Butcher's Block

Butcher’s Block from Breaking Circus Collective (BCC) is an installation experience and performance designed to make our bodies move amongst an eco-friendly landscape.

A city block of up-to 30ft buildings made of butcher’s paper and repurposed materials will populate the Breaking Circus Studio, a wheelchair accessible space bordering the North End and Downtown Halifax, which will provide a physical playground for audience engagement through movement, led by artists of the BCC. These movement sessions will be short, yet frequent throughout the night, allowing festival goers to have a brief moment to become aware of their bodies, senses, and breath before continuing on for other Nocturne festivities.

The public will be invited and encouraged to explore and inhabit this paper city block, immersing themselves in the physical and aural metropolis. Each wave of new inhabitants will be able to contribute to placemaking by crafting paper roots from butcher paper that will continually grow and intertwine as the evening progresses, evidencing our interconnectedness with each other and the land upon which our city stands. During the installation immersive multi-directional audio will be created through generative synthesis.

The evening will be punctuated by circus, dance, and music performances that take place in and around the paper buildings, inspired by our sensorial memories of being of-city, using lights and shadow to give life to this fragile urban landscape that we share.

Each visit by festival goers will include a movement session, crafting, and a performance that will occur at scheduled times throughout the night. The performances will be on a rotation schedule, making each walkthrough a different experience. Along with the artists of Breaking Circus Collective we will be diversifying the performances with artists from other art forms; music, dance, etc.

Butcher's Block, at its heart, is an analysis of our current arts culture and infrastructure repackaged in a format of community healing and cohesiveness.  Monoliths of daily existence will be constructed from fragile materials, occupying an ephemeral space for 1 night only. This design is given weight by the humanity of the performances that will take place amidst its architecture in the Breaking Circus Studio, a Third Place. This year’s Nocturne curator, Annalise Prodor, talks about the disappearance of Third Places in many North American cities due to urban pressures. In Kjipuktuk, we have been witnessing this happen in areas of gentrification, especially when it comes to artist-run spaces and venues. Our interpretation of Embodied City welcomes festival goers into our artist-run space to move, feel and create in community. At this time when everything is fighting for our attention, we provide a space for people to be present and to tune into their sensorial experience. Through this embodiment, we become more attuned to what we all need to not only survive but thrive together. We envision and embody a city where ecosystems are protected, communities are regenerative, and cities provide support to those who inhabit them.