, I (and millions of others it seems) are questioning if it’s really worth staying…

I left Facebook some years ago – they didn’t notice, much less I, so I’m pretty sure I won’t suffer too much… there are people who pretend they have no interest, then go bonkers when someone likes their bike videos…

It’s going to cost nearly 13€ for the ‘right’ to use Instagram on a telephone, less if it’s on a PC. I frankly can’t see the point – I have a few followers there (435 it seems) but there are probably only 5 or 6 who look at my posts on a regular basis, and 4 of those are family.

Probably time to call it a day – which will give me more time to do other things…

The week of the Festival is drawing to a close, and on before I left for the Thursday evening performance, I had a quick look at the details for the Cie Raoul Lambert on the site of CiRCa. I had bemoaned the fact that for my last two ‘real’ performances, I didn’t know the companies etc. etc.

Turns out I was wrong – Mathiew (Despoisse) and Marine (Fourteau) are old friends – and Marine was even born in the Gers! So off I went and it was great to see them again – one of the things I had to get used to at a very early stage in my ‘career’ photographing circus artists, is that EVERYBODY kisses EVERYBODY – men, women, horses – the lot! And nothing changed last night!!

This image is from my Instagram post (haven’t treated the other 700 images yet….) – very entertaining hour and twenty minutes – there are several magic tricks and things that the company don’t want to divulge to the public, so the album might be shortish…this will be fun trying to sort it out!

Sort of forgot to mention our day trip to Bordeaux a couple of weeks ago – the highlight of the day, after seeing my daughter again (mwaj xxx) was a trip to the submarine base.

This has been on the books for a while now, and we finally made it to visit the Dali exhibition which was set to music from Pink Floyd – yeah!!

Four of the 8 pens have been sealed off (to the outside) and a mass of video projecteurs beam images on the walls and floors with superb reflections in the water of the pens.

In the furthest pen from the entrance, they have built a large inclined seating area – so you can relax and let the images roll over you – with the excellent sound system, it really makes for an excellent visit.

The entrance fee is 16€, and it’s a good idea to book online, you can infact stay as long as you like – we saw the whole sequence twice, and it took just over an hour. Well worth the effort and the price.

It’s the last school holidays of the year – so it’s time for the Festival CiRca, or to give it’s full name, the 36e Festival de Cirque Actuel.

As usual, the festival last a week, and for me started on the first Saturday with a belgian compagnie called Grensgeval who presented us with « Murmur« 

Very innovative – the audience, sitting on the scene with the actor, all wore small backpacks which they were not allowed to open. Some of the backpacks contained Bluetooth speakers and at certain moments of the show, these came to life and the sound followed the actor around the scene – very enjoyable, and a great start to my week.

Next up were old friends the Cie Aïtal (based in Toulouse) – their show « A Ciel Ouvert » (Out in the Open) was typical extreme, and great slapstick circus.

Unusually for modern circus, this also included animals – well, birds in fact! Four chickens, three doves and a pair of ducks – great performance.

Since the weekend I’ve managed to photograph the Federation of French circus schools who have a series of their schools performing each day, and we both enjoyed « ‘Brame » by the Cie Libertivore on Sunday.

Brame

The Collectif Sous le Manteau were at the Mouzon this weekend with « Mikado » – pretty obvious why really – the scene was simply a huge number of pipes, a bit like the game ‘Mikado’ – they 6 artists spent their time climbing up and swinging off the structures that they’d created – very dynamic and entertaining.

Mikado

Cirque Queer gave us « Le Premier Artifice » on Tuesday evening and I have to admit I was slightly disappointed as their normal brand of extravagent costumes and make-up seemed overshadowed by a very inconsistent stage show. The lighting was not brilliant (pun intended) and artists should have realsied by now that wearing hats obscures a lot of the face – a sad waste frankly. We (the photographers) were not allowed into the tent until everyone else as the artists were « stressed » (when aren’t they) – I somehow think the transition from male to female has been taken a little to far….

Le Premier Artifice

Another show with a question mark, and possibly one of the worst I’ve ever seen here in Auch, was by the Cie Diagonale du Vide who gave us « Le l’Hiver, le ciel est bleu » (It’s winter and the sky is blue)

I had occasion to follow their residence here in April, and at the time I thought the spectacle was a bit repetitive and extremely pedestrian – but since then things seem to have got a lot worse. Possibly the most frustrating thing was the almost total lack of actual ‘circus’ – Idriss (the man) played with a series of juggling clubs, but did no actual juggling – when Mona climbed into a mass of rope hanging from the ceiling, her movements were more frenetic than stylish and posed. A great shame as we got on well, and I admit I was hoping for a lot better.

Tonight is free, but for Thursday and Friday I’ll be seeing shows from two groups of artists that I don’t know, which is always fun.