EPICIRQ 2023. A glance into the Baltic Contemporary Circus scene
What does a growing creature look like? The raw character and braveness, coupled with the tenderness and honesty of a young and eager-to-grow circus scene, was evident to anyone attending EPICIRQ, the showcase for Baltic contemporary circus, which celebrated its 4th edition, from 6-8 of October in Tallinn, Estonia. This article frames those days, demonstrating how much can be achieved through collaboration and joint forces despite a lack of resources.
EPICIRQ 2023, Grete Gross and Lizeth Wolk, photo by Luisa Greta Vilo
The Baltics don’t have a lot of people, but they have acts, courage, and creation. This phrase can describe in a nutshell what the Baltic contemporary circus scene seems to be all about, concentrating its powers in EPICIRQ, its showcase, which was celebrating its 4th gathering this year. That’s what Grete Gross, one of the two organizers of EPICIRQ together with Lizeth Wolk, and the person who came up with this idea in the first place, invited me to experience. Grete and I met at BOUNCE, the project development programme by Circostrada, in which she presented EPICIRQ, with the ambition to turn, through it, circus into a sustainable and established artform in Estonia and the Baltic region. Based on the evidence of this year’s EPICIRQ, it seems that Grete and Lizeth, circus artists themselves, have already learned a lot and can start looking wider.