The Bivouac Company evolution and vision, between art and science

Compagnie Bivouac was founded in 2011 by Maryka Hassi, director, Benjamin Lissardy, Chinese pole acrobat, and Maureen Brown, set designer and circus artist. The scenographic object becomes a pretext for setting evolving worlds in motion. The imagined atypical sculptures-agres define the contours of fictions and participate in the conceptualization of poetic creations mixing circus and choreographic experimentation. These architectural devices enable the company to convey its intentions, while putting the team in a dynamic state of research in relation to the bodily and semantic challenges they imply.

In 2022, after Maureen Brown’s departure for other adventures, it’s the duo Benjamin & Maryka which continue the work begun by the company in 2011. They are now interested in renewing their scenographic research by proposing objects in phase with contemporary ecological issues. They create lighter formats that fit into the natural environment through their eco-conceptualized shapes and removable materials. Having focused on the question of space for several years, they now wish to go further by taking an interest in the material itself. To this end, they are multiplying their collaborations and experimenting with digital research, having fun bringing matter to life, making it “talk”, “humanizing” it.

This makes it possible for them to question spatio-corporeal and spatio-environmental reactions/dialogues, and to give the public a particular experience that is no longer merely representative, but immersive, where the question of the living, beyond fiction, becomes fundamental.

Between art and science: dreaming the world

In the continuity of a interrogation that started in 2015: À Corps Perdus (2015) and Tenir debout, c’est crier toujours! (2017) raise a question on mankind and its relationship to the world and its emptiness – Living in balance in a moving space.

In Perceptions (2019), a visual narrative of tilting, questions what the company defines as “the real”, drawing its visual vocabulary from the world of quantum physics. Since then, their research has focused on matter and movement, emptiness and gravity, adapting to the transformation of one’s own body and the space that supports it, and on man’s place in the world, his perception and understanding of it.

Today, with Fragments and Lemniscate, the company aims to go even further, offering creations that are no longer merely representative, but immersive. Invent singular, sensitive creations based on scientific and digital reflection. To develop an exploration of new technologies that encourages fruitful collaborative interactions between artists and researchers, culminating in creations.

Sensitive to today’s major societal upheavals, the company designs scenic devices that fit into lightweight vehicles and trailers, despite their monumental appearance. The reuse of materials and the recycling of fixtures are also areas on which Bivouac teams work on a daily basis, with the aim of limiting the impact of its activity on the health of the planet. Concerned by the urgent need to rethink the world, Compagnie Bivouac conducts research on the question of innovation in the service of conscious creations.