Autopistes

Autopistes was aimed at getting European and North American scenes and festivals to work together in building touring networks for the circus.

The project was run by organizations from Montreal, Barcelona, ​​Toulouse, and Botkyrka – regions where the circus has a strong foothold. Between, within and around these “circus metropolises” we identified some existing collaborations and synergies between organizers, that, however, needed to be strengthened and defined.

Workshops for organizers from southwestern Europe, the Nordic countries, and North America, were held with the aim of creating structures and collaborative networks. 15 circus companies from southwestern and northern Europe, as well as, North America, were toured in the newly created networks. The experiences were then evaluated for the continued construction of three touring networks that the project resulted in: one along the east coast of the United States, one in the regions of northern Spain / southern France and one in Sweden (CirkusNät Sverige).

Through Autopistes the Swedish company Magmanus got a major tour of 38 gigs in the U.S. and Canada. Johan Wellton toured Denmark, and Svalbard Company was presented in France. The 7 Fingers from Canada, Cie Betti Combo from France, and La Industrial Teatrera from Spain, all toured Sweden.

Swedish organizers who participated in the project came from Subtopia, Vara Concert Hall, Stora Teatern Göteborg, JONK / Västmanland Concert Hall, Umeå Theater Association, Riksteatern, and Stockholm Cultural Festival.

The project received funding from the EU’s Creative Europe, the Swedish Cultural Council, Kulturkontakt Nord and The Swedish Institute, as well as, a number of grant institutions from the partner countries. Autopistes was a collaboration between organizations in Sweden, France, Canada and Spain. About 30 associate partners were tied to the project to participate in booking the tours.