Block of 1 stamp - Stamp Festival - Street Arts - Acrobat - Green Letter

Description

The 2025 stamp festival inaugurates a new theme dedicated to the street arts. The term "street arts" is commonly used to refer to artistic performances or events that take place outside pre-assigned venues (theaters, concert halls, museums, etc.) In the street, therefore, in squares or on riverbanks, in stations or harbours, as well as in industrial wastelands or buildings under construction... To kick things off, a tribute to acrobats. ---------------------------- Part circus, part gymnasium, part cabaret, part theater, acrobats are part of the tribe of street acrobats, bringing poetry to cobblestones and asphalt. According to etymology, an acrobat "walks on tiptoe", but the words "acros", extreme, and "bates", to walk, have the meaning of moving forward, in search of the extreme in an extraordinary space. His universal body language goes beyond words, in front of an audience rather than waiting for an audience to choose a show. With the human springboard, teeter-totters, trampolines and swings, the acrobat extracts himself from weightlessness. The contortionist folds himself into his box or wraps himself around a rope in reptilian postures. Disjointed and dislocated, he defies the laws of flexibility to achieve supernatural expression. The tightrope walker comes close to death, and magnifies his art in urban settings such as the towers of Notre-Dame de Paris or the World Trade Center. Suspended between heaven and earth, he walks on clouds. Hand-to-hand combines the strength of the wearer with the elegance of the wearer. Crocodile plank, Mexican balance, angel on the back, banquine... Poetry of words, mastery of gesture. The acrobat becomes a living work of art. Today, acrobats transcribe urban life, its frantic rhythms and imbalances. At the crossroads of dance, theater and gymnastics, acrobats amaze audiences in the street, a place of exchange, and translate the antinomies of the century. The Italian acrobat Arcangelo Tuccaro, saltarin to King Charles IX in 1570 and author of the first work theorizing the art of acrobatics, published in 1599, concluded: "for to say well, to jump, are the deeds of an archangel". The art of acrobatics couldn't be more elegantly earned. Daniel Cornut

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Bloc d'un timbre-poste (héliogravure) : Création Marie-Laure Drillet