European Clown Festival
A project to popularize the idea of a new circus in Praga-Północ (a district in Warsaw), referring to the “Sto Pociech” funfair that existed in Praga Park before the war and was bombed in 1939.
INVISION OF THE CLOWNS is a festival prepared in advance at workshops with residents, consisting of small performances in the space of the district (open air) and a series of meetings integrating artists and residents, which anyone can join. Circus, theater and music artists, together with a stage designer, composer and director, will create a new formula of action, which can be briefly described as the Prague Music Circus. The festival will take place in Praga-North. It is co-created by the Prague community. Clowns are losers, the lowest in the artistic hierarchy, representatives of the belief in the simplicity and naivety of the circus that can save the world. Rejected and ridiculed by high art, clowns right now – at a time of growing tensions, pressures and fears – can reveal their power if we invite them into our world and together with them transform the map of fears into a map of hope.
Where did they come from? What do they want? Where are they headed? Some say they are an unemployed family whose circus was bankrupted by the pandemic. Others say they’re city residents who went crazy from sitting at home during the plague. Still others say they are employees of a funfair that burned down in Prague Park in 1939, who want to rebuild it and bring joy to the city. Who are the mysterious clowns? Will they manage to stop the chaos and bursts of laughter wherever they appear? Or will the city learn from the clowns how to laugh, dance and live?
The director of the clownery was Michal Walczak. He also came up with my character Maria Zygfryda Cekińska de Kolaż. Other artists involved in the project included Czeslaw Mozil, Krzysztof Kostera, Paula Kinaszewska.
Organizer: Fundacja Zakochana Warszawa
Partners: Dom Kultury Praga, Urząd Dzielnicy Praga-Północ m. st. Warszawy, Centrum Praskie Koneser
