AiR 2026 / Cie Pieds Perchés

The collective’s creative residency took place in several stages throughout the year. The artists worked on their project at the Automatic Mills areal, exploring how much risk we are willing to take and how we relate to the cycles of life and the fragility of our existence. It is a vertigo, a gaze into the abyss, but above all, a living tribute to friendship.

In this project, the artists use their bodies and voices to speak about what connects us to others, but also about what remains — or, conversely, disappears — when a bond is broken: when we lose someone close to us or become separated from them.

• The outcome of the residency is an original performance, which will have its premiere as part of the celebrations marking three years since the opening of the renovated Automatic Mills.

Cie Pieds Perchés is an international contemporary circus company working between the Czech Republic, Switzerland and France. In their projects, they address current social issues through humour, dance and aerial acrobatics.

The company was founded in 2009 by two Swiss artists, Morgane Widmer and Stéphanie NDuhirahe, who together discovered the magic of circus and aerial rope, which became their favourite means of expression. Stéphanie is a graduate of the University of Fine Arts in Geneva and the circus school in Quebec, while Morgane received her professional training at the École Supérieure des Arts du Cirque in Brussels.

The OFFCITY AiR 2026 residency project is realised with the kind financial support of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Statutory Town of Pardubice.

The following partners collaborated on the creation of the Cie Pieds Perchés project: Offcity z. s., Centre for Open Culture (Divadlo 29 and the Gallery of the City of Pardubice), Gočár Gallery, Taje z.s., Přístav 18600, State Cultural Fund of the Czech Republic, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Cirqueon, and Alliance Française Pardubice.