PUBLISHED April 20th, 2015 03:59 pm | UPDATED June 9th, 2020 08:40 pm
Explore the relationship between the circus and contemporary art in a magical, cutting-edge performance in an art-installation stage.
Three small circus tents, or cabanons, stand in an open field. Designed and erected by spectacular French installation artist Daniel Buren, the cabanons are in bright primary colours and set up with minimal internal structures, the combined result of which gives spectators a powerful impression of sheer colour and the utter freedom of space.
Here, Buren – who has been making art with stripes since the 1960s (vertical stripes, to be specific: 8.7 cm wide and 8.7 cm apart, over and over) – has made the circus tent into a singular art object. Sitting in his cabanons is like sitting in an art installation. The circus tent, with its audience and artists, has become an intimate magical artwork constantly transforming with sensory delights.
A circus show tours these cabanons. In each installation, up to 150 audience members will witness – in a different order, but at the same time – the vulnerable performances of human individuals overcoming the physical challenges imposed by the circus. The audience, artists, aerialists, tightrope walkers, acrobats, hoopers, jugglers, musicians and the ringmaster travel around, rotating among the cabanons.
Listen to the sounds of the neighbouring circus as they waft into your cabanon, the sounds outside melting into the sounds inside to form an enchanting soundscape. Peeping out of your cabanon, be emotionally moved by the circus performers who have just performed for you, as they wait to enter the neighbouring cabanon – to be alive and vulnerable again for a different audience. As with Federico Fellini’s legendary film “La Strada”, you once again encounter the profound emotions of the circus in CABANONS, where tragedy and joy is intertwined.
CABANONS is taking place from Wednesday, 2 September to Sunday, 6 September at 8pm at Bayfront Avenue at Marina Bay.
To purchase tickets, please click [here](http://www.sistic.com.sg/events/sifa2015j).