Gwenn Buczkowski was born on May 6, 1994, in Reims. She has been familiar with every show of the National Centre for Circus Arts (CNAC) in Châlons-en-Champagne since its 15th graduating class.
At 13, she discovered the punk movement, its culture, and its music. Around the same time, Ludor Citrik performed in Reims—a first revelation. The connection between clowning and punk became immediately clear: a rejection of authority, and the freedom to act and speak. She decided then to make it her profession.
During her high school years, Gwenn attended Johann Le Guillerm’s show Secret twice—this was a second awakening, and any remaining doubts about her future as a performer disappeared within days.
A fortunate coincidence brought Isona Dodero-Segura (from the CNAC’s first class) into her life, who offered to train her for circus school entrance exams. There was, however, one issue: she had to choose a circus discipline, and more specifically an aerial one—which she hated, as it felt “too girly.” So she chose what seemed to her the “least bad option,” with the firm intention of doing nothing pretty.
In July 2012, she passed her baccalaureate with distinction, then trained for two years at the Lyon Circus School in fixed trapeze, before returning to her circus mentor, Isona, in Amiens. In 2015, she achieved her dream: she joined the 30th graduating class of the CNAC.
While deepening her technical singularity and artistic universe, her years in Châlons-en-Champagne were marked by a growing awareness of the political dimension of circus and a questioning of circus practice itself, following her involvement in Les Sublimes by Guy Alloucherie and a workshop on “minor practices in the space of viewpoints” with Johann Le Guillerm.
She tends toward a performative approach, notably achieving a record of 32 minutes and 5 seconds in a trapeze handstand balance.
Centre National des Arts du Cirque