THE BALLOON MAN

Why we need more open-air events like Piccadilly Circus Circus
When angels descended on London last night, they reminded us that large-scale spectacle can be a meaningful, magical and politically subversive art form

 

from:  guardian.co.uk
Posted by Lyn Gardner
Monday 3 September 2012
If the Olympics and Paralympics have got Londoners chatting to each in uncharacteristic fashion, then interventions such as Elizabeth Streb's bungee-jumping dancers, Jeremy Deller's Sacrilege and Mark Rylance's pop-up What You Will have brought wonder and playfulness back into daily life.

None more so than yesterday's transformation in London of Regent Street and the surrounding area into a giant circus, culminating as night fell with angels descending on zip wires over Piccadilly Circus, and 1.5 tonnes of feather floating from the sky. There were times yesterday when the sheer joy on the crowd's faces might have led you to believe that we were witnessing the second coming, not a group of French aerialists.

Of course there are still some who claim that such spectacles do not deserve to be called art, and they confuse art with hype and show. Not every ball flung into the air by the juggler is a metaphor, but street arts, puppetry, large-scale spectacle (think Liverpool's Sea Odyssey) and circus can all be as transforming and full of meaning as more traditional art forms. More than 20 years ago, I watched Johann Le Guillerm painfully battle his way across a floor balanced on the thin necks of eight wine bottles. It was as devastating and piteous as watching Pete Postlethwaite's King Lear on the blasted heath.

What's more, free events such as Piccadilly Circus Circus come without any barriers to entry. It simply erupted on to the street and took many completely by surprise. Some complain about disruption to traffic, but it's the disruption to the fabric of everyday life that is so transforming. Most public rituals – whether they are state funerals or Diamond Jubilees – reinforce the dominant politics and culture.

But large-scale art events such as La Machine and Piccadilly Circus Circus subvert them. They make us reimagine what it is possible to do within public space, which in recent years has become increasingly privatised so that it often feels that we are only allowed to walk and shop in it. Yesterday, London played, dreamed and ran riot. And there wasn't a broken window in sight. This summer has proved that we have a taste for spectacle that provokes, entertains and glues us together – if only for the time it takes for a feather to fall from the sky. More, please.