CLOWNS OF PERU

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

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The project will culminate in a doctoral thesis and the development of a documentary film series, which will draw from material filmed over a year and a half in Peru. The project will be complete at the end of 2026.

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THESIS SUMMARY

 

This thesis examines two contemporary forms of clowning in Lima, Peru, which emerged in the 1980s, the street comedian (cómico ambulante) and the claun. During this period, the cómico ambulante was largely composed of performers from Andean migrant communities in Lima, who occupied public spaces to deliver humorous monologues that reflected the realities of this sector. Meanwhile, the claun emerged from an urban middle-class context through theatre and television, characterised by satirical social and political critique, before later shifting into humanitarian and therapeutic applications. Both are explored as cultural expressions that developed within the same historical moment in Lima and are deeply connected through their use of humour and performance to engage with the social and political conditions of this period.

 

The rise of these two art forms is situated within the broader transformation of Lima driven by large-scale internal migration from the Andes, the expansion of the informal economy, and the reshaping of the city’s urban geography and patterns of social life from the 1980s onwards. This period was further defined by key political developments, including the internal conflict involving the far-left guerrilla organisation Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and the authoritarian government of Alberto Fujimori, under which wide-ranging neoliberal reforms were introduced. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Lima, performance analysis, and relevant literature, the thesis uses these forms of clowning as a lens through which to understand these processes of change and the cultural responses generated from them.

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CLICK HERE TO READ THE INTRODUCTION

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