PPCM
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
PPCM is a hybrid place for innovation and transmission in the suburbs of Paris, it is both an artistic factory, a laboratory for social change and urban regeneration, a platform for international exchanges and a school of “risk arts” (circus, hip -hop, urban cultures). Since the construction of its new spaces in 2015 signed by famous architect Patrick Bouchain the PPCM develops its project around an innovative model and ethics: citizen, proximity, solidarity, cosmopolitan, mixed, undisciplinary.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Which funds
Other Funds
Culture 2012-0675 - Hip Cirqu' Europe 2012
Opération FSE IF0026601
More than 25 different Erasmus + projects for the past 15 years
Interreg Caraïbes (Passeport Caraïbes Amazonie Danse et Cirque)
Description of the project
Summary
Founded as a non-profit association and stemming from popular education movements, Le Plus Petit
Cirque du Monde (PPCM) has set itself the task of establishing close links between cultural and artistic practices and
the territorial, urban and human realities of unprivileged areas in the suburbs of Paris. Thirty years after its creation, the PPCM is recognized as an emblematic structure at the local national and international level, reconciling artistic requirements, citizen actions to rethink suburban towns and an innovative economic and social model.
Born 29 years ago from the desire of a few inhabitants of Bagneux, a suburbian town of Paris, to share their passion for the circus arts and popular education, the "Smallest Circus in the World" (PPCM) carries a cultural and artistic project of general interest aiming at the social, economic and urban transformation of its territory. Through its contributory actions carried out with multiple partners, it promotes social porosity, access to artistic and cultural practices of popular audiences and encourages the participation of residents in the life of their neighborhood.
Today, PPCM is carrying out a new unique project dedicated to the heritage of the Parisian suburbs. The objective of this project is to place education at the centre of ecological transition and the construction of the heritage of tomorrow by relying on the young people of the unprivileged neighborhoods of the Greater Paris Metropolis. PPCM's territory of action goes far beyond and spans several cities from the South of Paris, with spin-off actions in the West Indies and French Guyana.
This year, PPCM has :
-15 000 audience
- 6 000 direct beneficiaries (mostly children and young people with fewer opportunities)
-77 young artists
- 35 artists, trainers and employees participating in overseas and international projects : Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Romania, Greece, Switzerland, Ivory Coast
Key objectives for sustainability
The key objective of our project is to create sustainable activities and jobs and to favour the sustainable development of our community,
Our building is a "manifesto" about sustainability. Building a venue that is central to the community has been an essential part of our long-term sustainability. Built in 2014-2015 by Patrick Bouchain, Grand Prix National d'Urbanisme 2019, this circus in the form of wooden origami, 28 meters high, marks a major act in the urban transformation of an unprivileged area in a large-scale urban renewal operation.
The PPCM circus is a unique example of remarkable 21st century architecture, both for its daring aesthetic and the exemplary nature of its construction process:
- High Environmental Quality Label, achieved with a budget 40% lower than the average construction price
- ”Open worksite”, citizen negotiation and artistic permanence allowing PPCM teams, audiences, young residents and artists to co-construct the project with the communities, to visit and follow the progress of the works
- Requalification of a district representative of the architecture of the 1950s and 1960s of working-class suburbs.
Our objective is to drive together financial and social sustainability: We realised quite early that it's no viable to rely on only one kind of funding or income to subsidise this kind of work. There was a need to diversify income streams to future-proof the organisation. We considered that this contraint is also an opportunity to diversify our activities in order to match with the social needs and dreams of our communities.
The vision is now to work on new growth, to be an activator of socio-economic change, creating an ecosystem that helps pay the investment back in the community. We are considering alternative forms of finance to make this happen including social investment funding for a project establishing a circus school within a local high school, developing a social start-up incubator and more.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The aesthetics of PPCM is that of a laboratory for the experimentation, production and promotion of new forms of expression, support towards the professionalization of young artists and the implementation of innovative relationships between artistic creation, society and the social and solidarity economy. A meeting project between amateur and professional practice, between pedagogy and artistic creation, between emergence and experience, between creation, artistic practices and transformation of territories. PPCM promotes the creation of works and modular artistic forms, combining creation and artistic action, by bringing together established creators (from dance and the creative circus) and young artists and artist collectives in residence in its spaces. The PPCM gives priority support to young artists, artist collectives and companies from urban cultures, dance and circus arts. A particular effort is made in the direction of artists coming from priority territories with a view to supporting them from emergence to professionalization.
At each residency, artists present stages of their projects and audiences are invited to react to what they have seen in a format of exchanges with the artists. It is a way for audiences to immerse themselves in the artistic creation process, and for companies, both to get feedback on an ongoing project but also to learn to broadcast excerpts from their works.
Because more than 80% of French citizens don't go to classical venues, PPCM promotes itinerant formats (educational and socio-cultural establishments, retirement homes, heritage sites, construction sites, public spaces, companies) with audiences furthest from cultural practices: artistic impromptus resulting from the creative work in progress, workshops around the show, meeting with the public. These diversified formats allow both to activate the territory, to complete the artistic offer and to work on the diversification of the artistic and cultural experiences.
Key objectives for inclusion
The key objective of our project is to place inclusion in the centre : use artistic creation and cultural education as a lever for the development of people, educational success and the strengthening of social and intergenerational links in priority neighborhoods.
PPCM offers pilot artistic education courses, regular workshops and internships in circus arts, dance and urban practices (parkour, freerun, slackline, freestyle foot) for children, young people and adults. These actions cover around thirty towns in Ile-de-France region. They are aimed at a variety of audiences: schools, extracurriculars, people with disabilities, seniors, underhand justice audiences. Initiated 15 years ago, these actions concern more than 5,000 children and young people with very encouraging results in terms of personal development and educational success.
The challenging objective for PPCM team is to work with audiences furthest from artistic and cultural practices by using the circus arts and urban cultures as tools for social inclusion, working together, educational success and social and economic integration through culture. The PPCM is a pioneer in France of the European movement of Social Circus and is a cofounder of Caravan Circus Network supported by Erasmus + (https://www.caravancircusnetwork.eu/), working for more than 15 years with cultural organisations and universities in order to develop new methods and trainings for social inclusion through circus arts.
The artistic and cultural education projects of the PPCM have several components: the practice of artistic disciplines, the discovery of trades related to these disciplines, the meeting with professionals in the sector: performing artists, architects, town planners and landscapers.
After 29 years of presence and development in strong collaboration with an extreme variety of stakeholders (public, private, citizens...), PPCM changed completely the reality and image of this former "ghetto" area.
Results in relation to category
PPCM not only produces high quality artistic experiences, it also adds value to communities. Establishing the venue in 2015 was a turning point. PPCM is longer just a cultural organisation, but is now a place within the community, enabling them to provide activities and community space in an area that previously had very little.
Our work has social, economic and physical impacts for people:
• enabling opportunities that local people would not have otherwise had, opportunities to be an audience, to participate, to learn, to connect, to find work (there are 25 permanent members of staff including 8 from the local area),
• providing opportunities (free of charge for people with low income) for physical exercise and fun (6000 persons/year)
• providing access to high quality circus arts, hip hop dance, and emerging urban practices (15 000 audience/ year, free of charge)
• enabling social mixing with people travelling to attend performances and workshops and artists coming from countries all around the world in order to favour intercultural exchanges and diversity
• boosting the image of the area, and developing a sense of pride in the town that was unimaginable 10 years ago,
• delivering a huge variety of outreach activities free of charge
• enabling children and young people to get familiar with creative approaches and contemporary artistic interdisciplinary creation as PPCM mixes hip hop dance and emerging urban practices with more conventional arts such as music, contemporary dance and video art, even if at the centre of it all, is circus arts.
Evidencing the impact of the organisation is an area that we would like to expand over the coming years. Evaluation studies, as well as personal stories and photos from our projects provide evidence of the social, economic and artistic impacts, enabling us to reach out to new partners and new funders. It's also the best way to empower young people of our area.
How Citizens benefit
Founded in 1992, PPCM was created by inhabitants from Bagneux, a suburban town close to Paris, sharing circus arts and urban culture, to transform daily life and the future of their children and neighborhoods. PPCM states its mission as: “developing an economic and social vision of the performing arts, as a force driving individual and community changes and positive social, economic and urban transformation in disadvantaged areas”
The Board of the organisation is exclusively composed by inhabitants of the area. They play an important role in guaranteeing the values of the PPCM, developing daily links with the communities and initiating new actions. The run also the community café in the Foyer.
As an impact, PPCM offers a space for initiatives where citizens can invent and try. A mediation officer coordinates these actions and ensures that the projects meet the objectives and values of the organisation. Spaces, moments of meeting are offered, in a physical and regular way: at the café, through a suggestion box. Even if a budget line is dedicated to these activities, particular attention is paid to the constitution of projects located outside monetary exchanges. Citizebs can be mobilized to become volunteers, for specific needs: organization of the Initiales and Préambulations festivals, reception of spectators during evening shows, permanence at the community café.
Our actions are developing thanks to a continuous work of diversification of the stakeholders and a very close cooperation with the local authorities. We are building "first mile" expertise to recreate the conditions for living and doing together, improving the attractiveness of disadvantaged areas and the inclusive development of these territories. Within this territory, we collaborate with socio-cultural centers, cultural places, schools (from kindergarten to high schools), Medico-educational institutes, prevention clubs, neighborhood associations, classic companies and social economy.
Innovative character
The innovative character of PPCM starts from the architecture of our building. Our purpose-built centre soars high above the surrounding suburbian landscape, a surprising architectural statement among the conventional public housing, houses and apartments of Bagneux. It could be mistaken for a church or a mosque with its blue and green spire rising skywards over the landscape.
PPCM is a place of worship, of sorts; as people dedicate their time to overcoming gravity, botn actual and metaphysical, by challenging themselves and society through circus skills.
The innovative character of our project is related to its holistic approach. PPCM seeks to strengthen the links between the 4 pillars of the City (Polis) in the Greek sense of the term: Culture (Politismos), town planning (Poleodomia), political decision-making (Politiki) and citizens (Polites).
Artistic, educational, cultural and civic experimentation and the links of co-construction with political decision-makers are at the service of the social, economic and urban transformation of priority territories.
The actual project is divided into four axes:
- Build with the young people of unprivileged areas and showcase the tangible and intangible heritage of tomorrow
- Link artistic requirement, educational ambition and cultural action
- Model the residences of young artists, architects and town planners in priority territories
- Combine local development and international exemplarity
This success was hard won and required a lot of commitment from the local community. Looking at PPCM's innovation more closely, there is a core driver for the growth of it: Change designed to enhance a social vision: 40,000 people live in Bagneux, an area with 75% of people living in social housing. There is an ongoing need to evolve and grow, to produce new services to support the socio-economic development of the area and to develop the project not for, but with the community.
