Emmanuelle Bon’s answer to “What’s that, a Clown?”

by | Sep 14, 2023 | Clown

Emmanuelle Bon’s answer to “What’s that, a Clown?” sure resonates in my ears, and hence this post to share it.

“Parmi les artistes du spectacle vivant, le clown occupe une place singulière, en contraste : alors que les performances du musicien, de l’acrobate, du danseur ou de l’acteur suscitent l’admiration, le clown se prend les pieds dans le tapis, s’assied à côté de sa chaise, renverse son verre… bref, rate ce que tout un chacun accomplit facilement.
Il est non-performant, ne propose rien d’admirable, et pourtant il a lieu d’être, il est souhaité, aimé. Le clown met le projecteur sur ce que la vie sociale nous apprend à dissimuler : notre faillibilité, notre incompétence, notre ridicule. C’est un exercice très libérateur, mais également périlleux, car il suppose pour chacun de dévoiler cette vulnérabilité.”
Forgive my clumsy English translation…yet hopefully the essence remains.
“Amongst live performing artists, the clown occupies a unique, contrasting place: while the performances of the musician, acrobat, dancer or actor arouse admiration, the clown’s feet trip-catching on the carpet, sits down-but misses the chair and ends up on the ground, turns their glass upside down-spilling the contents… in short, they screw up what everyone achieves easily.
They are non-performing, proposing nothing admirable, and yet they have reason to be, they are wanted, loved. The clown puts the spotlight on what social life teaches us to hide: our vulnerability, our incompetence, our ridiculousness. This is a very liberating exercise, but also dangerous, because it requires everyone to unveil their vulnerabilities. “
This comes from a facebook post that Clowns Sans Frontières-the French Clowns Without Borders group- posted today (9.14.23) …and they sourced it here in an article on CSF posted on the cairns-info site.Source : https://www.cairn.info/revue-memoires-2023-1-page-22.htm
IF you found Emmanuelles’ point of view interesting, I highly recommend that you click on the link just above to the ‘source’ which is an article she wrote about a CSF project working with refugee children, using the art of clown at the Centre Primo Levi, right in the heart of Paris.  The end of the article  which describes the project’s use of the art of clowning to bring assistance to refugee children:
…” cette découverte de l’art clownesque, ce que Stanislaw Tomkiewicz  (Stanislaw Tomkiewicz, né le 10 novembre 1925 à Varsovie) a appelé « un tuteur de résilience ». Nous l’espérons profondément.”
….this discovery of the art of clowning, that Stanlislaw Tomkiewicz called  “a tutor of resilience“.  We profoundly hope so.
Mequital, Guatemala City, 1996 ©moco

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