Sustainable distribution for touring tent shows

A graduate of Sciences Po Paris and Université Paris Dauphine, Gwénola David has worked as a journalist and critic since 1998. She was deputy director of the CNAC national circus arts center, then general coordinator of La Belle Saison, a national event for young people and the performing arts initiated by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. Gwénola David was responsible for the merger of the Centre National du Théâtre and HorsLesMurs. She is now managing director of the ARTCENA national center for circus, street, and theater arts, which was created in 2016.

Initially in charge of production for nationally recognized theatres in France, Déborah Boëno turned her attention to supporting artistic companies in 2017 when she joined the circus collective Cheptel Aleïkoum. In 2021, she joined the ARTCENA national center for circus, street, and theater arts, where she continues to offer professional training workshops. Since 2022, she has been working with artistic teams, including the French-Belgian group Les Malunés Collectif and MMFF – Mathieu ma Fille Foundation. She also works with Circostrada to develop useful tools for the distribution of performances.

After earning a Master’s degree in sociology, in 2001 Simon Carrara became development manager for Archaos, then company administrator in 2004. He helped set up Archaos in Marseille and developed its extended artistic project. Deputy managing director of the Archaos national circus center since 2016, he is responsible for international development. He initiated and now coordinates the European CircusLink project. Over the years, he has acquired expertise in developing cross-disciplinary artistic projects where partnerships and shared resources play an essential role.

At the helm of Le Plongeoir since 2022, Richard Fournier now leads an artistic and social project focused on circus in daily life, which resulted in the national circus center label from the French Ministry of Culture in 2023. Previously, he was the artistic director of the Soirs d’Été festival (street arts and circus) in Le Mans from 2016 to 2019 and has been the creative director of the Le Mans Fait Son Cirque festival since 2016.

Guy Perilhou has served as an artistic consultant and evaluator for the French Ministry of Culture and local authorities (1988 – 1994), then production director of Cirque Gosh (1995 – 2002), co-founder and coordinator of the Hangar des Mines circus and street arts organization (1995 – 2003), and director of La Verrerie dd’Alèsnational circus center (2004 – 2015). Since 2017, he has devoted himself entirely to providing close support to three artists he describes as “audacious” by contributing to the development of their artistic projects, as well as their companies. First, Marie Molliens of Compagnie Rasposo, a passionate ambassador of women’s circus in big tops. Then Julien Candy of Compagnie La Faux Populaire, a jack-of-all-circus-trades. And finally Sébastien Le Guen of the Lonely Circus.

In 2007, Lucho Smit co-founded Galapiat Cirque and as part of the company he creates shows, organizes festivals, and develops structured community-cultural activities in Brittany. Since 2016, he has been frequently called upon to provide outside creative perspective or direction for projects. In 2023, he began to oversee the artistic direction for the Festival Circolo in the Netherlands.