Circus Maximus

Circus Maximus is an artist-led spaceless performing arts platform, presenting a diverse range of performances and crossdisciplinary productions. 

We want to share our resources with artists and curators who want to experiment with artistic forms and structures, with a specific focus on locality and site-specific work. Each production seeks a space or environment that suits its needs: backyards, caves, garages, theatre buildings, beaches, galleries, piers, bars, fields, forests, shopping malls, or online. Our programme constantly takes on new forms. 

Founded in 1997 and based in Helsinki, Circus Maximus operates in the fields of theatre, live art and performance, dance, and other forms of performing arts that stretch the boundaries of performance. In our productions we value experimentation, incompleteness, trial and error, fragility and criticality. At the heart of our association is a search for new artistic expressions and forms, as well as a diversity of artistic voices and makers towards collective re-imagining of power balances.

Circus Maximus is run by the board elected by the association's members, and a producer working part-time for the association. Curatorial decisions are made by a curator and finalised at the beginning of the preceding year. Circus Maximus is funded by the Arts Promotion Centre and the City of Helsinki.