Cosmopolitan shelters - Circuses as multicultural spaces and refuge for vulnerable groups

This project in 2022 wants to a) highlight the circus as a cosmopolitan space that has for centuries opened a portal to the wide world for its visitors and b) draw attention to the circus as a place of refuge that, even today, offers protection to marginalized and vulnerable groups.

With the admission of fled young artists from Ukrainian circus schools, the circus becomes visible again as a place of refuge.

The Berlin Senate finances this joint project with the children’s circus Cabuwazi/Berlin Altglienicke (2022, 24.000 EUR). In addition to an exhibition, presented in autumn 2022, there will be a teacher-training seminar with the performance group CINS-Circus im Nationalsozialismus (22.–23.9.2022) and the production of educational materials. The scientific direction is in the hands of Dr. Malte Gasche from CENS/University of Helsinki. The German historian Martin Holler and the Danish Holocaust educator Solvej Berlau are also part of the project.