Arts for all senses: Circus and the avant-gardes – introduction

The aesthetics and the performance practice of the circus were formative for the historical avant-gardes. Our book, as highlighted by this introductory chapter, aims to produce a better sense of the artistic work and cultural achievements that have emerged from the interplay of circus and avant-garde artists and projects, and also aims to clarify both their transhistorical and transmedial presence, and their scope for interdisciplinary expansion. This book examines to what extent circus and avant-garde connections contribute to a better understanding of early twentieth-century artistic movements and their enduring legacy, of the history of popular entertainment, and the cultural relevance of circus arts. Circus and the Avant-Gardes elucidates how the realm of the circus as a model – or, rather, a blueprint for modernist experiment, innovation and (re)negotiation of bodies – has become fully integrated in our ways of perceiving avant-gardes today.