Performed by Olexandr Postolenko and directed by Aljoscha at the State Circus of Odessa, Ukraine.
The old clown sits, silently weeping into the bucket over the frigid core of Odessa’s arena.
Drops and streams fall down on his creased face, as if someone is willingly causing him harm. Is it the war of the states, or merely individual cruelty?
He endures emotional grief and deep sadness. His tears contain stress hormones and natural painkillers: an innate attempt to alleviate his sorrow.
Water mixed with tears drips into a bucket, where an unknown, transparent bioism begins to grow: a fragile, nascent entity, slowly emerging.
Streams of water cascade onto his eyes from above, as though the cruelty of state powers is compounding his personal pain.
Water, the foundation of life, is continually laden with his own salt, its concentration teetering on the brink of toxicity.
The roots of aggression and violence are as ancient as predatory survival. In the clown’s tears, we witness the paradox of external harm and self-protection.
The ferocity of state powers, embodiments of social instincts,
turns common well-being through the war into depersonalized cruelty, and social protection into individual torment.
How can we predict the impact of present barbarity on our pursuit of neuroethically engineered paradise?
Will the simplified utilitarian calculus of our era contaminate our path to an empathetic civilization?
Or will suffering help us evolve into a more compassionate, sentient species?
The clown’s tears, speak of a world embroiled in constant ethical pain.
Yet, within the growing transparent bioism lies the murmur of potentiality — a fragile hope born from shared anguish.
The old clown nurtures the next life.
