Reconciling childhood memories with reality<\/strong><\/h5>\nAs the daughter of a family of traveling circus performers, Madalena spent several years of her childhood in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. These experiences form the foundation of her film project, which focuses on the relationship between a young girl and her mother, a human cannonball, in a traveling circus in Lapland.<\/p>\n
Having lived in France since her preadolescence, the filmmaker felt a strong need to revisit these formative places and see them through adult\u2019s eyes. Some locations, once explored with her family, were now deserted; former companions from her childhood had taken on leadership roles within the company. The journey was therefore not only geographical: it opened a temporal window that shaped both the writing of the film and the artist herself.<\/p>\n
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<\/strong><\/h5>\n\u201cIn my memory, the circus grounds were in the grass, perched on a hill, with an iron slide that went down to a playground by the river. I went there, and the real grounds were completely flat, muddy, without a slide, under a highway… but still near the river. <\/em><\/p>\n-Madalena, September 14, 2025, Rovaniemi, Finland. Travel Diary.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nDeepening of the artistic work<\/strong><\/h5>\nBeyond the confrontation between memory and reality, the encounters made during the journey were crucial in shaping the awardee\u2019s project.<\/p>\n
In Samstund, Norway, a theater hosting numerous international artists gave her the opportunity to discover the work of Iranian artist Sayeh Sirvani. The life-sized, deformed puppets attached to the performer on stage resonated deeply with Madalena\u2019s reflections on the representation of the body\u2014particularly the female body\u2014on stage. They echoed the themes of suffering, constraint, and liberation that run throughout her film, which focuses on a human cannonball and her daughter at the threshold of adolescence.<\/p>\n
Professional encounters intertwined with more everyday moments: dinners at local homes, visits to cultural sites, or trips to social spaces such as public swimming pools\u2014unexpected places where the world of the circus intersects with that of the cities hosting it.<\/p>\n
Future<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n<\/strong><\/h5>\n
<\/strong><\/h5>\n\u201cIn my memory, the circus grounds were in the grass, perched on a hill, with an iron slide that went down to a playground by the river. I went there, and the real grounds were completely flat, muddy, without a slide, under a highway… but still near the river. <\/em><\/p>\n-Madalena, September 14, 2025, Rovaniemi, Finland. Travel Diary.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nDeepening of the artistic work<\/strong><\/h5>\nBeyond the confrontation between memory and reality, the encounters made during the journey were crucial in shaping the awardee\u2019s project.<\/p>\n
In Samstund, Norway, a theater hosting numerous international artists gave her the opportunity to discover the work of Iranian artist Sayeh Sirvani. The life-sized, deformed puppets attached to the performer on stage resonated deeply with Madalena\u2019s reflections on the representation of the body\u2014particularly the female body\u2014on stage. They echoed the themes of suffering, constraint, and liberation that run throughout her film, which focuses on a human cannonball and her daughter at the threshold of adolescence.<\/p>\n
Professional encounters intertwined with more everyday moments: dinners at local homes, visits to cultural sites, or trips to social spaces such as public swimming pools\u2014unexpected places where the world of the circus intersects with that of the cities hosting it.<\/p>\n
Future<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n<\/strong><\/h5>\n
-Madalena, September 14, 2025, Rovaniemi, Finland. Travel Diary.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Beyond the confrontation between memory and reality, the encounters made during the journey were crucial in shaping the awardee\u2019s project.<\/p>\n In Samstund, Norway, a theater hosting numerous international artists gave her the opportunity to discover the work of Iranian artist Sayeh Sirvani. The life-sized, deformed puppets attached to the performer on stage resonated deeply with Madalena\u2019s reflections on the representation of the body\u2014particularly the female body\u2014on stage. They echoed the themes of suffering, constraint, and liberation that run throughout her film, which focuses on a human cannonball and her daughter at the threshold of adolescence.<\/p>\n Professional encounters intertwined with more everyday moments: dinners at local homes, visits to cultural sites, or trips to social spaces such as public swimming pools\u2014unexpected places where the world of the circus intersects with that of the cities hosting it.<\/p>\nDeepening of the artistic work<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Future<\/strong><\/h5>\n
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