Clowns Without Borders: a project of crazy people…, of clowns, jugglers, tightrope walkers, trapeze artists, magicians, puppeteers, dancers, musicians…, artists of ephemeral street art, of popular festivals and of passing the hat. It was born thanks to the initiative of the children and teachers of the Escola Projecte, where my sister worked as a nurse. At that time, the school specialized in children with hemophilia.
During Christmas lunch in 1992, at my parents’ house, I received a call from the children of that center, proposing to do a show in a refugee camp near Italy, as part of a party to ask for peace in the Balkan war that had just begun. They told me that there was a teacher from their school in the camp and that they were in contact with many other schools around the world through a new technique that consisted of transmitting information from a computer over the telephone line – telematics – and that they had the money to pay for fuel, highway tolls and all the logistics to make the show possible. On a visit to the school we remembered leaving Barcelona on February 23rd.
Together with my partner Montserrat Trias Muñoz and our 14-year-old son, Blai, we traveled the 1260 kilometers that separate Barcelona from the Istrian peninsula, and on February 26, before lunchtime, we were performing Clovni, a street show in which a clown threw himself from a 12-meter-high tower into a glass of water. With that show, at that time, we were touring street theater festivals in Europe and North America. The result was overwhelming; once the show was over, the meal shifts were suspended, the delivery of letters was done jointly and the different families at war laughed together until they cried at all the provocations of the clown.
Some time ago my good friend Vicenç Fisas Armengol, a great scholar of armed conflicts and peace processes, told me about the children in refugee camps, desperately looking for their childhood, and how useful it would be if a clown could visit them. It was from his lips that the name Clowns Without Borders (PSF) was first coined.
Totally shocked, we returned to Barcelona with the firm conviction that we had to try again. In May 1993, we crossed the Yugoslavian border with the jugglers Boni & Caroli in search of the refugee camps in the Varazdin area, this time without any support. The sensations and emotions of the first trip were repeated; what we were doing was very useful and we could see no way back. On the long trip back, the idea of creating a form of organization began to take shape. During a stop for gas at a service area on the French highway, Montserrat Trias climbed into the van with a paper napkin on which she had drawn a clown with a clown’s eyes, the ball of the world for a nose and a big heart for a mouth. We already had a logo. We would make pins and T-shirts and wear them in our shows: “We come from the refugee camps in Yugoslavia and we want to go back there, the children are waiting for us, and you can help us”.
On June 23, 1993, in the office of Josep Maria Socías Humbert in Roger de Llúria street in Barcelona, the association was created with friends from the neighborhood, professional colleagues and members of pacifist organizations. We set up the headquarters in the home of Pepe Perea and Victoria Plana. Montserrat Solé and Rosa Argelagos took over the secretariat, and we launched an appeal that generated eight expeditions that same year, self-financed by the artists themselves.
Time goes by. Thousands of shows have been performed in refugee camps due to war causes and natural disasters, hundreds of artists have participated in a completely generous and altruistic way in this story, turning laughter into a song of peace and resilience. Sometimes I wonder how we have managed it. We are artists, of course, we want to make a living from our work, but we are fueled by the laughter of the audience, eyes shining on the verge of tears of laughter. In the case of PSF’s expeditions, the usefulness of this form of scenic expression reaches its highest level. All artists make art; when our art improves people’s lives and thinking, we call it culture: that’s what happens. As Joan Brossa (PSF supporter) said: “I know the usefulness of the useless and I have the richness of not wanting to be rich”.
There is a before and an after for an artist who participates in PSF projects. On an expedition, you give a lot, but you learn much more. At home, it changed the way we understand the world, and I would like to thank all those who have helped in this magnificent adventure of crazy people and have shared it!
When reality paints the sky black, the generous laughter of gratitude from those who have nothing paints it in colors.
Tortell Poltrona
Prologue Book “Laughter and Emotions: the travels of Clowns Without Borders (1993-2022)”.
