Zirkusquartier Zurich

Circ-Exchange

Circ-Exchange is a networking format featuring workshops and discussions for circus professionals. The aim is to create a space in which artists from all over Switzerland can exchange ideas, get to know each other, move together, share experiences and get to the bottom of important questions. For example, what does the scene need? How can the Swiss circus community be strengthened? How can exchanges among artists be further promoted?

There is a spirit of optimism in Switzerland’s contemporary circus scene. New formats and collaborations with other performing arts are popping up everywhere, and traditional methods and concepts are being radically scrutinised. To absorb, bundle up and channel the energies emerging as a result of this, new spaces are needed to help the emergent scene in terms of networking, exchanging ideas and bringing artists together with institutions and sponsors.

In order to meet the high demands of future developments, Circ-Exchange must now be expanded and cemented as a place that’s here to stay. Circ-Exchange is very important to us – Zirkusquartier, Zurich’s production and performance venue for contemporary circus – and we see it as an urgently needed format for responding to the latest developments and needs within the scene.

After gaining some initial experience with this format in 2023, we are now developing it further in collaboration with professional circus artists Caro Wuttke and Luisa Schmitz to establish it as a recurring part of the Zirkusquartier programme. Caro, an aerial artist, and Luisa, a clown and physical theatre performer, bring their different perspectives from the circus scene to the table, optimally complementing one another’s skills. They cater to the needs of the scene and develop programme items and thematic content for the Circ-Exchange format.

Circ-Exchange consists of one-day events for professional circus artists who are already working in Switzerland and a week-long exchange for artists wishing to gain a foothold in the Swiss circus scene.