Among the memories and images of sad things, the remains of abandoned travelling circuses shine with their own dimmed light in cities. On these ephemeral ruins made of materials that are rarely used, you can perceive a pure idea of death in perpetual tension with the kingdom of possibilities, dreams and magic. There�s something pure in them that goes further than all measures and purity itself, something similar perhaps to the essential strain that�s produced by everything traditional in music and art, a strange feeling of presence outside time itself, revealed through that infinite space of what�s absent, oppressed and forgotten.

In some way, the circus rhymes secretly and intimately with the winter heart, in the same way that Central Europe does, the heart thrown to the fire of the ruins of the old and evocative Danubian civilization. According to a certain zen Buddhist aspect of sensitive gnostic echoes, in winter�s nature there�s an invitation to take the walk of life to something deep, mysterious and dark that can become terrifying but whose galleries are paradoxically lit, creating new senses like only an oxymoron can, with vibrant and flashing sparks that produce a feeling of delight, enjoyment and pleasure which largely result as unkown, despite having them inside us all the time and in which the intrinsic nature of the true awakening of real life resides in.

A similar feeling might have accompanied the incessant circular movement of the circus for thousands of years all over different continents, although the answer to which side of the eye of its evocative and symbolic tents we can find that other brilliant and terrifying life to which we seem to have access during the show, has never been revealed.

Under the direction of the acclaimed Istvan Kristof, the city of Budapest – a fascinating place of cross culture, people and time that seems to be permanently suspended in time, like the circus itself, in  a unique high-risk funambulist act of great beauty among different somnambulist realities- celebrates its 9th International Circus Festival from the 2nd to the 6th of February of 2012 (http://www.fnc.hu/festival/en/).

During four days, the attendants will have the chance to see a selection of the best circus acts of today, together with a large number of emerging talents who come from over twenty countries, from Hungary to Canada, from Sweden to Cuba, from Italy to Armenia, from Russia to Colombia, from France to Ukraine.

Its international character, together with its nomadism, is probably one of the most distinctive features of the circus, an artistic entertainment show in more than one way, connected with performance, whose historical background can be traced both in the Far East as in the first near-Oriental societies.

Paul Oilzum

If you rent apartments in Budapest around those dates and you�re interested in the world of the circus, don�t miss this extraordinary festival that only takes place every two years and has usually become a way of discovering and launching sparkling and dark winter stars.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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