Gespräch
Observing people in everyday life is my core occupation
A universe of grotesque characters. Martin Zimmermann in conversation with Mirjam Hildbrand
The Swiss artist Martin Zimmermann is many things rolled into one: performer, clown, director, choreographer, set and costume designer, craftsman, tinkerer and inventor. He grew up in Wildberg, a small village east of Zurich, learned to juggle with circus performer Jacky Lupescu in a neighbouring village, developed his own shows as a teenager and even had a manager. He later completed an apprenticeship as a decorator in Zurich and graduated from the renowned French circus school Centre National des Arts du Cirque (CNAC) in the early 1990s. In 1996 he toured the world with his year’s graduation piece, “Le cri du caméléon” (choreography by Josef Nadj, 1995). This production marked a turning point in the French-speaking context; it established the term “cirque contemporain” (contemporary circus) where previously there had been talk of “Nouveau Cirque” (new circus). In the late 1990s Zimmermann returned to Switzerland, where he has attracted attention for pieces such as “Gopf” (1999), “Hans was Heiri” (2012), “Hallo” (2014), “Eins Zwei Drei” (2018) among many others. He is currently on tour with his productions “Danse Macabre” (2021) and “Wonderful World” (with Kinsun Chan, 2022). His international productions, each of which toured for several years, were funded in Switzerland as dance productions and mostly marketed as such, whereas in the international context they were largely considered (contemporary) circus. In 2021, Martin Zimmermann received the Swiss Grand Prix for Performing Arts/Hans Reinhart Ring for over twenty years of successful creations, with his work described as “visual theatre that hardly fits into a compartment”.1
von Martin Zimmermann und Mirjam Hildbrand
Erschienen in: Arbeitsbuch 2022: Circus in flux – Zeitgenössischer Zirkus (07/2022)
Assoziationen: Zirkus
