Circus : Time to tell

How do we live when we are burdened by a kind of programmed obsolescence? At the age of forty-one, Martin Palisse, a circus artist, is for the first time talking about the genetic disease he suffers from, cystic fibrosis, by confronting it with his artistic practice. It's a powerful and rare act of juggling, blending the intimate with the universal. Captivating.

Based on audio interviews conducted by stage director David Gauchard, Martin Palisse recounts his relationship with the disease and his life as a circus artist, in an intimate narrative full of self-mockery. Since he was a teenager, juggling has been his language, the one that allows him to stretch out time. Time he doesn't have. Barefoot, in shorts and a black tank top, he wanders around the performance space, deliberately cramped and surrounded by neon lights, similar to the corridors of the hospitals he has regularly visited. In this minimalist set, music blares from a vinyl turntable, conveying moments of tension and exaltation. In the hollow of his arms, his allies, his juggling balls come into action, rolling down his body and flying through the air, like a natural extension of himself. As if in some kind of dance, trance or struggle, Martin Palisse hypnotises. With technique, poetry and virtuosity, juggling words like balls, he celebrates life as much as creation.

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