CANADA - Street Art

Artcirq

           Artcirq is a collective of performers based in the circus field. It began in 1998 and was co-founded by a film production company and a Montreal acrobat. It was started as a way of engaging young people in meaningful activities in Igloolik, where many youth drop out of school and there is a high rate of suicides, particularly among young men . Artcirq is a nontraditional circus, a technical blending of modern circus arts.

         The team members have given performances all over the world, for example during the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen or some indigenous villages in Mexico, as well as sold-out performances in Paris .
Artcirq is the only Inuit circus in the world. Its performance at the Festival in the Desert 2008 Timbuktu is probably where the first Inuit artists entertained the crowds at the heart of the Sahara. The group has its roots in the Inuusiq theater( "life" in Inuktitut) . The band was formed in 1998 following the suicide of two young Igloolik . Suicide rates among Inuit youth are among the highest in the world and are ten times higher than the national average. Artcirq invests in their community to change these sad statistics .

Objectives

           Guillaume Saladin leads the group . He was trained at the prestigious National Circus School of Montreal . The unique creative process of Artcirq combines circus arts, live music, drama, media arts and styles of traditional and modern influences. In addition, Artcirq organizes workshops in Igloolik and other Arctic communities to enable Inuit youth to express their creativity , to produce works of their own and trust each other .
Artcirq attributes its success to holistic methods of research led by a community elder . All projects troops rooted knowledge of these cultural advisors. This modern form of storytelling serves to preserve their culture.

Activities

              Kaujjagjjuk (2004 ) was an inter-arts show ( juggling , acrobatics, throat singing, dancing, music), featuring more than twenty Igloolik children and teenagers.
In 2006 was the first short film of the group, " 4:07 ", and it was used by the Youth Council of Nunavut during the " Embrace Life " campaign to prevent suicide among young people.
During the 2010 season, Artcirq Kalabanté worked with a circus troop based in Montreal and Conakry , Guinea . Artists of both troops were trained and a show occurred in Igloolik , Montreal and in Guinea. It was the first African-Inuit circus . Production offered a mixture of Inuit and West African styles.
Artcirq's current producing is a new work based on an Inuit legend which combines traditional storytelling, video animation and live circus .
A second album is in progress, made in Igloolik , and showcases of local musicians are on the way.
Following a successful collaboration with the NAIP traditional Greenlandic folk dancers as part of the Inuit Circumpolar Council meeting of 2010 , held in Nuuk, Greenland , this troop was transported to the Canadian Arctic in 2011 to continue this collaboration.

Benefits

         Active members of the group serve as models for other young Igloolik ... They spend a lot of time with an increasing number of young people to inspire and guide them towards a better future according to Maren Vsetula , Vice- Interim President and Director of recreation in Ataguttaaluk High School.

"They are our pride and hope, especially in light of the social problems faced by indigenous communities in the North. "

- Brian Fleming, executive chief of the municipality of Igloolik

ALLAN & VALENTIN