Operating as performance artist, writer and director, Buescu’s artistic praxis combines autobiographical elements with techniques of research and documentary mainly staged as live performance art pieces. Alexandru Buescu was born in 1985 in Bucharest, The Socialist Republic of Romania, under the communist regime of Ceaușescu. His work questions social issues related to: freedom of speech, fake news, internet, individual or collective memory, distribution of the sensible, human alienation due to technology, rituals, family, adulthood, isolation, fear, loss of individuality or the duality and problem of the ego. At the same time, it challenges assumptions, perceptions and expectations related to his own art practice and research. To this the live dimension of his performances aims to create inspiring or provocative experiences for the audience, where the vitality of the (rebellious) human body as opposed to fixed, rigid structures (buildings, concrete floors, machines, the earth) is always displayed as a declaration of freedom against oppressive treatments. By creating unexpected situations or inventing ambiguous “characters”, directly or indirectly related to his own nature, in his performances Buescu investigates the roles of the performer and the audience, the exposure of body, the question of the representation from conventional schemes to real situations. The use of videos, voice or sound recordings, objects made out of paper, toys, photos, poems, official documents, interviews, sand or even animal meat acquire symbolic meaning in his work while the traces left on stage became evidence of the everyday absurd human behavior. Driven by his own life experience, curiosity and critical thinking towards a profound understanding of the present issues that shape our society, Alexandru undertakes long time periods of research practice across various fields, usually opposite to his artistic training.
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The Clown
Theatre

26/03/2016

Monodrama after Heinrich Böll’s homonymous novel.

In 2016, Buescu had his debut as an independent professional actor in Bucharest, at MONDAY Theater at Green Hours (Teatrul LUNI de la Green Hours - the first independent theater in Romania established after 1989) with the one-man play “The Clown” inspired by the novel “Ansichten Eines Clown”s by Heinrich Böll. The piece was staged after a process of text adaptation which lasted two years and an additional year of rehearsals under the guidance of theater director Anca Maria Colțeanu.

“This personal manifesto appears with remarkable clarity in the monodrama performed by Alexandru Buescu. Words, replies, states, dramatic situations are rigorously filtered by the sensitivity and reason of the actor. Which knows how not to be pathetic or melodramatic. Just terribly human and credible. It is what matters.” (Review extract written by theatre critic Mircea Morariu for the online newspaper Adevărul.)

This one-man show tells the love story between Hans and Marie, the main theme of the novel and the predicament of the artist. As well the play opens up discussion on the condition of the artist. Hypocrisy, lies, alienation and the marginalization of a man by a society that does not have time nor patience are the background. Materialism, religious dogma, collective uniformity lacking of personality, paint this witty manifesto of the author.

In 2017 “The Clown” was part of the European events celebrating the 100th years anniversary since the birth of German writer Heinrich Böll and was presented at various cultural events and theatre festivals across Europe. http://www.boell100.com

On 28th of October 2017, alongside productions from United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, Japan, Iran, Greece, Algeria, Lithuania, Israel and Cyprus, “The Clown” was the only Romanian theatre piece selected to participate in the International Monodrama Festival in the Greek city of Paphos, in Cyprus, which was the European capital of cultre in 2017. http://www.pafos2017.eu

In a review published on the website B-critic, Dragos N. Savu observed closely the mechanism behind this unique theatre event:

“This clown lives, breathes, sighs through a sum of balanced and stable opposites… It is, indeed a true performance. There is a chair. It is a clown on a bare stage. It’s a “black” wall behind which lies a different world, a world of censorship and hatred of the “others” who do not …It is a warm and playful light. It is the face of a clown, not a mask. It is an unfolding process of art.”

The maximum number of audience that this production had in theatre festivals, was 250 people. With over 40 representations including a number of 11 theater festivals, the play was performed for fours years in Bucharest at MONDAY Theater at Green Hours. The most recent performance was on 04.01.2020.

Running time: 70 minutes (without interval)
Lights: 5 light sources required
Sound installation and video projector are required.
Website: http://opiniile-unui-clovn.tumblr.com
Hans: Alexandru Buescu
Director: Anca Maria Colțeanu
Sound design: Ovidiu-Savu
Costumes: Matei Vladimir
Adapted text: Alexandru Buescu
Poster by DearSender, photography Ionut Cojocaru

Photos by Larko -Paphos
Partners: Rowohlt Verlag, SCPA Pârvu & Asociații, Polirom Publishing House

Location: Monday Theatre at Green Hours