Annie Sofocleous: Bridging Cultures and Truths Through the Art of Clowning

As part of the artist residency organized by OECON Group Bulgaria in Sofia from October 28th to November 10th, 2024, a group of five dynamic creatives from across Europe came together to explore, collaborate, and expand their artistic practices. Among them was Annie Sofocleous, a psychology graduate from Cyprus with an extraordinary gift for blending vulnerability, humor, and depth through the art of clowning.

As a founding member of Yasemin Collective, Annie Sofocleous transforms performance into a bridge that spans cultural divides, revealing the universal threads that bind us all. Through the art of clowning, she masterfully dances between absurdity and raw truth, inviting audiences to laugh, reflect, and embrace the beautifully chaotic nature of being human.

Can you tell us a little more about who you are?

A question that has been troubling humanity since the beginning of the thinking [woe]man. Who am I? I am a psychology graduate with an interest in what separates and what unites humans. I have a natural ability to ridicule myself without taking it personally which allows my spirit to reflect the universal feeling of shame to an audience while protecting them from feeling crushed by its effects. This is how I ended with the ambition of one day owning myself up to the sacred title of a Clown.

Clowning is often seen as playful, but you describe it as peeling away layers of ego. How do you reconcile the absurd with the rawness of truth in your performances?

Our ego is best buddies with our survival instinct. There’s so many subconscious connections of our daily behavior with the fear of death, so much that we rarely allow ourselves to be honest enough, risking losing fundamental to survival social relations, our beautifully created self-image etc. The stage is a magical place where my subdued spirit is released from the ego’s cage to finally represent the Absurdity of our current times through a somewhat anarchistic attitude, mocking, questioning and inappropriateness, revealing thus the dark corners of human duality. The hard truths presented are not personal but universal. They are reconciled by honoring the complexity of humans as conscious beings.

Photo by Yasemin Collective

As a founding member of Yasemin Collective, you’re all about connecting communities. Do you ever feel the pressure to “perform activism” rather than create genuine art, and how do you keep that balance?

Art is always a product of the current times, and its mission is to be the voice of the unspoken of. In these brutal times art is our vessel to speak up and assist others in speaking up their truth. Genuine art is when the artist-performer has something to say and when there’s ears who have the need to hear it. With Yasemin collective we try to show that beyond our beautiful diversity, humans actually share a lot more than they consider – and this we achieve through artistic means. Peace is built brick by brick and the process doesn’t have to be a burden, we can enjoy it!

Clowning often walks a fine line between laughter and discomfort. How do you manage to put your audience to confront their discomfort without alienating them, especially when touching on deeper, personal themes?

One of the most difficult missions of a clown is to dance between these two ideas, of discomfort and comfort. Most times the laughter is not because a clown is funny, but it’s an automatic mechanism to relieve discomfort. I guess my strongest weapons are playfulness, transparency and honesty, always in service of spiritual evolution, and my biggest teachers are the children that I come into contact with daily.

Photo by Yasemin Collective

What do you hope to learn or accomplish by collaborating with artists from different cultures during this residency?

Collaborating with artists from different faculties is like fertile soil sprouting all kinds of garden plants, an amazing opportunity to observe, investigate and understand art from the richness of the nutrients shared.

How do you plan to incorporate your experiences from this residency into your long-term career goals in theatre?

I was definitely inspired to explore further the camera lens and possibility of video this year as well singing and using my voice. Also the experience was super valuable-educational when it comes to how creative teams are organised to produce a result in a limited time. Very grateful for this experience!