CLOWN AT WAR

Leo Bassi

Concept: A double war of a clown – the war with the real war and the war with the war of the narratives and stories that media and power tell about wars, justifying themselves

There is a common trait between the clown and the war. Both clownship and the war are the liberation of the animalistic instinct that provokes us to violate the accepted rules, step out of the frames of the usual, let ourselves free. Yet there is a difference. War as well as tragedy is something determinate. It is a strict and unalterable decision. There is nothing of the sort in comedy and clownship. It makes us laugh at our most profound emotions, at out highest authorities, but it never follows this till the end and it is never serious. It just keeps the dynamic of spirit and game alive.  In this sense clownship is an opponent and an enemy of war.

Clownship is mobile. And it has always protected those who lead nomadic lives. For it is the sedentary people who have the protection of their neighbors, police and armies. Clownship is the protection of those who do not have their territory to defend, who cross the borders and can be easily attacked. By making people laugh they deprive them of motivation to kill. A clown is his own weapon. Without destroying anyone he keeps moving along a thin line. One of the last victims of (Portuguese) inquisition was the clown and his family. Thus faced with those who want to solve problems once and for all the clown can die as a soldier in his invisible war. So what is the clown’s war?

Nowadays it is twofold. Firstly it is traditional war so close and so opposite to clownship. And secondly there is a new wart, the war of the narratives the media and the power tell in order to justify themselves and their wars. And thus so many people stop doing the real comedy for they are bought by power and show-business. And the lonely war of the clown is to reject that seductive suggestion and to continue to view this world independently. His reward being the pure delight of Truth.