Circo Aereo: Black Lion. CIRKO Center. Photos Cecilia Galera.
Finnish contemporary circus is flourishing. The opening of the new Cirko center made Suvilahti in Helsinki the home for the industry.
Hundreds of years old Persian poems, circus acrobatics, oriental music and new machine beats, the Cirko Center for New Circus is showing Circo Aereo’s Black Lion. Tops are spinning on the floor as a flexible acrobat climbs up a silk. The red spinning tops and the frantically moving circus artists are fascinating, almost hypnotizing.
“The best part about new circus is the freedom and possibility to combine different things,” says TOMI PUROVAARA, the director of Cirko Center for New Circus ry, a Helsinki-based production organization for contemporary circus.
When Cirko ry began its operations in 2002, Finnish contemporary circus was still in its infancy. There were only a few groups and basically no financing, facilities or any other structures.
Circo Aereo: Black lion. Rehearsal, CIRKO Center. Photos Cecilia Galera.
Circo Aereo, the pioneer of Finnish contemporary circus, already existed. Established in 1996, the circus group was followed by juggler VILLE WALO and magician KALLE HAKKARAINEN’s WHS group and the Race Horse Company collective.
Now there are some twenty contemporary circus groups in the country. Five of them are located in Helsinki and the rest 10–15, depending how you count them, all over Finland, for example in Turku, Tampere, Jyväskylä, Joensuu and Rovaniemi.
Coming soon – circus studies at university level
Finnish contemporary circus is flourishing. The financial situation and structures have improved during the past ten years and the artistic level as well as the export of contemporary circus has developed as a result of the improvements.
Cirko ry has been an important operator in the field, developing Finnish circus art and spreading information about the field. The center supports the production and marketing of new performances and shows performances to international key people. The organization is funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture, the City of Helsinki and the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
According to Cirko ry, approximately 100 Finnish contemporary circus performances were shown abroad in 2006 with a total of 16,000 viewers. The number of performances has doubled and the number of viewers tripled during the past five years. The number of contemporary circus groups and enthusiasts has also grown immensely.
Currently there are circus schools in Lahti and Turku, but the plan is to start university-level circus studies at the Theater Academy in Helsinki.
The bastard of arts, the favorite of the audience
Contemporary circus combines circus, theater, dance, music, literature and visual arts. Usually the contemporary circus groups seen on theater stages are not built around families like a traditional circus, but instead around working groups and collectives.
“There are no limitations as to what can and cannot be called circus. Traditional circus is often just a vague recollection. WHS, for example, has performed at video and puppet theater festivals,” Purovaara says.
“Circus has traditionally been a place where different art forms mix with each other. The first film showings, for example, often took place in a circus tent,” Purovaara continues.
“Circus has been said to be the bastard of the arts that doesn’t have enough characteristics. On the other hand, the freedom of circus is also its advantage. The versatility of the art form explains why contemporary circus is so popular. It offers something interesting for all kinds of people.”
As for examples of new Finnish contemporary circus groups, Purovaara mentions Sirkus Aikamoinen and the Rovaniemi-based Agit Cirk group whose performances are quite experimental. Agit Cirk tours around small-town gas stations and bars with no advance notice. They have even circled around the Saimaa lake in a sailboat and performed in small towns by the lake.
A new home for circus
Cirko ry is in charge of the Cirko center which opened its doors in Suvilahti during the spring of 2011. The center has two rooms which are used for both training and performing. The rooms are bordered by incredibly tall and narrow windows as the center is located in a building that used to be part of an old gasworks. The building underwent a complete renovation to be suitable for circus purposes.
“We want to offer the center as a circus art platform for those who don’t have a space,” Purovaara says.
CIRKO Center, Suvilahti, Helsinki. Photos Cecilia Galera.
The Circo Aereo group is one of the Cirko center’s members. The building also houses the offices of Taikateatteri 13 and the Finnish Youth Circus Association. The top floor has been taken over by the Finnish Circus Information Center with circus-related magazines, books and videos. Restaurant Lämpö on the ground floor and the summer terrace are part of the experience.
The first months of the center have been busy. The opening took place at the Cirko Festival in May. The children’s circus festival Circo Pikkolo in August was sold out and so were the Sirkus Aikamoinen performances that opened the autumn season. Then there was, of course, the Flow Festival spreading all over Suvilahti in mid-August with events taking over the Cirko center located in the middle of the festival grounds.
“We didn’t think this was going to start off this well,” Purovaara says. “There has clearly been a need for a center like this.”
The Cirko Festival is the biggest annual contemporary circus festival in the Nordic countries and according to Purovaara, it is seen as an interesting event all over Europe, attracting festival directors, buyers and program planners to Finland. In addition to the Cirko festival, the center hosts two festivals organized as joint productions, the 5-3-1 juggling festival and the Taikaa! magic festival. The future plans include fire art and an event focusing on clowning.
Purovaara has a vision of Suvilahti as a Finnish circus center, a circus village with various kinds of circus activities, such as groups and circus schools. The renovation of the old Suvilahti gasometer, which is very suitable for circus purposes, begins in December 2011 and is expected to be completed by 2014. There have also been negotiations about Circus Finlandia moving from Kaisaniemi to Suvilahti, next to the Cirko center.
Just like Circo Aereo’s Black Lion performance, the entire Finnish contemporary circus movement is moving strongly.
As Purovaara puts it: “The artistic growth and the development of the structures have created a positive spiral, perhaps even a tornado.” †
Salong Giraff: Euphoria – Show & dinner 23 Oct – 17 Dec 2011. A clowning event at the end of January. Cirko center, Suvilahti, Helsinki. www.cirko.net
Text Heini Lehtinen Photos Cecilia Galera
Mostly Cloudy 
