N.A.Toˇ is an international project that combines activism and clowning. It brings together activists, clowns and performers where they can share and create surprising, entertaining and disobedient forms of civic activism. Inspired by networks like CIRCA (Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army), The Stop Shopping Choir, and others, we aim to build an artivist community by merging the strongest aspects of clowning and (climate) activism.
Climate justice is a global issue, though it is also a social justice issue as it intersects with topics such as sexism, racism, and consumerism. With this project, we would like to unfold these concepts and invite artists and activists to dialogue and social action through creative methods. We would like to envision a world, where structural societal issues are visualized and local communities are constantly invited to participate in a dialogue that will expand their consciousness and feeling of empathy. Clowning provides direct access to complex issues and can help bring local communities into dialogue, regardless of their social status.
A nose assembly consists workshops, lectures and discussions, plenaries and open spaces, as well as various performative and clown performances and happenings taking place within and in connection to N.A.Toˇ. After the first two N.A.Toˇ in Brno (March 2023) and Maria-Schutz, AT (July 2023), N.A.Toˇ became an Erasmus+ partnership between tYhle (CZ), TO Vienna (AT) and Inspiral Circus Network (HU). Three more editions took place in Budapest (November 2023), Vienna (April 2024) and Ostrava (July 2024).
N.A.Toˇ is governed by the principle of radical openness. Anyone can join it. Do not hesitate to contact us at nose-assembly@posteo.net.
N.A.To is open-source. You want to organise your own N.A.Toˇ? More infos here.
Project Results
Download our clownfrontational toolkit here. The toolkit is designed both for inspiration and usage on the street. It summarizes know-how of N.A.Toˇ 1–5 held in 2023 and 2024 and it is divided into four chapters:
- Origins and Philosophy of N.A.Toˇ summarizes general know-how to organize Nose assembly
- Clowning inspiration of N.A.Toˇ describes various methods and approaches used in N.A.Toˇ
- Rebel Clown exercises – check them out.
- Tips for street clowning action is not a manual. Just tips.
Check out our DIY Nose Guide here.
Check out this interview with N.A.To organizes Laura Golfier-Brechmann, Kiara Gezels, and Barbora Liška in the CEDIT journal, which is published by Centre for Experimental Theatre in Brno.
N.A.To Budapest – Exchange of good (clowning) practices
8-12 November 2023
(c) Renan Huszka
A cooperation between Inspiral Circus Centre, tYhle, and Theatre of the Oppressed Vienna, each of which provide workshops about their vision, research, methods, and practices. Together with a maximum of 20 participants, the
methods were tested, merged and serve as practice-based frameworks for
applying clowning practice for personal and social transformation. Hosted by the
Inspiral Circus Centre in Budapest, this N.A.To-session used discussion, play, and
experimentation to dive into some big questions, such as:
- Can clowns be activists?
- What can we borrow from art movements and theatre forms to increase
awareness about the importance of social-ecological change? - Is the clown equipped to deal with power and make real change?
N.A.To Vienna – Queering Spaces through Clowning
3-7 April 2024
„Queering can be a process, practice, or change agent that disturbs, dismantles, and resists. It‘s
Leo Hosp
a disruptor, a rebel with a cause! It‘s about shaking things up and tearing down walls. Queering
can celebrate, make visible, and connect. It’s about creating spaces of community and care.“
Following this interpretation of queering, this assembly asked how social and cultural orders that structure a society can be addressed and how power relations and hegemonic interpretations can be questioned through clowning. But also clowning as a mostly patriarchal tradition should be questioned and rethought. In this N.A.Toˇ, we went into the deep work of clowning, attempting to peel off the gender structures and find the vulnerable human within.
N.A.To Visaleje (Ostrava) – Trainingcamp for Radical Imagination
16-21 July 2024
This N.A.Toˇ focused on collectively creating and deepening methods and approaches we explored during previous assemblies (Theatre of the Oppressed, Soundpainting, “Traditional” clowning practices and others). The assembly was organized as a working meeting of affinity groups. Each group focused
on a specific topic(s), clowning tools and methods that were deepened and opened in the
toolkit. The program will consist of affinity group working sessions, plenaries, sharing of findings
among affinity groups, trips to nature, collective cooking and living.
The affinity groups tested their developed methods in the streets of Ostrava.
(c) Ondrej Holba
Partners:
tYhle is a collective of Czech and French artists based in the Czech Republic. It is a platform for performance, dance, physical theatre, and the visual arts, created by four artists who share the same vision of the contemporary scene: its duty to experiment and eliminate barriers. The collective was founded in Brno in 2015 after three years of collaboration with the performers Lukáš Karásek and Florent Golfier. They were later joined by the lighting designer Zuzana Režná and the scenographer/choreographer Marie Gourdain. tYhle’s name is inspired by the Y generation. The letter Y can also be read graphically as the meeting point of different lines, directions, inspirations, and backgrounds. One of tYhle’s aims is to build bridges between disciplines and cultures.
The Hungarian Juggling Association is the platform in Hungary of independent circus artists and circus pedagogues. It gives an official background to all initiatives about juggling as a circus art, tool of social intervention, sport or hobby/ free time activity. In its projects, the members of the association use the creativity, joyfulness, and challenge of juggling combined with a strong educational approach, in this way completing cultural, educative and civil missions.The Hungarian Juggling Association evolves its activity both at the national and international levels. MAGYAR ZSONGLOR EGYESULET host the
circus school Inspiral. The main national mission of InSpiral is to run the InSpiral Circus space as the core space for practice, artistic work, networking and trainings.
N.A.To Logo: (c) Ondrej Holba
