Writings: Creating with Juggling

Writing with juggling implies first of all a practice, individual or collective. Even outside the framework of a stage performance, the practice of training – alone or with others – can already be an opportunity for jugglers to write. If the closest synonym for this verb could be “to compose” in the context of this file, it is because we are not just juggling when we compose routines. Whether they are for oneself, one’s peers or spectators who are not practitioners, composing with juggling means giving a certain meaning, a certain coherence to a set of techniques.

One can think from the outset that at least one juggler is in charge of what is referred to here as “writing”, and that using the plural form of the term testifies to the singularity of his or her work and research. Whether as a writer or in other roles on an artistic team, he or she is considered to be operating a singular work of composition by mobilizing at least one specific skill related to juggling. It seems obvious that the jugglers are the ones who are best able to account for the place of juggling in the writing of their works.

Yet juggling is often associated with other practices and knowledge in the creation of a work. This includes full-fledged jobs or functions, which sometimes relate to the following components (such as lighting, scenography, sound, etc.) as well as artistic practices and fields (theater, music, dance, puppetry, mime, etc.). For this reason, we would also like to consider works and creative processes for which the responsibility for the overall writing can be shared with other members of an artistic team.

It is above all a question of constituting marks and reference points that will allow us to speak as well as possible about what exists among jugglers. Such an initiative is intended to re-evaluate the use and relevance of certain expressions or reflexive entries, or on the contrary to valorize or even forge new ones. Therefore, the relevance of the plural mark to the term “juggling” is also concerned. In addition, the common base that this dossier aims to develop can be mobilized in the future to address various issues and themes in future dossiers or investigations.

This file will not deal with writing about juggling, dedicated to juggling, or around juggling. Although it can constitute the subject of a show or at least impulse notes of intentions, this form of writing remains most often implemented, without making work. However, we do not exclude the possibility of mobilizing relevant resources (books, periodicals, literature on juggling, production and distribution files, etc.) for documentation purposes; we will encourage this by proposing references of different kinds in the near future.

Several areas of study have been selected. These may overlap and may, if necessary, be the subject of several volumes in order to grasp all the issues they cover.

Identification and naming

What does the term “juggling writing” mean when it is part of a creative process? How then can we situate the writing of at least one juggler among juggling, other jugglers and more broadly in the artistic and cultural landscape? What finally characterizes a writing, to the point of distinguishing juggling from other circus practices, or even from other artistic fields?

It is a question here of putting to the test the criteria that would make it possible on the one hand to identify juggling writings. On the other hand, the challenge is also to show how they differ from other writings and creative gestures. In other words: in what way, in the overall writing of a work, does trying to distinguish juggling from other practices and scenic components find limits?

Manufacture, operation and mechanics

Because we are focusing on writing as a process, we will also analyze how juggling is brought into play to create a work, possibly as early as the routine stage. This axis implies to consider techniques and materials specific to juggling, but also d’consider different uses and discourses that may be associated with it, or on the contrary, detach themselves from it. Several questions can be asked:

– How, and under what conditions, does this process arise, emerge, evolve, and end? What makes one write with juggling? At what point(s) in particular? What changes if one composes a work solely from or from juggling, without the process in question resulting in the creation of a juggled work? What happens if one wishes to compose a work as a juggler, but where the juggling is no longer clearly there, explicitly identifiable, or even absent in the eyes of the spectators?

– How can jugglers tell a story? When can we talk aboutstories, narratives? In what way could we say that juggling is based on narrative structures? Let’s think about the rich pool of notions and methods of analysis developed in literature, art history and other disciplinary fields (theater, music, opera, dance, puppetry, cinema, etc.) or scientific fields: to what extent would it be worthwhile to delve into them to apprehend and characterize some of the potentialities of juggling?

– How can one make an archaeology of the different materials that are part of the writing of works with juggling, especially when one knows the limits and difficulties involved in the act of keeping track of them?

Recognition and ownership

How does answering all of the above questions help us to better understand the relationship that jugglers have with each other with those who compose and/or help to compose the works in which they are involved? Whether they are dramaturges, collaborators, directors, performers, etc. or have other responsibilities in a creative team, what do they do to the juggling that makes up a work?

Finally, what importance do do jugglers place on à the place of their writing and what makes it up in a creation, especially in collaborative contexts involving other professions and other fields of creation ? How is a value or a function attributed to this “matter”, to what designates in a rather abstract, even abstruse way the writing that animates us while animating at least something else?

Call opening: April 8, 2022.

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Thanks

Vincent Berhault ; Julien Clément ; Domnique Duthuit ; Stéphane Fillon ; Thomas Guérineau ; Gentiane Guillot ; Bogdan Illouz ; Nicolas Longuechaud ; Guillaume Martinet ; Nicolas Mathis ; Emma Merabet ; Cédric Parizot ; Emmanuel Pérez ; Priam Pierret ; Karine Saroh ; Stéphane Simonin ; Cyril Thomas ; Aurélie Vincq