Monday, June 1, 2009

CIRCA - not your average clown troupe




Clowning has been on my mind and painted on my face lately. I'm fascinated by the intersection of peaceful demonstrations and clowning. Most recently I was introduced to a clowning troupe (mostly in the UK) called CIRCA, which stands for: Clandestine, Insurgent, Rebel, Army. They dress up as clowns and do all sorts of peaceful activism. It seems to me their tactics may skate the edge in terms of effective activism, but I really don't know too much about them. Could it be that European military and police have more of a sense of humor. I imagine if I went up to a cop at a protest or something and tried to talk in his megaphone, I wouldn't have the same success. Here is their link: http://www.clownarmy.org/

1 comment:

Eric Indiana said...

I like the fearlessness of clowns - they can bring absurdity in to diffuse a tense situation. And no matter what happens, it's always a good photo op. I've been collecting pictures of clowns & police from the internet & I think a lot of them come from CIRCA:

http://daisybrain.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/police-vs-clowns/