Putting on collective: freak Show: Gag

On June 12th the ‘Putting On’ collective joined the Circus Charivari in Berlin as one of their Freak Show acts. After mounting the stage as menacing clowns, the Putting-On team performed a gagged gag to a full house, pointing their pistols at the audience and then blasting them with confetti.

The Circus Charivari was organised by Friederike Berat, an artist and independent filmmaker. Artists from a number of countries joined forces to explore the idea of the Freak Show, with reference to the early days of circus. The collective wanted to be part of that dialogue as an extension to their research into the boundaries between art and the subversive.

The theme based collective was formed in 2009. It investigates the Clown as a subversive figure in culture. A full length article discussing these issues will be published shortly.

‘Putting on’ is a collaborative project that embraces the revolutionary potential of humour, folk culture and the carnivalesque by exploring the clown in his age-old role as a masquerading fool, a trickster, a joker and jester. The arists Natasha Caruana, Wiebke Leister and Daphne Plessner see these elements as subversive strategies and tools for commenting on contemporary social life.

Natasha Caruana’s photographs and films tease out the relationship between the outsider and the group. Daphne Plessner’s painted posters and installations make use of the extravagant and paradoxical language of the circus poster to chilling effect and Wiebke Leister’s photographs and drawings interrogate the facial canvas in relation to laughter and irony.

In addition to their individual responses, the artists aim to present this collaborative project to the general public with an open invitation to visitors to participate in the social and political lampoonery, alter the displays and engage in the events hosted by the artists in ‘Putting On’ a show.