DE / BE

Common Ground

How common is the ground? Quite normal if you stand on your feet. 
 But what if you are doing circus?

Premiere in Belgien: June 29 + 30 / Festival Perplx, Kortrijk
Premiere in Deutschland: September 25 + 27 + 28 / Festival Atoll, Karlsruhe

How common is the ground? 

Quite normal if you stand on your feet. 

But what if you are doing circus? 

When you stand on your partner, your ground is two hands. 

When you climb a pole, it’s a vertical line. 

When you hang on a trapeze, is the ground above? 

Often we share a place in the air,
but once back on the ground we go separate ways. 

Not so this time. 

We want to define the ground we share.
The ground where we can be both, an individual and a group. 

It’s ours and it’s yours. 

Welcome to this 


COMMON GROUND

We are convinced that a group can far exceed the sum of its parts when it finds and identifies a Common Ground. We believe that recognising the value of this heterogeneity simplifies the construction of a liveable common future – one that is based on both a guarantee of individual freedom and the positive experience of companionship.

In this way the concept of Common Ground offers an alternative model to compulsory collectivism on the one hand and radical individualism on the other.

Six artists challenge each other, push their limits, take care of each other, and share their vision of community with the audience.

Common Ground is a concept that contains both the guarantee of individual freedom and the positive experience of the collective – because together we are more than just the sum of our individual parts.

Common Ground is a collective of six internationally experienced circus artists who have come together to create a show. They met at the Academy for Circus and Performance Art in Tilburg, Netherlands, and have all had successful careers as solo and duo artists as well as performing in different collectives, companies and circuses. They have always wanted to get together again to share their collective experiences and produce something new and exciting. Common Ground are Andreas Bartl, Christopher Schlunk, Evertjan Mercier, Zinzi Oegema, Iris Pelz and Lisa Rinne.