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Raw Art

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Last Update: 2025-12-12

[Raw Art] project was created in 2005 by a Ukrainian director Taras Pozdnyakov. The project casts graduates of Kiev Circus Academy – one of the best circus schools in the world. The actors are trained by Nataliya and Yuriy Pozdnyakovs. For quite a while, the project was described as ‘alternative circus’. In 2011 Taras Pozdnyakov first used the term ‘post-circus’ as more precise for characterizing the artistic trend of [Raw Art] project. Like in the classical circus, the basis for the post-circus art is made up by masterly tricks. But, unlike the classics, where the trick performance is the final goal, [Raw Art] project uses trick base only as one of the expressive means to create the utter atmosphere of a circus act along with the idea, music accompaniment, costume design, lights production, etc. From the point of ideology, post-circus closely resembles art-house in cinema – the same non-commercial ground, DIY-ideology (“Do It Yourself”), deliberate drift from the mass audience. As in art-house, the main accent is on the actor’s inner world, personal conflicts and moral dilemmas. Unlike classical (and many modern) circuses, with their desire to entertain the spectator, to impress through visual opulence, post-circus is characterized by its urge to make the viewer think, sympathize with what is going on, to raise questions and give an opportunity to find an appropriate answer independently. Alternative music, minimalistic costume design, the synthesis of different art forms, experiment in staging – these are the characteristics of post-circus, and [Raw Art] project.