CLOWNS OF PERU

This work forms a four year research project conducted with Murdoch University Australia and in collaboration with The University of Lima, Peru. 

​

The project will culminate in a thesis/book, photography exhibition and eventually a feature length documentary project, which collates material filmed over a year and a half in Peru.

​

The Clowns of Peru is an ethnographic study of the clown as a cultural, social, and political figure in Peru, exploring how clowning operates as a mirror of national identity and a lens through which to examine post-colonial, class, and cultural dynamics. Drawing on eighteen months of fieldwork in Lima and across Peru, it integrates participant observation, reflexive ethnography, and documentary filmmaking to investigate the many incarnations of the fool—from street comedians and humanitarian clowns to television performers—as agents of humour, critique, and healing. The work situates Peruvian clowning within broader anthropological and philosophical frameworks, connecting it to questions of power, social hierarchy, migration, and resilience. By combining written analysis and filmic documentation, this research positions the clown not merely as an entertainer but as a social intermediary whose performances reveal the underlying tensions, contradictions, and creative vitality of contemporary Peruvian life. In doing so, the project demonstrates how clowning itself becomes a method of ethnographic inquiry, offering a unique way of understanding and representing human experience.

 

​