Name of the organization or artist

Le Plus Petit Cirque du Monde

Email

elefterios@ppcm.fr

Address

Impasse de la Renardière 92220 Bagneux

Country

France

Website URL

http://www.lepluspetitcirquedumonde.fr

Missions and objectives

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.

Main Activities

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

Contact person

Eleftérios Kechagioglou