The choreographer, theater director, stage designer and performer Martin Zimmermann (b. 1970), grew up in the small Swiss village of Wildberg and, after an apprenticeship as a set designer, graduated from the Centre National des Arts du Cirque (CNAC) in Paris. For more than 25 years, he has been inventing, choreographing and staging visual and physical theater without words, whose mixture of contemporary circus, dance, theater and spectacular stage installations inspires a large audience. Making art accessible to all and campaigning for more inclusion and diversity are issues that are particularly close to his heart. For his plays, he creates bizarre and strange worlds in which everyday objects are shifted into parallel, often absurd worlds. He breaks with convention, reveals the invisible, makes the improbable appear true and encourages the audience to think in new ways. The core of his work is the dialogue between the human body and objects with a life of their own, which allows them to meet and interact with each other in unstable and threatening environments. The human being in all its complexity is at the center of his interest. In 2021, Martin Zimmermann received the highest Swiss theater award, the prestigious Grand Prix Darstellende Künste / Hans-Reinhart-Ring 2021.
Show
Martin Zimmermann
Ciao Ciao
In this family piece, two circus artists meet the Basel Ballet Company in a very imaginative world.
Gelsomina is funny, clever and hates rules. And if she follows any, then only her own. Her friend believes he knows how theatre works, what it needs and what it doesn’t. But these notions turn Gelsomina’s world upside down and inside out. Together, the two discover that the stage is much more than just a black hole with curtains: an ingenious magic box with endless possibilities for daring acrobatics, versatile dancers and clownish figures. In this imaginative family play, Swiss multi-artist Martin Zimmermann brings together two circus artists and the Basel Ballet Company, thereby taking us on a journey into a visually stunning, Fellinesque universe.
- Age recommendation: 9+
Concept, staging, choreography Martin Zimmermann
Artistic and choreographic collaboration Romain Guion
Dramaturgy Sabine Geistlich
Stage design Simeon Meier
Costumes Susanne Boner
Light Sarah Büchel
Rehearsal assistance Debora Maiques Marin
Stage design assistance Jana Furrer
Costumes assistance Anna Michaelis
Photos Gregory Batardon
Created and interpreted with dancers of the Basel Ballet Company: Giacomo Altovino, Lydia Caruso, Mikaela Kelly, David Lagerqvist, Stefanie Pechtl and
the circus artists Eline Guélat, Aimé Morales.
Production MZ Atelier
Coproduction Theater Basel, Tanzhaus Zürich
With the support of Novartis, Friends of Theater Basel
Martin Zimmermann is supported by a cooperative funding agreement with the City of Zurich Culture, Department of Culture Canton Zurich and Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council.
Martin Zimmermann is Associated Artist at maisondelaculture de Bourges / Scène Nationale and Tanzhaus Zürich.