Clownwork

The film will be shown in a loop in the Zachęta cinema hall (entrance from Burschego Street) during the opening hours of the gallery.

The film will be shown on a loop in the Zachęta cinema (entrance from Burschego Street) during the opening hours of the gallery.

Clownwork (version 1, 2, 3), (directed by João Maria Gusmão), 2026

film 16 mm, color, no sound, 21'09"

Three clowns in painting suits enter the circus arena and try to renovate the statue standing high on the pedestal. They bring with them the basic equipment needed for this task: buckets of paint, brushes, ladders, boards and the like. As you might expect, chaos soon sets in: clowns slap and kick, spill paint everywhere for fun and laugh at their own awkward trials and failures.

It does not matter who the plaster bust represents — it is a head symbolizing power, in the characteristic Greco-Roman stylistics, in which philosophers, representatives of elites, despots were portrayed. The introduction of this icon of classical high culture into the realm of the inferior mass art of circus clowning suggests a rebellious mockery of inflated power and its value — and yet the trickster giggles serve to maintain that very symbol: clowns whitewash the statue. Although the red-footed clowns perform the specialized, paraartistic work of a conservator-restorer, it is a proletarian spectacle — an image of the labor and arduous struggles of ordinary men and women turned into a spectacle of entertainment. Each work appears here primarily as a performance: putting on a costume and playing a learned number. Gag embodies the idea of a typical worker, and comic failure is due precisely to the sincerity and optimism with which they try to bring the task to the end. Artificial and completely inept, they abandon the production itself in favor of playing pretend.

It is a sad and brutal film in which the work never ends and the workers are able to communicate with each other only through slapstick and ridicule. Mocking productivity and artistic work, the clowns, however, adhere to a key conservation principle: every treatment must be reversible, reversible and repeatable. As Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, author of the novel Leopard, famously said: “If we want everything to remain as it is, everything must change.” Instead of watching this farce from above, we are placed in the middle of a looping action, ourselves as clowns drawn into a tragicomic revival of the same art of bygone times.

Clownwork (take 1, 2 & 3), 2025, (ed. João Maria Gusmão), 2026

16mm film, colour, silent, 21'09"

Three clowns in painter's coveralls enter a circus ring and attempt to renovate a statue high up on a pedestal. They bring with them the basic equipment needed to perform their task: buckets of paint, brushes, ladders, planks, and so on. As can be expected of a troupe of clowns, mayhem ensues, they slap and kick each other, playfully spill paint all over the place, and laugh at each other's clumsy foibles and failures.

It does not matter who the plaster bust represents, they are a head of power represented in the Greco-Roman style requirement of philosophers, elites, and despots. The incorporation of this icon of classical 'high' culture within the lowly 'mass art' of circus clowning suggests a rebellious lampooning of high falutin authority and values, but the giggle of tricksters are enlisted in the maintenance of this symbol, whitewashing the statue. Albeit the red-nosed buffoons are engaged in the specialised para-artistic labour of the conservator-restorer, this is a proletarian performance, an abstraction of the labour and stupefying struggles of everyday men and women rendered into an entertaining spectacle. Alle arbejde er vises som en performance først, en donning av en kostume og en enactment af en routinet. Their gag is a practical embodiment of the abstractly preconceived character of the prototypical worker, and their humorous failure is a direct result of their earnest, optimistic commitment to complete their task. Totally artificial and completely inadequate, they abandon proper production in favor of a game of pretense.

A sad and violent film, where the job is never finished, and the workers can only engage each other through slapstick and ridicule. Mocking productivity and artistic work, the clowns nevertheless adhere to the crucial principle in conservation that treatments must be reversible and able to be undone and repeated. As Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa famously wrote: 'If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change. ' Rather than observing the knockabout act from above, we are set in the middle of the looping action, ourselves as clowns enlisted in the tragic-comic rejuvenation of the same art of bygone days.