Didier Pasquette
Encyclopedia
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
tightrope walker.
Pasquette studied with Philippe Petit
Philippe Petit
Philippe Petit is a French high-wire artist who gained fame for his high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, New York, on 7 August 1974...
(famous for his high wire walk between the former Twin Towers
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
of the World Trade Center in New York in 1974) and in 1989 received his diploma from the Centre National des Arts du Cirque in Châlons-en-Champagne
Châlons-en-Champagne
Châlons-en-Champagne is a city in France. It is the capital of both the department of Marne and the region of Champagne-Ardenne, despite being only a quarter the size of the city of Reims....
. He also studied Chinese acrobatics in Nanchang
Nanchang
Nanchang is the capital of Jiangxi Province in southeastern China. It is located in the north-central portion of the province. As it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east by Poyang Lake, it is famous for its scenery, rich history and cultural sites...
.
For six years, he performed in partnership with Jade Kindar-Martin
Jade Kindar-Martin
Jade Kindar-Martin is a highwire walker and circus performer.Kindar-Martin started performing on the wire at the age of 14 with Circus Smirkus, a youth circus based in rural Vermont...
in theatrical high wire acts for Camion Funambule. Pasquette and Kindar-Martin also became known for their dramatic skywalks.
Notable walks
- 1997 – Pasquette and Jade Kindar-Martin walked a 430 metre wire 30 metres above the River ThamesRiver ThamesThe River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
in LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, setting a Guinness World Record.
- 1999 – At midnight on December 31, 1999, Pasquette walked a high wire running along the Greenwich Meridian in Villers sur Mer as part of the MillenniumMillenniumA millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....
celebrations in France.
- 2001 – Pasquette successfully walked a high wire from the Rosenborg Drill Ground in CopenhagenCopenhagenCopenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
to the highest tower of Rosenborg CastleRosenborg CastleRosenborg Castle is a renaissance castle located in the centre of Copenhagen, Denmark. The castle was originally built as a country summerhouse in 1606 and is an example of Christian IV's many architectural projects...
. The only previous attempt was in 1827 when DutchDutch peopleThe Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
tightrope acrobat Christian Roat was killed after the wire collapsed.
- 2005 – Pasquette walked on a wire stretched high above the Stade de FranceStade de FranceThe Stade de France is the national stadium of France, situated just north of Paris in the commune of Saint-Denis. It has an all-seater capacity of 80,000, making it the fifth largest stadium in Europe, and is used by both the France national football team and French rugby union team for...
in ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
- 2007 – Pasquette performed a high wire walk at the Red Road flat complexRed Road (flats)The Red Road Flats are a high-rise housing complex which lies between the districts of Balornock and Barmulloch in the north east of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It consists of eight multi-storey blocks. Two are "slabs", much wider in cross-section than they are deep. Six are "points" — more of a...
in GlasgowGlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
between three tower blockTower blockA tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, office tower, apartment block, or block of flats, is a tall building or structure used as a residential and/or office building...
s 53 metres apart and 100 metres above the ground. Film of the attempt was incorporated into High Wire, a multi-screen film and video installationInstallation artInstallation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
by Catherine YassCatherine YassCatherine Yass is an English artist.Catherine Yass was born in 1963 in London and in her early years lived in Hampstead. She later studied at the Slade School of Art, London and then at Hochschule der Künste, Berlin...
for the 2008 Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Visual Arts.
- 2010 – On September 23, 2010, at 6:30 p.m., Pasquette successfully walked a 150-foot wire tied between two replicas of the Statue of Liberty atop the 23-story Liberty Building in Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo, New YorkBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
. The feat took about three minutes. Pasquette twice stopped during his walk to wave to the crowd. Pasquette lifted his right leg and waved his cap the first time. The second time, he went to a knee and waved his cap again from side to side. The weather was approximately 70 degrees Fahrenheit with a slight breeze.
Sources
- Biography on the High Wire project site.
- Stephen McGinty, Glasgow proves tall order even for daredevil, The ScotsmanThe ScotsmanThe Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
23 July 2007 - Taking risks for art with Didier Pasquette, MetroMetro (Associated Metro Limited)Metro is a free daily newspaper in the United Kingdom published by Associated Newspapers Ltd . It is available from Monday to Friday each week on many public transport services across the United Kingdom.-History:The paper was launched in London in 1999, and can now be found in 14 UK urban centres...
, April 14, 2008 - Nadine Champenois, Tête en l’air et pieds sur terre, Portrait of Didier Pasquette (in French), Petites Affiches Matot Braine, May 28, 2005, N. 7134.
External links
- Official web site of Didier Pasquette
- Didier Pasquette in Montreal 2005, Saatchi GallerySaatchi GalleryThe Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art, opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985 in order to exhibit his collection to the public. It has occupied different premises, first in North London, then the South Bank by the River Thames and currently in Chelsea. Saatchi's collection, and...
. - Photographs of Didier Pasquette's 2007 high wire walk in Glasgow by Grant Gibson.