CROSS OVER
Il circo come espressione artistica plurale – III edition # Stories
03.10.2026 at 10.30 am
Spazio FLIC
International Centre for Circus Arts | Via Niccolò Paganini 0/200, Turin
Free entry while seats last.
BOOK https://forms.gle/YqG7Dwxb7P4shMii6
On 3 October 2026, from 10.30 am at Spazio FLIC, the third edition of the conference “CROSS OVER: the circus as a pluralistic art form” will take place; this year’s event is subtitled #Stories.
The conference, curated by Giovanna Milano and Teresa Noronha Feio, is the result of a collaboration between FLIC Circus School and Cordata F.O.R., in partnership with the Pagliacce network.
Crossover is an opportunity for dialogue and critical reflection on the language of the circus as a multifaceted form of artistic expression, open to hybridisation with other art forms, but also to encounters with other worlds, other perspectives and other voices.
Each year, we follow a central theme: in the first year it was ‘matter’, and in the second year it was ‘external perspectives’.
This year, we start from the premise that the history of the circus is still young enough not to have crystallised into fixed conventions and dogmas that must be adhered to: a history that remains open, fluid and in flux.
It is a history made up of the diverse bodies that have shaped it, the voices that have recounted it, and the perspectives that have observed and interpreted it.
This edition of CrossOver is dedicated to storytelling.
These are the stories of those who were born and raised in the circus; of those who have observed it for years and chosen cinema as a means of capturing a glimpse of it; of those who have felt the need to venture to the boundary between the circus and other forms of movement. To pause there, where the drive towards extreme physicality and the visceral taste for virtuosity — defining traits of the circus — are fuelled by methods borrowed from choreography. Stories of artists who have chosen to leave, at least for a moment, the circus as a familiar and comfortable space, to cross a threshold, take the risk of moving on and go elsewhere in search of a new language.
Within the framework of Cross Over, the focus is on the experience and vision of artists who work and create meaning outside the conventions of traditional theatre. When the surrounding environment becomes a mountain, a skate park, the seashore or a screen, the theatre’s ‘neutral’ setting vanishes: new words and new narratives thus emerge to describe bodies in extreme states of transition between landscape and stage, offering fundamental building blocks for the construction of a new collective acceptance.
The participants will include Justine Bernachon, a circus artist and trapeze artist; Pepijn Ronaldo, who will draw on his own experience of balancing the future with his family heritage; the Belgian director Charlotte Vercruysse, whose films explore language and the art of the circus; choreographers Julien Carlier and Piergiorgio Milano, who have explored unusual disciplines and practices – from skateboarding to rock climbing – to develop their own artistic languages; Martina Soragna, a clown and co-founder of the Pagliacce network; and Valentina Barone, founder of Around About Circus and co-creator of the Circus&Film Network.
PROGRAMME
- 10.30 am – Official welcome
- Opening
- Part One: stories at the intersection of tradition, heritage, the future, the circus and cinema. Speakers: Pepijn Ronaldo, Charlotte Vercruysse, Justine Bernachon, Valentina Barone
- Coffee break
- Part Two: stories at the crossroads of dance, sport and the circus.
