[La Nuit du Cirque 2025] Selection of Work-in-Progress

The Circus Residency Network in 2025 is part of the project "Circus 2025 - Community Strengthening and Sustainable Development of Contemporary Circus in Croatia" implemented by the Association of Contemporary Circus Artists. After the performances, the audience is invited to engage in conversation with the artists.

Eva Zibler (SLO): ČIK NA EKS / SOLAR ECLIPSE

"Čik na eks" is an intimate circus-theatre piece exploring the ritual of smoking, drinking, and conversation as a performative act. On stage are a table, a chair, an ashtray, and a glass, accompanied by live double bass music by Thierno Diallo. The performer manipulates a cigarette, smoke, fire, and glass, transforming everyday objects into physical theatre and juggling performance. The project ironically comments on post-capitalist obsession with "optimising time" while the protagonist simultaneously laughs, drinks, and smokes.

Author & Performer: Eva Zibler
Music Performer: Thierno Diallo

"Solar Eclipse" (Slovene: Sončni mrk) is a didactic-scientific juggling project that visually and poetically explains the celestial phenomenon of a solar eclipse.
Through the play of light and darkness, it explores what happens in the universe during an eclipse and how people have historically reacted to this event. Balls become the perfect medium to represent the movement of celestial bodies and changes in light.

The inspiration comes from the opening scene of Béla Tarr’s film Werckmeister Harmonies and a quote from the boy Dino in the novel Sarajevo Marlboro: “They told us the speed of light, but they didn’t tell us the speed of darkness.” The performance combines scientific explanation and juggling artistry into a meditative, visual experience that explores humanity’s relationship with the Sun and darkness.

Author & Performer: Eva Zibler

Danka Sekulović (RS): It’s OK to Hypnotise a Chicken, but Rabbits Get Traumatised

The project investigates animal hypnosis through juggling and balancing on balls, with the performer mainly using her feet, creating the impression of a chicken balancing and juggling eggs.
The inspiration comes from observing the behaviour of chickens and rabbits and their different reactions to hypnosis – chickens recover quickly after the trance, while rabbits deepen their fear and trauma.
The audience experiences various associations, from hypnotic effects to comic connections with the chicken, allowing for a multilayered reading of the performance.
The performance incorporates farm sounds, video projections, and object interactions, combining visual, auditory, and kinesthetic dimensions.
The project examines resilience, multiple truths, and the ways living beings cope with trauma through a poetic combination of circus techniques, physical theatre, and a scientific-didactic approach.

Author & Performer: Danka Sekulović
Artistic Advisor: Nikola Mijatović

Reprezentanca Keglevih Vaj (SLO): Ajmo, nitko! (Gremo, nihče!)

The project examines national identity through performative imitation of sports teams, using a fictional “nobody’s sport” as a critique of self-affirmation through athletes’ achievements.
The team’s composition and colours, predominantly female, explore the sexualisation and marginalisation of female athletes, while members provoke with exaggeration and vulgarity to expose the male gaze on women’s sport.
Individually and collectively, they explore breaking binary gender roles through physical expression, combining stereotypical gestures with technically precise juggling formations.
The performance includes partner juggling, acrobatics, human pyramids, and the exploration of mathematical and intuitive juggling patterns, creating visually hypnotic and unexpected sequences.
Through collaboration, mentoring, and exploration of different learning approaches, the piece develops a liminal space of queer and technically demanding performance that challenges audiences and questions social norms.

Authors & Performers: Oton Korošec, Mojca Sovdat, Ema Herlec, Lučka Zajc, Anja Ropoša, Gala Jarc, Pavla Zabret