In the exhibition O | CIRCUS Artists*, Images, Texts, a manifesto is presented in German and English. Claudia Reiche's manifesto: FUNNYSORRYANGRYANONYMOUS. Clowns from 2017 took the “Great Clowns Panic” of 2016 in the USA, which spread to other continents, as its starting point for reflecting on the horror and rapidly established enemy image of clowns. Not long before Donald Trump's first presidency, colorfully costumed and made-up individuals began to attract attention, wandering around suburbs or country roads, especially at night, carrying balloons or potential weapons, or often only exhibiting strange movement patterns, with massive dissemination numbers, especially on social media. The “clown sightings,” which were filmed and shared like trophies, including the wild escapes and screams of the ‘victims’ of these pranks, led to spontaneous vigilante groups and armed “clown chasing” mobs, which seem to foreshadow images of the storming of the Capitol. “Every era has the clowns it deserves:”
+ Conversation with the author
Guest at Millerntorwache: Claudia Reiche: O | CIRCUS
Millerntorwache is a branch of the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte (Museum of Hamburg History) run by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S.
Claudia Reiche
is an artist, media scholar, and curator. She deals with questions of mediality, psychoanalysis, film, and visual cultures, as well as the epistemological, aesthetic, and political implications of digital technologies. She has been teaching in the theoretical and artistic fields and publishing for many years. She also works on web projects, film and photography, exhibitions, and is active in feminist and queer projects.
