Animal Religion is a circus company focused on exploring contemporary circus and interdisciplinarity. The company was founded by Quim Giron and Niklas Blomberg in 2012, with Giron taking on the artistic direction from the very beginning until 2017, when the company underwent significant growth.

Its first full-length show was the solo Indomador (2013), which toured for six years across Europe and Latin America. Indomador reflects on human animality, gender, and their interrelations.

​

In September 2014, commissioned by Jordi Duran and Fira Tàrrega, Animal Religion presented Chicken Legz, a site-specific piece set on a farm on the outskirts of Tàrrega. The show featured 11 artists and several animals roaming freely around the space. It received the Moritz Award for Best Street and Non-Conventional Show at Fira Tàrrega, as well as the Best Staging Award at the Zirkòlika Circus Awards 2014.

​

In 2015, L’Auditori de Barcelona, within its Escenes program, commissioned the company to create a new piece. This resulted in Sifonòfor, featuring 13 circus artists and opera singer Núria Dardinyà. The piece explored the interplay between music and circus, ranging from electronic to classical music, and from traditional to contemporary circus. The show received the Special Ciutat de Barcelona Award 2016 and the BBVA Zirkòlika Grand Prize 2016.

​

Following Sifonòfor came Tauromàquina (2016), premiered at the Trapezi Festival in Reus, a reflection on the relationship between humans and machines—an animal dialogue with an emotional engine—focusing on balance and equilibrium. The show featured two circus artists, one musician, and a forklift.

In the same year, 2016, Mercat de les Flors commissioned the company to create a mid-format piece. The result was Sapiens Zoo, inspired by tribal rituals and blurring the line between human and animal behavior. The show involved four circus artists, a dancer manipulating light on stage, and a DJ mixing electronic music with field recordings.

​

In 2017, commissioned by La Pedrera (with coproduction from the TNT Festival in Terrassa), Quim Giron began creating a new solo, which became Fang. The show revolved around exploring and manipulating clay as material, creating a reflection between the physical and the spiritual. Giron was joined on stage by Jou Serra (lighting designer and long-time collaborator of Animal Religion) and Joan Cot Ros (composer and musician). Fang won the Special Zirkòlika Award 2017, and was nominated for Best Circus Show at the TB Awards 2018 and for the Critics’ Awards for its music.

​

In 2018, Quim Giron was commissioned by the Ateneu Popular de 9 Barris to direct the 23rd Circ d’Hivern. For this project, Giron worked through the Animal Religion structure, and the piece became a collective creation featuring five circus artists on stage and an artistic team of six off-stage. The result was Nu, a fresh circus show for all audiences that sought to spark imagination through stage nakedness, with few objects and without traditional circus elements.

Also in 2018, Jou Serra and Joan Cot Ros joined Quim Giron as co-artistic directors. With this trio, Animal Religion works to expand the boundaries of contemporary circus through interdisciplinarity, using body, light, and sound as core elements from the start of the creative process.

In 2019, the company premiered its first show for early childhood audiences: …i les idees volen (…and the ideas fly), commissioned by Mercat de les Flors and the festival El més petit de tots. This work targeted audiences aged 2–5 and revealed that even very young children were fully capable of experiencing contemporary circus. The honesty and openness of this audience refreshed Animal Religion’s artistic language, giving it greater freedom both in materials and in space. The show placed the audience very close to the artists in a circular setting, with high levels of participation and interaction. A version for audiences with ASD was later created, titled Hola, mans i peus (Hello, hands and feet), designed as a relaxed performance, offering more time and space for spectators to express themselves freely.

​

In 2020, the company premiered Ahir (Yesterday), a new solo commissioned by the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya. The piece dialogued with the past—an incision into the timeline allowing it to be observed, stretched, frozen, and transformed. This was an opportunity for Animal Religion to develop dramaturgy more deeply, expanding their shows in new directions. Ahir was nominated for Best Lighting and Best Sound Design at the Critics’ Awards.

​

In 2023, Moon Ribas joined the company, expanding the team to four artists and diversifying the creative process. Ribas, a choreographer and cyborg artist, brought her technological and cybernetic practice into the work, making the shows more participatory and distinctive. The first collaboration was Ramat Simfònic (Symphonic Herd, 2023), a participatory street performance where the audience carried speakers around their necks like sheep bells, producing all the sound of the show. Inspired by the testimony of Alfons, a shepherd from Vallès, the show explored human bonds and our instinct to flock. It premiered at the Sismògraf Festival 2023 and later at Fira Tàrrega.

​

Also in 2023, the company premiered Sota Terra (Underground), a site-specific performance in which the audience became cyborg explorers, equipped with headlamps and cybernetic wristbands that vibrated in real time with global earthquakes. Created between Mataró and Cagliari, it was part of the Stronger Peripheries program, linking two cities in an artistic exchange. Sota Terra explored the relationship between humans and the underground world. 

​

In 2024, Animal Religion premiered Copiar (To Copy), a family-friendly show featuring eight children aged 8–9, alongside Quim Giron. The children changed every performance and were unaware of their participation until entering the venue. Copiar emerged from years of improvisation workshops in schools across Catalonia, Spain, and Europe, reflecting on originality, copying, and how these ideas are perceived in society. It premiered at Mercat de les Flors in March 2024.

In the past four years, Animal Religion has also restructured beyond its artistic work, strengthening communication, dissemination, and production. Since 2020, it has collaborated with Imaginart for tour management and client development. On the production side, El Climamola, a long-time partner, has handled new productions, accounting, and tour contracting.

​

In 2025, Animal Religion reached a turning point. After six years of shared trajectory and five projects that defined a distinctive aesthetic, the trio formed by Jou Serra, Joan Cot Ros, and Quim Girón brought their collective stage to a close in order to open new individual paths. This period was marked by the essential and minimalist lighting of Jou Serra, the electronic music compositions of Joan Cot Ros—always deeply interwoven with dramaturgy—and the honest movements of Quim Girón. Equally noteworthy was the team’s dedication to opening their work to childhood and to sensitivity towards the TEA community, as well as their persistence in maintaining a horizontal and interdisciplinary working model.

​

In 2026, a new chapter begins under the direction of Quim Girón. The company sets its sights on a horizon of technological research, where artificial intelligence becomes both a creative tool and a driving force of innovation. The goal: to imagine a theatre capable of self-regulating light, sound, image, and technical infrastructure. A living stage organism, intelligent and with its own voice.