From square to collective

No longer say Carré Curieux, but Collectif Curieux.

Formed in 2007, Carré Curieux, Cirque Vivant! evolved, changed. It was after leaving the Ecole Supérieure des Arts du Cirque in Brussels that Luca Aeschlimann, Vladimir Couprie, Gert De Cooman and Kenzo Tokuoka decided to create and work together. With their shows, including Le Carré Curieux, in 2009, and Famille Choisie, in 2018, they have traveled the world and acquired international fame.
Today, with the departure of some of the co-founders of the company and with the experience gained, the time has come for a kind of reset, a realignment of the planets.

More than a change of name, it is a change of dynamics and a return to the sources of a circus of free and authentic creation. Who says collective thinks sharing experiences, pooling decisions and common values. The Collectif Curieux brings together different project leaders who will carry out their creation, independently, alone or with others, while being able to count at all times on the experience, knowledge and techniques of the other members of the collective. .

Vladimir Couprie and Pedro Miguel Silva now occupy the general and artistic direction, and Elana Rillh, the administrative direction, but this nucleus is called upon to expand gradually.

In the diversity of circus aesthetics brought by each project leader, the Collectif Curieux is betting on accepting differences and nuanced, even opposing points of view, as sources of wealth.

The show Connexio, by Vladimir and his dog Alba, created in 2021 under Carré Curieux, Cirque Vivant!, will mark the transition between the two names. The duo thwarts the expectations and the springs of canine training to prefer a real complicity between two artists who seek each other, gauge each other and find themselves from two to four legs.

In 2023, it is under the Collectif Curieux label that we will see “What If …” by Pedro Miguel Silva, a show with stunning illusions and cinematographic aesthetics. The project is built with the complicity of Gert De Cooman, this crazy builder who puts all his know-how at the service of innovative and very clever effects. Pedro was trained in acro-dance at ESAC, then in New Magic at the Center National des Arts du Cirque de Châlons-en-Champagne, he likes to divert existing techniques to bring them to unexpected visions in new dramatic scripts. The magic effect, the light and sound creation will plunge the spectator into a waking dream where what we believe to be impossible is no longer so.

The Collectif Curieux will also be the Florilèges Curieux, events that integrate small forms in cabaret mode. White cards that highlight the know-how and creative diversity of the collective and of the companies and guest artists.

More than a name, Collectif Curieux is an incubator that brings together diverse individuals and shares in their works and shows their passion for a contemporary, innovative and unifying circus.