Le Plus Petit Cirque du Monde (PPCM) is based in Bagneux, a town in the south periphery of Paris that can be described as being “socially disadvantaged”. PPCM was created in 1992 by local inhabitants, sharing circus, to transform daily life. Between 2007 and 2014, PPCM expanded its projects for community groups across the area. In 2014, started the construction of our venue designed by famous French architect Patrick Bouchain, as a home for the organisation and a resource for the community. In June 2015 the inauguration of the new spaces (2.000 m2) took place. In 2023, PPCM was recognized as a National Centre for the Heritage of the Peripheries. Today PPCM is a hybrid place for innovation, creation and transmission, both an artistic factory, a laboratory for social change and urban regeneration, a platform for international exchanges and a circus school with a Full Time Equivalent of 30 employees and an annual turnover of 2.1M euros.

I’ve been working here for almost 30 years, as an artist and as a Project Developer / Director. Going back to all these years, I can see how working with these peripheral communities through circus and outdoor arts has influenced and shaped our values, missions and activities.

I feel that we have achieved all these impossible goals because we work very closely with the community in a long-term process. When you work in peripheral socially disadvantaged areas there are a lot of failures. It is vital to understand how we become part of the community and how we can start to feel what is important. How can circus and outdoor arts make everyday life better for the community? What kind of artistic experiences can we develop with a community?

A lot of activities that we have started came as a result of thinking about these issues. What are the needs? In Bagneux, people need a place where children and families can have fun and learn, a place where they can have a chat, or a place where women who come from traditional Muslim background can feel comfortable and safe because they can be as they are.

It's all about building trust. Culture can be seen as a privilege of the white middle-class people, but our people don’t feel that because they can enter for free, they can come whenever they want, they can see the impact on their children. We cannot say, ‘We are the arts and we are special’. We have to prove it through developing a sustainable model. What is important for our people is that 30% of our employees come from the local community.

What is specific to circus is the question of risk-taking. Circus artists do incredible things that create a specific kind of admiration – the admiration of what a human being can achieve, so it’s an important thing. But it’s not enough. What is interesting is that young artists are looking for a new kind of relationship with the community, they don’t want to perform in the traditional 19th century way. They want to be part of the community. So, we’re looking for these artists that are doing research, social research let’s say, through their art.

In France there has been a strict separation between professional and social circus. But here we bring all these things together in the same space. Our children and young people have the opportunity to learn circus. If we don’t have artistic education then we don’t understand the artform and we are not keen to see performances. We also do circus in public schools. This is one of our main findings, that in these areas, if we want to have a strong impact, we need first to introduce artistic education in public schools on a permanent basis. We find the funding, because it’s not easy for the schools to do it. We work with foundations and public government and we build the programs with the teachers in the schools, and we bring in long-term projects.

We wanted to make a building that could function as a landmark. We had the opportunity to meet Patrick Bouchain, and when we met, we discovered that we had the same philosophy. What we do in circus, he does in architecture. What we learned is that what we build with the community is more interesting and more sustainable. When the building was ready, we understood that we shouldn’t stay in our fortress. Public space is one of the main issues of today. So, we started to introduce outdoor arts, but also music and video.

We are now developing a new project linked with the future of the area and we are involved in the construction of the first high school in our area. At a very small scale, we are trying to do something where we collaborate with other fields of art, but also urban planners, architects, people working on climate change, so we can develop a more holistic approach.

Every day, because we’re in a socially disadvantaged area, it’s risky. In a week, if it doesn’t work, everything could burn. I think this is a very symbolic issue because this question of being fragile ourselves is a key. Let’s keep the doors open!

Elefterios Kechagioglou

Elefterios Kechagioglou is the director of Le Plus Petit Cirque du Monde - Centre Culturel de Rencontre (since 2007). He is an expert on artistic, cultural and urban policies in disadvantaged areas, European programs and intercultural dialogue.