© IvanM
Artist statement
Tricycle Trauma is an artistic collective based in contemporary circus, but always trying to incorporate as much other art fields as possible in its works. Generally always inspired by darker themes and leaning towards dark aesthetics, we try to explore not very represented themes in theatre, dance and especially circus, very often through philosophical perspectives. We also want to keep our plays politically, ecologically and existentially engaged, covering these themes through an overload of information and activity on the scene, and using formats and logics from some established practices, most notably the Theatre of Absurd.
We also heavily rely on incorporating innovative technological solutions and non-standard light and sound design, while still having a certain fetish towards lo-fi technological aesthetics. As an extension of these strivings, we also started to incorporate an envision solutions from the field of new magic, a subpractice of contemporary circus.
The artistic collective has been operating since 2018, primarily producing its own shows, based in contemporary circus – with a constant desire to involve as wide a spectrum as possible of other performance and non-performance art forms. The first serious work is the co-production of the play “Playback performance: Formed in the Stance” in cooperation with DB Indoš Kuća of extreme musical theater in Močvara club.
During the pandemic 2020, two plays were successfully produced, “Arcing – a duodrama for man and trapeze” – a trapeze solo that balances on the border between contemporary circus and contemporary dance, and “Natural Insanity, Artificial Stupidity”, a play about the arrival of artificial intelligence and the connection between it and circus, art brut, futurism and HP Lovecraft.
In 2021, the play “In Vain” was produced at Pogon Jedinstvo, which brings emptiness into connection with infinity, fear, disappearance, coldness and uselessness, and tries to explain the same to some extent.
At the beginning of October 2022, as part of A! The performance festival in Iceland the play “Grounding” was premiered, a kind of continuation of “Arcing” based on contemporary dance and manipulation of objects, a minimalist set adapted for performances in a wide range of spaces (from galleries to factory halls). The performance was developed during the artistic residency of the members of the organization in the city of Akureyri, Iceland, where sound recordings were recorded from various specific locations in the Icelandic nature that are the basis of the compositions in the performance, choreographic materials were developed and the concept of using video projectors as lighting was elaborated. Another play is currently in the works, “Red Lodge” – a circus thriller inspired by surrealism.
For 6 years now, the collective has been organizing the Night of the Dark Circus event in the club Močvara, which on average gathers around 40 participants (performers, musicians, stage and technical workers), with exceptional interest from the audience. We organized a similar format of the event (with an emphasis on local artists) in 8 cities in Croatia through the support of the Clubture platform (Zadar, Split, Čakovec, Karlovac, Križevci, Županja, Rijeka and Sisak), where the emphasis was on local performers, musicians and others artists, with the support of visiting artists from Zagreb and beyond, with the aim of networking the scene and developing the circus scene in smaller towns.
The organization also continuously implements educational programs in the field of circus skills (aerial acrobatics, juggling, clown techniques and unicycling), from beginners’ workshops for all ages (with an emphasis on the younger ones), to specific technical and creative ones for performers with previous experience.