To mark Circus Night 2026, La Cascade – National Circus Center in Bourg-Saint-Andéol is launching the exhibition "POUET POUET! Circus Images," an original exhibition and sale dedicated to the graphic world of contemporary circus. Running from November 14, 2026, to January 29, 2027, this free exhibition invites the public to discover the perspectives of fourteen artists from diverse backgrounds, where illustration, graphic design, contemporary painting, animation, typography, micro-publishing, poetry, and textile art intersect.
Conceived as a true celebration of circus imagery, POUET POUET! Circus Images brings together a rich selection of engravings, screen prints, risographs, letterpress prints, textile creations, original editions, and other graphic surprises. Forms, lines, colors, and visual experimentation interact to offer a sensitive, joyful, and resolutely contemporary vision of the circus. Each work bears witness to a different way of telling the story of the ring, the artists, movement, and the circus imagination, transforming the lobby of La Cascade into a veritable gallery dedicated to the visual arts.
The exhibition brings together the creations of Jean-Jean Arnoux, Maša Avramović, Éric Briche, Pierre Charentus, Alexandra Devaux, Isabelle Guilbaud, Zoé Landry, Charlotte Le Damany, Nicolas Longshow, Lisa Matuszak, Cécilia Pepper, Professor Draw-Draw, Venise René, and Frédérique Stietel, offering a panorama of artistic practices as diverse as they are complementary. Through posters, prints, handcrafted prints, graphic objects, and textile creations, visitors discover a vibrant world where the circus becomes a source of inspiration for artists from multiple disciplines.
The exhibition, which is free to access, is open Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm, as well as on evenings of performances and events held at La Cascade. It offers a wonderful opportunity to extend the exploration of the circus beyond the stage and to encounter an artistic world where graphic arts interact with the performing arts.
On Saturday, November 14, 2026, at 6:30 p.m., a meeting about the exhibition will be held with the artists and the public. This special event will provide an opportunity to discuss the works on display, the techniques used, and the connections between graphic design and circus arts.
This inauguration is part of La Nuit du Cirque (The Night of the Circus), a major international event for contemporary circus organized in several European countries by Territoires de Cirque with the support of the Ministry of Culture and numerous European partners. Each year, this event celebrates the vitality of contemporary circus, encourages encounters between artists and audiences, and highlights the diversity of circus arts.
At La Cascade, this festive day begins with two introductory circus arts workshops offered at 2:30 pm and 3:45 pm, open to children aged 5 and up, as well as adults. Participants can discover different disciplines such as juggling, acrobatics, and balancing in a friendly atmosphere.
At 5 p.m., the public is invited to attend a free work-in-progress showing of La Débhorde, a new project by Compagnie Brounïak. This contemporary chorus of clowns and jesters explores, through research conducted over several years, the relationships between singularity, collective, imagination, and excess in a resolutely contemporary style.
The day concludes at 8 p.m. with a multi-stage evening showcasing several artists hosted at La Cascade. Jugglers, Chinese pole climbers, clowns, rope artists, acrobats, and other circus performers take turns on the stage to share their worlds, their disciplines, and the creations developed within the National Circus Center.
By combining a graphic arts exhibition, talks, workshops, a creative process, and a grand evening of performances, La Cascade offers a complete immersion in the world of contemporary circus. "POUET POUET! Circus Images" becomes the visual thread, offering visitors a new way to discover the circus, not only through performance, but also through the eyes of artists who reinvent its forms, colors, and imagery. This free exhibition is thus an invitation to explore the full richness of circus creation, both on the stage and on paper.