The cirqu' festival 2023 is history

This year’s program showed great artistic and conceptual diversity. For example, the piece «La Ligne» by French artist Chloé Moglia showcased the almost empty Alte Reithalle in all its beauty and dimensions; the group «Compagnie XY» was out and about in public spaces in the city and canton for almost ten days, sometimes quite inconspicuously, sometimes quite spectacularly enchanting the respective surroundings. And the artist Johann Le Guillerm presented an exhibition of four pieces in Aarau: from a walking wooden sculpture in public space to a self-moving installation in the city museum, a culinary experience in the Alte Reithalle and a solo performance in the circus tent.

Many other productions were part of the diverse festival program: from already successfully touring European productions (Terces, Through the Grapevine, Man Strikes Back) to more daring performance-like pieces (Ghost Writer and the Broken Hand break, BITBYBIT) to smaller try-outs by up-and-coming Swiss artists (Schichten, Ossol) and installation-like performances (Nyloïd, La Calasoif). This diversity was also reflected in the audience: young and old, old and young, cultural practitioners from Switzerland and abroad, professional circus artists - they all found their way to Aarau.

During the ten days of the festival, «cirqu’9» welcomed almost 3,800 guests who attended 39 different ticketed performances by 16 different groups. In addition, there were twelve different productions in public spaces that were freely accessible. Including the public productions, «cirqu’» counted 8,000 spectators. This is an increase of 42% compared to the last festival in 2021, «cirqu’8».

This does not include the 3,000 people who took part in the women’s strike on the first weekend of the festival, when Compagnie XY supported the demonstration with a three-man high banner in the middle of Bahnhofplatz. Or the opening of the Kettenbrücke, when Compagnie XY was also involved and captivated 500 visitors. In total, the 2023 festival reached over 11,500 people.

International Festival

cirqu’9 also welcomed a total of ten groups from Europe and around one hundred international cultural professionals from the specialist scene, who were able to network and discover new productions at the festival. There was also a noticeable increase in audiences from outside the canton. The organizers are particularly pleased about this new reach of their festival in the international and national sphere and the corresponding recognition in the scene.