衛武營國家藝術文化中心 National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying)

Where does circus come from and where is it going to? Through 5 meetings over 3 days, we are delighted to have more than 20 speakers from home and abroad to talk about technique, creation, teamwork, venue management, platform building, and network development. This forum looks into the risks we are taking and why we are taking them. Can some of them be avoided? Are some of them necessary?

In the fourth edition of Weiwuying Circus Platform, National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) and Formosa Circus Art collaborate for the first time to organize the event together. We invite circus professionals from Taiwan, Asia and Europe to make sense of the present landscape and picture the future of circus in an exciting series of activities. The three-day encounter involves forum, talk, and round-table session, touching on cultural policy, cross-disciplinary creation, body technique, regional partnership, and support system. It aims to facilitate the dialogue and mutual understanding between different agents of the industry in an open and lively atmosphere.

This forum’s participants come from governmental institution, art center, educational institution, curating company and production team. The roles they play include leader, policy advocator, venue director, program planner, educator, curator, critic, production advisor, director, artist, performer, company manager and administrator. Regardless of our background and identity, we find ourselves in the constant search for equilibrium, swing, fun, and adventure upon entering the realm of circus, a wonderland full of whimsical muses and naughty, fearless mavericks.

Agenda

※This forum is for three days(22.Nov. – 24.Nov.) and the individual should register them separately.

How to register

• The forum welcomes professionals in circus and street art, arts managers, educators, producers, festival programmers, curators, artists, peers at public sectors and citizens who are interested in the arts.
• A total of three days forum can be registered separately. Each participant can register for three days at the same time
• NT$500 deposit is required for each day programme. Deposit will be returned to participant at the end of each day after full attendance.
• Number of participants is limited to 80, places are limited and strictly first come first serve basis.
• Registration: Weiwuying website online registration → pay deposit → check registration condition → registration successful.

Panelists

Executive Director of ARTCENA (French National Center for Circus/Street Arts/Theatre) Gwénola David

A graduate of Sciences Po Paris and Paris Dauphine University, Gwénola David worked as a journalist and critic for 15 years. She became deputy director of the National Circus Arts Center and then the general coordinator of La Belle Saison with childhood and youth, a national event initiated by the French Ministry of Culture. She then led the merger between the National Center of Theater and HorsLesMurs and in 2016 took the general direction of the new structure, Artcena - National Center for circus, street arts and theater.

She has published several books on circus and theater.

Director of Glowing Green Production Ping SUN

Exhibition producer and director of Glowing Green Production Ping Sun has served as the operation consultant for the Guling Street Avant-garde Theater and a consultant for the Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab “C-LAB”. For many years she’s conducted research into the future of art, with experimental art acting as a foundation; in addition to this, she’s long participated in a variety of creative projects, providing art organizations and government institutions with consultation services, creative insight on various projects and resource integration. Sun has recently started an art project on the five senses targeted at children, which she sees as a novel and exciting new challenge after becoming a mother, this is in addition to her important role overseeing the Cultural Taiwan Foundation’s international projects.

Artistic Director of Seoul Street Arts Festival/Seoul Circus Festival Dong Hee CHO

I studies on cultural policies and cultural projects in France during 5 years. Since 2010, I work at Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture that is supported by Seoul Metropolitan City. I initiated since 2012 the Seoul Street Arts Creation Center(SSACC), Korea’s first Street Arts and Circus base camp for production, practice, education and distribution and also initiated Circus Asia Network(CAN). Since 20 years, I work in the field of Street Arts and Arts in public space running many international projects in collaboration with foreign countries.

Artistic Director of Formosa Circus Art Tsung Hsuan LEE

As a choreographer, director and dancer, Lee’s creation cross through movement, image, new media art and contemporary circus. He’s the current artistic director of Formosa Circus Art, former dancer of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, Taipei Crossover Dance Company, the Tussock Dance Theatre, Meimage Dance. His recent works include “Wukong: Before the Journey to the West”, commissioned by Taiwan Traditional Theatre Center, is having a tour performance in Japan in 2020 、 “Disappearing Island”, which performed in 2019 Taipei Arts Festival, is an outdoor immersive performance as well as a developing creation plan for Shezi Island, Taipei City. He’s the choreographer of opening and closing ceremony of 2017 Taipei Summer Universiade. His directing work “Olé” has been toured in Taiwan since 2016, which makes it became the most wide toured contemporary circus creation in Taiwan. He was also the movement director of “How Long Is Now?” in 2016 Taipei Arts Festival and “Self & Others”.

Independent performing / visual artist LUIS SARTORI DO VALE

Luis was born in 1982 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and currently lives in Helsinki, Finland.
After completing a diploma in Fine Arts, he graduated from the Ecole Supérieure des Arts du Cirque (ESAC, Belgium) in 2008, specializing in juggling and acrobatics.
Besides his own projects, he has worked with different circus and dance directors, such as Rolf Alme, Liisa Risu, Reynaldo Ramperssad and Anna Nilsson, and companies such as Archaos, Les 7 Doigts de la Main and Hurjaruuth.
In 2012 he co-founded the Finnish company NUUA, becoming one of the five laureates of the international project Circus Next (Jeunes Talents du Cirque). With the performance Lento they have toured in 15 countries.
When not working with performing arts, Luis works with visual arts: illustration, photography and animation.

Independent performing artist / circus school director PEDRO SARTORI DO VALE

Pedro was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in 1985. He started circus at the age of 14. A hobby at first, it quickly became a passion and later a profession. After a short period of studying industrial design, he moved to Belgium, where he graduated from the École Superieure des Arts du Cirque, ESAC, in 2011.In the past years, Pedro has worked in different shows, companies and festivals around Europe and Brazil, including the company Feria Musica (Belgium), Coletivo Na Esquina (Brazil), Palazzo (Austria), Zanzibar (France) and many others.Specialized in acrobatics and Chinese pole, he has always been fascinated by the art of “displacement”, constantly developing a research about body movement in different areas, such as capoeira, gymnastics, tricks/kung fu and dance.

Resident Director of Shakespeare's Wild Sisters Group Baboo Liao

Born in 1978, Baboo holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from the Taipei National University of Arts. He was artist in residency at National Theater and Concert Hall, Taipei in 2017. He was artist in residency at the Watermill Center hosted by Robert Wilson in 2008, 2014 and 2017. Baboo has been frequently invited to international exchange programs and performances, and as a prolific young director, he continues to maintain high visibility, receiving much attention from various fields.

Since his theatre directing debut in 1997, Baboo has directed some twenty-nine productions, two of which have earned him the awards for Taishin Arts Awards for Annual Top 10 Performing Arts. Recent works include: Mythology Upon the Table（2019）,God Knows（2018）, Caged Time, Common Tragedies（2017）,How Long is Now?(Taipei Arts Festive), Serenade, One Hundred Years of Solitude (2016), Yoko, Neko and Mom（2015), Absente: rendez-vous avec Sophie Calle（2013), Der Schönste Moment(2009) and Hsu Yen-ling X Sylvia Plath(2008).

Director of Thunar Circus Cheng-Tsung LIN

Creator/performer in contemporary circus; founder and director of Thunar Circus. With a MA degree in Drama from National Taiwan University of Arts, LIN has devoted himself to the contemporary circus production and the performing arts education.He is adept in combining everyday objects from the traditional culture with a variety of natural elements and translating them into contemporary circus performances. Interested in exploring and experimenting with contemporary circus, he believes that the human body as well as the objects both come with their unique rhythms and exuberance. When the human body interacts with objects and physical space, our imaginative sense will be awakened in a poetic way, releasing the inborn humanity and affections toward philosophical reflection on modern society.

Circus Arts Residency (CAR) Artist LEE JUNSANG
In 2012, JUN got a chance to appear in radio broadcasting . He has abilities at creating illusions and developing phenomena using magic principles. He started his magician career as a juggler since 2015 and won the gold prize in the Taiwan International Diabolo Contest in 2016. In 2017, JUN completed the Seoul Street Art Center ‘Circus Next’ program and experienced the Canada Montreal Circus School and the Circus Festival. In 2018, he founded 'Circus D.Lab' and has beenworking on contemporary circus pieces . As a self-challenger, , he participated in the European Juggling Convention in 2017 and 2019, and various overseas street festivals such as Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Fira Tàrrega Spain, and Zurich Theater Spectakel in Switzerland, etc.

Circus Arts Residency (CAR) Artist PARK SANGHYUN

While I studied in ISAAC(International School for Acting and Creativity), my team made a show “The book of the clown” and performed it in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Paris, Adelaide fringe festival. In 2018, throughout the ‘circus pumping-up’ program, I performed ‘My circus’ in the Seoul Street Arts Festival as a tight wire-walker. That was experimental performance mainly about the performer’s own story with sound-art.

, And I also tried to combine circus with theatre, movement, jazz music, and puppets. , Recently I’m doing a research project about slack wire(rope).

In 2019,The main theme is ‘Why we are performing on the street?’ Let's make it simple’.

So I’ve been experimenting with performances in different purposes and places as a guerilla.

Circus Arts Residency (CAR) Artist EUM YEEUN

I majored in acting in college and prepared street and circus performances for my graduation performance. After graduating from college, my colleagues started to make a troupe and explored street plays and circus in earnest. Inspired by the fairy tale, ‘Pinocchio’, we brought unicycle and trampoline into circus creation performed this show at various street festivals. , We later created more circus shows such as <RobotPhilia> and <Like a Sisyphus>.

Currently, with Aerial Silk as the main technique, I am participating in the <Circus Pumping-up Project> of the 'Seoul Street Arts Creation Center'. In this process, we had a more in-depth look at techniques such as Chinese poles, tightwires, dance, and acrobatic, and experienced improvisation using various circus apparatus.

General Manager of the CNAC (National Centre of Circus Arts in France) Gérard Fasoli

Gérard Fasoli has trained in both the arts and sports. Raised in a family of musicians, he has sung, danced and acted. Within the cultural sector, he has worked in the professional circus milieu as a trapeze artist, acrobat, aerial choreographer, and technical and artistic advisore. After working in the traditional circus (Alexis Gruss, Kröne), he also participated in several creations with the Baroque and Archaos circuses, and worked with emerging companies of the time (AOC, Moglice Von Verx, Hors Piste). He has created stage designs for Espèces, Human Articulation and Le Mâtitube, the fruit of his collaboration with the author Christophe Huysman.

The CNAC board of directors subsequently named him general manager of the establishment with the approval of the Ministry of Culture. He took up his post on December 17th 2012.

Associate professor of Department of Acrobatics of National Taiwan College of Performing Arts Hsiao-Lei LEE

She was the main dancer of WSRDC in New York, The solo dancer of Birlibirloque Dance Theater, representative of New York to participate in D.T.W.A dancing competition and entered the next round, cooperating with many famous choreographers, namely, Hernando Cortez, John Mead, Mark DeGarmo, Lily Cabatu, Hea-Ruen Kang, TSAI Jui-Yueh.

Vice Director/Creators/Performer of Formosa Circus Art Kuan Ting CHEN

Circus performer and creator. As vice company director, Chen co-founded MIX Acrobatics Theater with Lin back in 2009. He has accumulated different circus creation including “Circus Party”, “Songs of the Land”, “Future for FOCA”. His outdoor work “Puzzle” was invited to perform at 2019 Darwin Festival. Recently he has been devoted himself to directing his next work The Daily Routine of Circus”and exercising skill of juggling hat. He choreographed “Pursue Our Dreams”, served as technical director of “Self & Others”, “Olé” and “Wukong: Before the Journey to the West”. As a performer, he took part in Festival d'Avignon Off, Taiwan Season - Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He steels himself for his next performance “The Daily Routine of Circus” and juggling hat.

Director and performing artist of Taiwan Street Arts and Culture Development Association Kai Hsuan HSU

Kai Hsuan Hsu graduated from the Graduate Institute of Biophysics of National Central University, and is currently carrying out research on air pollution at the Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica. When not at work, he performs as a street artist all around the world.He’s performed his set “Mario Game Time” at the Siam Street World Competition as well as at festivals in Korea; including the Busan International Performing Arts Festival, the Chuncheon Theater Festival, and the Busan Busking Festival in Haeundae.Hsu has also served as the art consultant for the National Busking Competition: Street Art Competival and was a member of the “Taipei Busker” panel. Currently, in his capacity as director of the Taiwan Street Arts and Culture Development Association (Str. ACD), he strives to create an environment conducive to promoting street art in Taiwan whilst also making connections with foreign art festivals and performers with the hope of creating a thriving street art scene.

Head of International Development at ARTCENA (French National Center for Circus/Street Arts/Theatre) & Coordinator of Circostrada, the European Network for Circus Arts and Street Arts Stéphane Segreto-Aguilar

Stéphane Segreto-Aguilar is the Head of International Development at ARTCENA, the French National Center for Circus, Street Arts, and Theater, as well the Coordinator of Circostrada, the European Network for Circus Arts and Street Arts. Holder of a MA in Arts Management and European Cultural Policies, he has been exploring for the past ten years the interconnections between culture, identity and international relations, while promoting artistic creation as a tool for social transformation and experimenting with new ways of cooperation and governance.

Founder of Hsingho Co., Ltd. & HoooH Yu-Lun CHIANG

Born in Nantou, graduated from National Taiwan University of Art, BA in the Department of Dance. Having performed in numerous important dance pieces, Chiang holds a long-term collaborative relationship with the HORSE Dance Theatre and has participated in numerous projects with different roles. Besides it, she co-found the Hsingho Co., Ltd. and HoooH with Hsing-Ho Chen, which is dedicated to promoting the circus culture in Taiwan and holds large-scale circus and street arts events and professional workshops. By the experience from dance and theatre, the company has enriched and expanded the definition of circus and street arts in Taiwan.

Head, International Partnerships Artistic Planning and Production National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying), Taiwan Gwen Hsin-Yi CHANG

Born in Taipei, Gwen Hsin-Yi Chang was local in Europe for eight years and has been contributing her talents of multiple languages, creativity and professional skills for carrying out intercultural projects in government organisations and private sectors. She has been actively engaging in arts communities and joined the Artistic Planning and Production team of Weiwuying for international development in 2017 to enhance sustainable collaborations for contemporary dance and circus.

Gwen had founded the AxE Arts Management while being based in Europe. As producer, she aimed at enhancing cultural exchange through arts and strengthening mutual understanding beyond cultural differences. Such as a 3-year Artist in Residency project in collaboration with Ten Drum Cultural Creative Group to present interdisciplinary artists from Europe and commissioned on-situ works in ancient sugar factories in southern Taiwan. She also presented Taiwanese dance artists with the support of Taiwanese Cultural centers and brought successful tours across Europe, such as Legend Lin Dance Theatre in the Maison de la danse, Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse; B.DANCE in the Ferme de Buisson; Anarchy Dance Theatre in the opening of European Capitol of Culture Wroclaw, Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, Festival d’Avignon Off and Edinburgh Fringe.

She has dedicated to international communications for Taishin Arts Award and CSR project in the Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture. By the time she has successfully carried out the arts & community project for south-east Asian immigrants and their family in Taiwan. In 2010, she contributed in the Corporate Affaires department of Standard Chartered Bank; further collaborated with the French Institut and Taipei Fine Arts Museum for the exhibition ‘Mobilité, sons et formes’ by GRAME - Centre national de création musicale in Lyon, France.

Director / Founder of Setouchi Circus Factory Michiko TANAKA

The encounter with contemporary circus has completely changed her life in 2004 when she was working for a journal as a event producer in Hokkaido. After invited four European circus companies and gathered 20.000 audience, she quitted the company to be an independent producer, to be an expert of contemporary circus. She moved in Setouchi region, then founded Setouchi Circus Factory in 2012 to nurture a culture of contemporary circus in Japan. The choice of Setouchi was an expression of a cultural decentralization in this country. The axis of Setouchi Circus Factory is; artistic creation, residency programs, artistic training programs, circus education for kids, and networking. These activities are closely related to territories to revitalize and activate them. The recent interest is collaborating with different industrial companies.

Founding Director of Formosa Circus Art Chih Wei LIN

Founding Director of Formosa Circus Art, Former Cloud Gate Dance Theatre contributing Dancer, Lin initiated his performing career at the age of ten, accumulating twenty years of professional trainings and performances. After graduating from Department of Acrobatics, National Taiwan College of Performing Arts in 2008, he studied at the Department of Exercise and Health Sciences at the University of Taipei. In 2009 he founded MIX Acrobatics Theater, which had become FOCA in 2014. He promotes the local creation of Taiwanese circus art, meanwhile, attempts to establish a sustainable artistic environment. Today, as an emerging performing arts team, it is rare in Taiwan to be like FOCA which has nearly 20 full-time members including artists and staffs.

Since the founding of FOCA, Lin has been a performer, director, producer, planner, public relations and so on. In recent years, he has focused on contemporary circus production, circus artist cultivation and international network and market development, creating opportunities for collaboration with artists from different fields. At the same time, he also invested in the promotion of circus education, from kindergarten children, middle school students, technology company staff to the elderly of the nursing home. He is also an important promoter of FOCA's more than 100 performances per year.

Freelance writer 、translator Liang Ting KUO

KUO Liang-Ting, adjunct lecturer at National Chung Cheng University, art critic and translator, graduated from the University Rennes 2 – Upper Brittany. He translated Un ethnologue dans le métroof Marc Augé, Allitérationof Jean-Luc Nancy and Mathilde Monnier, L’utilità dell’inutileof Nuccio Ordine, Fragilitéof Jean-Claude Carrière. He writes also for Performance Art Review, Artco and Art critique of Taiwan.

Moderator

Dramaturg of National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) Yi-Wei KENG

Yi-Wei KENG is the dramaturg of National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts-Weiwuying, visiting assistant professor of theatre arts at National Taipei University of Arts. He was the artistic director of Taipei Arts Festival (2012-17). He was awarded the Freundshcaftsmedaille and Chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres.Yi-Wei Keng has written the books which include Tips for Story Writing‚Robert Wilson: The Infinite Power of Lights‚The Short History of Modern Mime. He translates the books from Letters to Felice, Empty Space , and Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Studies.Recently, he did the performace lecutre-performance-installation Laharmpa in the Art Museum for the exihibtion Everyday Life Comprehensible and Incomprehensible (2015),and installation Last Summer you didn’t stay I am here for the exhibition Arena(2017), all in Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

Curator/Freelance writer Ling Chih CHOW

Ling Chih Chow is a curator, art critic, playwright, playwright consultant, writer, and lecturer of theater aesthetics and creative writing courses. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Theater: Practical and Aesthetic from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a master’s degree in performing arts from Université Rennes 2. Her experience includes writing proposals, organizing forums and workshops for books and magazines, as well as having participated in various art festivals and drama/dance productions. The positions she’s held in recent years include that of concept manager and consultant for Arts Ticket 2017 Fall Dance, consultant for the 2018 Innovation Series, curator of the “Metamorphosis of Time” exhibition, which was part of the Inception Lab Project at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, curator of the 2017 & 2018 Keelung Harbor & Mountain Projects “Moor” and “Listening to the Tide”, curator of the 2019 Tainan Arts Festival. Her art reviews, reports, and other works have been published both on-line and in print media. She’s an enthusiastic hard worker that is constantly on the move!

International Affairs Manager & Resident Dramaturg of Formosa Circus Art Tai-Jung YU

As the International Affairs Manager and Resident Dramaturg of Formosa Circus Art (FOCA), Yu majored in Theatre Theory in Department of Theatre Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA). He’s a performing arts production coordinator, writer and the current member of International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC), Taiwan Branch. Since 2018, Yu represent FOCA as one of the founding committee of Circus Asia Network – CAN. He also curated the first ever Contemporary Circus Forum in Taiwan “What Kind of Art Is This? 2018 Taiwan Contemporary Circus/Acrobatics Forum－The Derivation and Transformation of BodyTechniques in Taiwan”. He worked as a dramaturg in many different works, including “Disappearing Island”, “Wukong: Before the Journey to the West”, “The Daily Routine of Circus” of FOCA, “The City”, “The Lemming” of TNUA. In 2019, He cooperates with National Kaohsiung center for the Arts (Weiwuying) to conduct Weiwuying Circus platform and moderates 2019 Taiwan Korea Circus Residency Project workshop.

Forum Team

Leader│ Gwen Hsin Yi CHANG, Tai Jung YU
Consultant │ Yi-Wei KENG, Ling Chih CHOW
Executive Planner│Yi Chun CHEN, Ching Yuan HUANG, Yu Hsin CHEN
Organizer │National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying)
Co-organizer │ Formosa Circus Art