On the European circus scene, Archaos stands as the moderniser of the genre. Its early radical, anarchic take on circus embraced a punk, edgy aesthetic that sent the public’s sense into overdrive and pushed the boundaries of the genre. Today Archaos is a giant of the circus world, on a mission to shock and excite society, under the co-direction of Guy Carrara and Simon Carrara.

In the 1970s many artists in Europe believed that the organisation and representation of culture were elitist and reinforced the divide between the intellectually and economically dominating agents and the rest of the population. This social and cultural ethos led to the emergence of street theater festivals in France and then in some countries in Europe.

Following this decade of countercultural shifts, the 1980s saw emblematic companies making history in Europe: Archaos, Royal de Lux in France, and the Catalans of La Fura dels Baus.