The issue of class and classism as a structural problem continues to be inadequately discussed in all its complexity, particularly in the field of performing arts. Beyond the same old clichés about social advancement, which rarely combine intersectional perspectives, it is primarily stories of separation (from one‘s own origins) and conformity (to a normative structure) that tend to confirm rather than challenge the bourgeois self-image.

There are many different aesthetic and artistic strategies for dealing with one‘s own class (clown) affiliation and resisting attributions between “below” and “above”. The figure of the clown, with its precarious attentiveness to the audience, can create situations in which the question of class is put into a new perspective.

As a further development of the laboratory Witzigkeit kennt seine Grenzen – Klassismus und Humor in den performativen Künsten (Wit has its limits – classism and humor in the performing arts), which took place at Mousonturm in 2023, the Clownklassentreffen aims to deepen the insights gained in the lab in an internal two-day workshop and open up new class-conscious spaces for humor with other participants in a clown workshop.

Subsequently, on December 20 at 6 p.m., the results will be shared publicly with the Sophiensæle audience in a performative gathering format, and the first class clown manifesto for an anti-classist theater of the future will be adopted.  

Hendrik Quast is part of the Sophiensæle Artistic Adivisory Board. Since the 2024/25 season Sophiensæle has an artistic advisory board at its side. It is important to us to sustainably integrate the perspectives of artists into our structures in order to further develop the artistic vision of our space in a mutual exchange, to review production conditions for artists and to strengthen the cultural-political situation of the Sophiensæle. Four artists with different focuses and practices are appointed for two years at a time. The members for the years 2024-2026 are Simone Dede Ayivi, Isabel Lewis, Enad Marouf and Hendrik Quast, who will each host an artistic exchange format. Simone Dede Ayivi’s Schwarze Kantine took place February 28th, 2025 in the Kantine. Sip & Speak by Isabel Lewis, together with Djibril Sall, was performed on April 19th, 2025, in Hochzeitssaal.