Comedy in sickness and crisis – does it really work?

What happens when there is no planned performance, when the artist shows up totally unexpected and when someone in the audience is seriously ill? Those are the everyday conditions for one of the performing arts’ most invisible professions, the hospital clown.

 

We are happy that artistic leader Martin Kodal will take part in the panel discussion to give an international perspective from Rote Nasen i Austria, founded in 1994. In 2003 they created Red Noses Clowndoctors International which is now one the largest hospital clown organizations in the world, operating in 11 countries with over 400 active hospital clowns. 

Together with professor Max Liljefors and his research on the healing potential of art and the aesthetic experience, and Åsa Forsberg with her extensive experience and practical knowledge as a hospital clown, we hope for an unexpected and rewarding conversation.

We will explore what art can do when it comes to healing and soothing, what encounters with artists touring between hospitals can mean for an audience that cannot visit the rooms where performing arts normally takes place, and if it is possible to joke about tumours with hospitalized children. Hospital clowns put their trust in the encounter with the audience and balance comedy between life and death. How is mutal trust created and what is the trust build upon, when interaction and uncertainty leads the working process?

Clownronden in Skåne, Sweden, has nine permanent employees, of which seven hospital clowns, which is comparable with many of Sweden’s larger independent theatres. Rote Nasen in Austria has almost 100 employed hospital clowns and 60 employees working in the office in Vienna. 

Participants:

Martin Kotall, Artistic Director Rote Nasen Clowndoctor in Austria since 2012. Trained actor working at Rose Nasen since 1998.

Max Liljefors, Professor at Lund University who specialises in the transformative and healing potential of art and aesthetic experience.

Åsa Forsberg, Hospital clown, Clownronden in Skånes Sjukhusclowner. Has worked as a hospital clown since 2012 and as an actor since 1986. Also runs her own performing arts projects.

Moderator: Niclas Turesson, Executive Director Clownronden Skånes sjukhusclowner. Theatre director, educated at the Theatre Academy in Malmö. Started and ran Theatre Foratt in Malmö during 2005-2016. Has worked at, among others, Swedish Radio and Malmö cultural administration.

Organiser: Clownronden i Skåne

The talk will be held in English.