The International Dimension

Archaos has always looked beyond national borders and considered the international performing arts landscape an essential driving force behind its dynamic development and enriching interactions. This philosophy underpins the success of Archaos as a contemporary circus company, a site for events and activities, and a festival organizer.

Since the company was founded in 1986, it has toured the world and worked with artists from numerous countries. This diversity is a significant source of the company’s strength and creative depth.

In particular, Archaos maintains close ties with Brazil, including the Escola Nacional de Circo in Rio de Janeiro for the organization of advanced technical and writing workshops and with the SESC festival in São Paulo and the Festival Mundial de Circo in Belo Horizonte. These structures were also involved in the European project In Vitro 99-09, which was piloted by Archaos and led to the creation of the show In Vitro 09, which toured both South America and Europe.

As one of France’s official national circus centers, Archaos also supports circus companies from around the world through residencies, co-production grants, project support, programming, and the organization of tours through the BIAC - International Biennale of the Circus Arts. In fact, an integral part of the Biennale is the Professional Forum, which is a time dedicated to developing the circus and fostering cross-cultural exchanges and encounters. Held as part of the Biennale every two years, it welcomes an average of 600 circus and performing arts professionals from all over the world.

In its most recent international initiative, Archaos launched and coordinated CircusLink, a Europe-wide project aimed at developing cooperation between European circus festivals through the use of new collaborative digital tools.

Involving four other partners (the Dynamo Circus Festival in Denmark, the Letni Letna circus and theater festival in the Czech Republic, the Festival Vaudeville Rendez-Vous in Portugal, and the Baltic Nordic Circus Network in Scandinavia), as well as four companies (Cirque la Compagnie in France, Right Way Down in Denmark, Erva Daninha in Portugal, and Losers Cirque Company in the Czech Republic), the implementation of CircusLink has resulted in an increased movement of shows between different European countries and a greater diversity on the contemporary circus scene.