We had a drink with Alexandre Bouglione, representative of the 7th generation of his family. Who turns like a lion in a cage since the second confinement.
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Stambruges, not far from Beloeil, not far from France, is a happy village which can boast of having not only a bookstore, but also permanent circus artists. This is whereAlexandre Bouglione comes to pitch his tent every year, and hang up his trailers when he’s not on tour.
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Usually, there are up to 60 artists on this site, today – Covid obliges – they are only 20.
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He usually does not spend more than 3 months a year. This year it’s been over a year. A year living in isolation between its walls and gates, wandering between its marquees and all its trailers, before climbing into his caravan to nibble in the evening in front of his TV. Usually, there are up to 60 artists on this site, today – Covid obliges – they are only 20. Some stayed because they did not know where to go, others did not manage to return to their countries. Finally, there are the Bouglione descendants.
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Sedentary lion
The patriarch receives us this evening in his most beautiful trailer, the trailer for great evenings, that of grandfather Joseph, in front of which we used to hang a bedroom and a bathroom. In front of him, a bottle of Martini, 3 books and a photo album. “It’s crazy what you look like when young Françoise Fabian! Has anyone ever told you that?” He begins – charming – by grabbing a crystal glass, struck by a head of African elephant. “Me, I look like De Niro” he continues, offering us his best profile. In truth, it is not false. Even if, at first glance, it is especially the leonine character of his face that is striking, especially since he seems to be the last beast in the circus. Here the animals are gone, only the dogs remain.
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“Go Health! To our Minister, eh,” he blurted out half-fig, half-raisin. It’s not that he doesn’t trust, it’s that we’ve been promising him things for so long that “sincerely”, this time he admits, he no longer dares to believe in it. “Even if this one looks good (Bénédicte Linard – ecological minister of culture, Editor’s note). We zoomed in recently, she is kind, attentive and all. Except that she inherits a system which is so entrenched… “he explains to us, before jumping up to stand on the first step of his trailer and roar at his grandchildren who make too much noise outside.
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“What we are going through is a catastrophe, we always compare with war, except that in wartime we at least had the right to work.”
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Injustice and contempt
Back in his chair, he continues: “What we are experiencing is a disaster, we always compare with war, except that in times of war, we at least had the right to work. And for us, artists or circus artists. , it’s a true cultural genocide unfolding before our eyes. We help some people, and we let the others die. The tragedy is not the lack of cultural riches, it is that they are poorly shared, the whole system wants that! ”
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For him, it is not only the criteria for granting grants, but also the very composition of the commissions responsible for granting them. A system which makes, according to him, that “it is always the same ones which touch”.
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Besides, he is proud of never having asked for anything, nada, nothing. He has always managed to make his circus work thanks to his recipes, not hesitating to change the business model when necessary, reduce ticket prices so that the circus remains accessible to families while increasing the number of performances. Except that there, with the crisis… He held out for a long time, even if it meant recently selling a small house with huts that he had bought in his old age, just to manage to live today. Except that there, it is also diminishing.
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The more he dissects the “unjust” system, the more he begins to cough. “It’s not the Covid, it’s because I’m getting angry”, he reassures, before getting carried away on the contempt for his industry – the traditional circus – in the face of the boundless support of contemporary circus. With irony, he points to this microcosm which does not make half of entries, and which must be fed more and more each year before letting go: “They do the circus to get money, and I want the money to do the circus.” Here.
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The temptation to be discouraged
Otherwise, confinement, morale, all that, how are you? dare we. “It was going very well until January. But there, frankly, there is since times when I don’t even want to live anymore. We believed several times that we would be able to reopen, but there, we even dare to believe it. “Basically, he does not criticize – unlike many – the containment measures. Even if all the same, he wonders if at one point “we didn’t get a little carried away by putting the whole country on hold”.
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“The circus teaches you tolerance. When you see the tensions and violence outside, you think the world needs to follow our example.”
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During the first confinement, he explains that there were 40 of them living in community on his site: “Not a single case of Covid”! And everything went well between us. The circus world is also a big family, we have all nationalities, lots of different religions. There’s nothing to do, it teaches you tolerance. When you see the tensions and the violence outside, you really think that the world needs to follow our example. ”
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When we ask him how he sees the future, we feel him oscillate between strength and discouragement. A terrible impact on its sector, At least 30% of artists will probably quit the profession, quite a few circus patrons too. He recalls all the same that 5 years ago, the attacks had almost left everything on the ground. Explains to him that it took 3 years to recover, while he refused, tooth and nail, to cancel his performances. “And then, bam, it’s the Covid.”
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“So, we wait!”, He blurted out before finishing his Martini.
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The circus in the veins
He is the 7is generation of his family in the trade. A family from Rajasthan who started out as “bear trainers” and who, over the years, lugged his trailer through Afghanistan, Greece or Italy before landing in France and Belgium. Today, Cirque Bouglione is, according to him, the last traditional circus in Wallonia. An acrobat at the start, he tamed wild animals for 30 years.
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His next fights: to include the circus in the intangible heritage of Unesco and to fight to improve the status of artists.
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This makes 10 years since there are no more animals at home. A very good thing, he believes, because, to “tell you the truth, whether it is the circus or the zoo, it is not the place of animals”. Accompanying us in the rain, he explains his next battles: making the circus part of Unesco’s intangible heritage and fight to improve the status of artists.
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Night has fallen, little capitals light up, the atmosphere is as sad as a party without music. Alexandre Bouglione gave us two books in the paws. “I like to give gifts.” Before walking away, like a lion returning to the shadow of its cage.
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What are you drinking?
• Favorite aperitif: a Martini Rosso.
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• At table: I stopped the Coke for my line. I only drink water, sometimes a beer.
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• Last cooked: in the 80s. We had just planted our marquee Place Flagey, coming back from an exhausting tour. We went to party in a cafe in the square at the end of the evening. We threw the server into the Ixelles ponds, for a laugh.
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• Who to pay for a drink: to Clint Eastwood. It is a monument, it has aged well and it still manages to make wonderful films. I ran into him one day at an airport. I had come to look for a lion which had traveled in the hold of the plane which took it to Paris. I didn’t dare speak to him.
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The representative of the 7th generation Bouglione in 5 dates
• 1974: I meet Gunther Williams, one of the greatest tamers in the world, and I decide to make it my job. A fight, because my family didn’t want to. But I loved animals so much that I turned out to be pretty good.
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• 1976: my father hires a girl for the circus. I fall in love with her just by seeing her photo. I wanted her so badly that I forbade all the men in the circus to speak to her: “private preserve.” She was my future wife.
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• 1977: my first tiger issue. I barely entered the cage and there, general blackout of light for 3 minutes. I dared not move for fear of being eaten. It was the longest 3 minutes of my life.
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• 1978: after a performance at the Cirque d’Hiver in Paris, for the benefit of the Perce-Neige Foundation of Lino Ventura, we go out to party. And I find myself at 5 o’clock in the morning, eating a pot-au-feu with Lino, Thierry Le Luron, Mireille Mathieu and Yves Mourousi.
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• 1990: I’m going to see Siegfried & Roy in Vegas. At the end of the show, I am invited to join him in his dressing room. And there, I come across Micky Rooney and Angela Stevens in the sofas.
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