Bouffon and The Ecstasy of Mocking

July 25, 2016 - July 30, 2016

Giovanni Fusetti (5 days)

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The word Bouffon comes from a latin verb buffare: to puff, to fill the
cheeks with air, to deform oneself, to swell in order to provoke
laughter. It seems to be a very old human practice.

The essence of the Bouffon is in the dynamic of MOCKING. The

MOCKER is a specific role, existing in all human societies. Bouffons
represent elements of their society in an amplified, distorted or
exaggerated way, thereby provoking laughter and outrage.
Their Mockery doesn’t have an agenda in itself, because the
Bouffons don’t have opinions, and they don’t protect any side from
their mocking. They just mock everything and everybody. Their
purpose is to have fun mocking humans and therefore they use
everything they find, with ferocious ecstasy and jubilation. This is
their power: they see and play with everything, they feed on human
dynamics in order to play with it.
Bouffons never touch on individual or private themes, instead they
take on big collective movements – involving the social complexity
and the very essence of society and culture. Politics, religion,
economy, power, money and finances, morality, war and the military,
science, gender and race, ecology, family, education and school,
cultural institutions…

Everybody in the audience gets scrambled by a bouffon piece, which

can be often a bit difficult and or even unbearable. It’s not the
Bouffons who are unbearable but the truth that they reveal about
humanity, what is hidden, what lies underneath, on the other side,
the grotesque of human society (grotesque comes from greek
cryptos = hidden).
“Giovanni helped me remember who I am, see the beauty of humanity, and heal my
heart through laughter. Sick amounts of laughter! Giovanni is both a poetic teacher
of life as well an expert in physical theater technique. He oozes brilliance, passion,
and endless amounts of energy. If you are seeking a master that is
a multidisciplinary fool, ecologist, agriculturist, social activist, natural scientist,
movement analyst, poet of etymology, practitioner of psychology, nurturing healer,
and lover of life, then I suggest you experience the ecstasy of his Bouffon class at
the Barn this summer! It will change your genetic makeup! ‘Intelligence is
limited! Stupidity is infinite!'” –Kelly Nesbitt, Portland, OR
GIOVANNI FUSETTI encountered pedagogy and social theatre while receiving his MA in Agricu

and Ecology at the University of Padova (1985-1989). This encounter led to a pedagogic and artist

search that has been unfolding for over 25 years… read more | Visit Giovanni’s Website