The German artist Julian Vogel is invited to the city festival in Lausanne from July 1 to 6 with its monumental construction “crescendo”. From the start of the school year, he will turn his swirling “Ceramic Circus” throughout Switzerland. Do not miss it, you would miss the breakage of the century.
It is a kind of aerial monorail. It culminates 9 meters high and its curves evoke the roller coaster. No wagon to take an audience -based audience, but tubes hanging from this metallic structure a bit like the bamboo of a wind carillon. The rail measures 70 meters, the tubes, in ceramic, are a large hundred and the whole far exceeds the ton.
The “crescendo” installation requires it. Artists and public, however, have the right to touch it, to manipulate it, to walk there and to offer shows. Erected on the Place du Château, “Crescendo” is a bit like the symbol of the Cité festival in Lausanne: daring, free to access, immersive, fun, aesthetic and conducive to reflection. It is owed to a Swiss circus artist, Julian Vogel.
![L'installation "Crescendo" The Julian Vogel. [Les Subsistances]](https://img.rts.ch/articles/2025/image/4y5a6z-28923634.image?mw=1280 "L'installation \"Crescendo\" The Julian Vogel. [Les Subsistances]")
On the thread of the imbalance
Scenography and installation, “crescendo” will not remain planted there, all alone and silent. On July 1 and 2, Julian Vogel meets the Circassian and dancer Marc Oosterhoff, as well as guitarist Simone Aubert for a performance that we press dizzying and on the thread of the imbalance. And on July 3, it is another Circassian, Lili Parson Piguet, who will dialogue with the formidable Brazilian dancer (and acrobat) Catol Texeira, before giving up this meccano to the dancer Mélissa Guex and the drummer Clément Grin for their tribal performance “Down”.
Julian Vogel became interested in psychology and art history before branching towards the circus arts and a small object that we thought about: Diabolo. “Diabolo is two bowls and a string. I started by replacing plastic with muesli bowls. It was much more fragile, and suddenly more interesting. Am always a juggler when my diabolo breaks? What can I offer? I started to take an interest in ceramics and the construction of objects, machines or devices,” said the artist in Vertigo.
In a show on tour from the start of the school year 2025-2026, “Ceramic Circus”, Julian Vogel will turn like a top on a circle accompanied by a ball, also rotating, suspended from the ceiling, a bicycle on the random handlebars, rollers, a dispersed battery with four winds and stems supporting balances in balance.
There is breakage, a lot of breakage and Julian Vogel, in sweat, sometimes in blood, is both conductor, crazy machinist in Chaplin, dancer, elite sportsman and musician reigning on this “Ceramic Circus” where the imponderable is welcome. On the public side, we are dizzy. Will apprehension mix with laughter and fascination: will Julian Vogel manage to build and master this chaos in orbit? The answer is lost in a crash of dishes and drums.
Thierry Sartoretti/mh
“Crescendo”, Festival de la Cité, Place du Château, Lausanne, from July 1 to 6, 2025.
“Ceramic Circus”, on Swiss tour: Zirqus Festival, Zurich, from September 3 to 5, 2025; Kaserne, Basel, September 15 and 18, 2025; Vidy-Lausanne, from November 12 to 23, 2025; The spot on the asylum farm, Sion, from January 15 to 17, 2026; Comedy, Geneva, from May 6 to 9, 2026.
Information processed in the Vertigo program of July 1, 2025 at 5 p.m.
