The association, created in 1992, is a hybrid place that is both a school of circus arts, a place for artists in residence, a performance factory and a key player in the development of heritage in the urban periphery. It is the first site representing the heritage of the suburbs to join the network. Located in the Tertres Cuverons political district of Bagneux (92), the PPCM's wooden tent is reminiscent of fairground architecture. The building has become a marker of the urban landscape of Bagneux in the same way as the social housing of the 1950s and 1960s that surround it. Its construction is an artistic, cultural, civic and participatory project that embodies the processes of transformation of the city through multidisciplinary artistic interventions that combine circus, dance, urban cultures and music.

The PPCM carries a popular and demanding artistic project which places the meeting and the experimentation in the center of its actions. A social integration ambition also irrigates the whole project with the wish to encourage social mix and access to artistic and cultural practices of popular audiences, all in a participative approach so that everyone takes part in the life of the district.

The cultural project places at its center the multiculturality of the priority territories of Ile-de-France as well as the popular, cultural and artistic traditions of these territories. The cultural rights approach, which permeates the entire PPCM project, contributes greatly to this objective of developing cultural democracy, culture "with all". Thus, the PPCM is part of the implementation of innovative relationships between artistic creation, society and the social and solidarity economy.

The PPCM invests as much in amateur practices as in circus professionals. The site develops artistic practices through the school of amateur practices as well as through its preparatory training of young people wishing to become professional in the circus world. The PPCM is a place of artistic residencies and the diffusion of shows, and also accompanies emerging artists from all over the world.