He was born in Israel; his father runs a circus company. Between the kippah and the circus, the choice was an easy one. He arrived in France at the age of 18; he didn’t speak French, but he lived and breathed the circus – he ate, drank and slept the circus. He was protecting himself. He joined the CNAC when he was 20, and things got a bit muddled in his head. He could no longer see the point of what he was doing. He began reading philosophy and practising tai chi to fill the void, asking himself: what’s the point of the circus? He read more and more, but found no answer. After a while, he told himself, ‘The lack of meaning is just an observation; it doesn’t stop you from doing anything.’ Today he continues to read philosophy, practise tai chi and do handstands. When he does a handstand for no particular reason, it makes him feel good, and perhaps that’s why he does it.
When asked to talk about his artistic work, he sometimes comes up with complicated answers such as ‘the focus of the practice must be the subject, not the object; the subject then translates this into art through their craft’, but deep down, he believes the answer may be much simpler than a grand reflection on the circus. He believes that the circus is pointless, but it is an expression of freedom, just as a baker knows how to make good bread; he has spent his life learning how to do it, and he knows how to do somersaults – he, too, has spent his life learning how to do them. It is simply the means of expression that changes.