Dimitri, a spiritual
satisfied life in circus ring and on stage
as a clown
Articles from arte, swissinfo and riffraff
Share with Facebook friends
Contents
Dimitri, clown!
Life story with quotations
from: Maike van Schwamen for
the monthly "ARTE
Magazine": Dimitri, clown! in: arte-tv, 9.3.2005; http://www.arte-tv.com/fr/art-musique/special-cirque/723116,CmC=724062.html
(translation by Michael Palomino).
The clowns? You find them obviously in the circus - and sometimes also
elsewhere when you look precisely. After three seasons with circus Knie
Dimitri was interested again in
playing theater, and this passion he
has until today.
We could get to know Dimitri in Basel.
And here he was: A little well dressed man comes in and
reports to the waitress that he had a meeting with a woman journalist.
With his belted brief case you could also see a professor in him. He
turns, looks at me and is coming towards me with a friendly, almost shy
smile. His hand grip is soft but not without force, alright.
Dimitri, also
a kind of a Beatles hairstyle
is associated with him, brown before, now it became more
of some gray. But this is the only change that has happened in his long
career. He comes from Ticino,
but since a long time he is famous also
outside of the territory of the federal state; the great little clown
from Ascona has elated the
public already in Paris, New York and in
Tokyo, and in Australia, in South America or in China he was also
wanted to
be seen, too; under the patronage of circus
Knie, the Big Apple circus
(New York) and many
others, but mainly also as a
solo
entertainer.
Effects who everybody on the world can understand:
|
|
Dimitri:
Scene with mini
trumpet
|
Dimitri:
Scene with mini
accordion
|
Aside to me he is telling story after story, sometimes stopping "to
consider a little bit, to find good answers". Is he a man who sees the
context of life? "Yes, that is true." Dimitri does not like to be
compared always with the cliché of a sad clown - and his work is not
hindering him to be occupied with the big actual problems: "One cannot
have a life only laughing or making jokes." He recognized very soon
having also another task than only "to make a young charming woman
laugh."
Dimitri is totally a clown sincerely. He was it and will be it for his
life. After all there is no other way of life: "To be a clown is a huge
task, and it's not possible to do it only half." He is not amazed that
always less people are occupied with buffoonery - but it's always
again a joy for him to see when one or another of his pupils of his
school in Verscio (high
school
for movement theater, founded in 1975 in Ticino) is going on with a career!
[Dimitri's impulse for buffoonery with 7 years -
pantomime with Marcel Marceau - circus Knie]
Dimitri detected with 7 years that buffoonery could be a profession for
him. His enthusiasm was limitless. So there was a way for him and he
followed it, first at random with a pottering profession, and with the
money he earned with pottery he attended courses in ballet, acrobatics,
theater, music and dance. In 1954 he meets with the mime Marcel Marceau
in Paris and was his pupil,
then member of his group until 1958.
|
|
Marcel
Marceau, born in
1923, opening gesture
|
Marcel
Marceau with rose:
"Dreaming is acting in silence."
|
Marcel Marceau always was
his idol, "and I had always said to myself to do the same as he did but
as
a clown: I wanted to put into scene all possible clowneria." At the
end of the 1950ies Dimitri returned to Ticino and from now on went on
with playing
alone on stage.
Modest but not without a certain pride Dimitri ensures that he is the
only clown in a circus with a theater education. From 1970 on this is
the case. Fredy Knie senior,
director of the Swiss national circus at
that time with
the same name, he sees the clown in action and decides: He wants him
under his circus dome.
Fredy
Knie senior
|
Circus
Knie: Logo
-- the programs
-- the animal scenes
-- the artists
-- the clowns.
|
[The career of his children - writer friends Grass and
Frisch, model Miller]
Dimitri passes three seasons with the circus, two times in company of
his wife Gunda and with four
children. "The circus is an art's world
with some middle-class element:
|
Charango: 10 stringed guitar from Bolivia and
Northern
Argentina.
|
A circus is an independent
village, a
migrating village." Dimitri can feel himself with his children totally
at home; and they get the same virus from the father. David and Masha passed an artistry school of
Budapest, and they are active under different circus domes
and pass tours around the whole world. After that they follow the
father on his way into the inner life, they leave the arena and mainly
are playing in theaters . Nina,
the youngest, sings folksongs
and plays
the guitar and the charango with
virtuosity.
But Dimitri has also other artistic ideas which please to him: He is
painting, reading, visiting museums and is reading books of
writer
friends like Gunther
Grass and Max Frisch.
"I am
nourishing myself with art, and I enjoy it as it would be nectar", he
said. In his young years Dimitri could jump the somersault backwards and
dance
on the rope, and he has the courage to step on the elephants
until today in the age of 70. He is not an entertainment artist only:
He
is a poet. In connection with this he often cites Henry Miller: "A
clown is an acting poet."
On stage Dimitri lets disappear the frontiers between circus and
theater. The clown of the arena - who is cheerful and sad, or is
stumbling and
breaking some teeth - this clown handles also well the language of
comedy. His "Nonna" - which is nothing other than the origin
grandmother of all comedians wrapped into frills - can enchant his
public until today as he would be 20 years old.
[The film "Dimitri - Clown"]
Swiss
documentary film producer Friedrich Kappeler, portrait.
|
|
Dimitri has such a rich life that he
cannot tell all in some hours,
even less in 80 minutes only. But this is the length of the band. This
long is the documentary with the signature of Friedrich Kappeler coming into the
Swiss cinemas. But since the opening night of "Dimitri - Clown" in
Zurich Dimitri is a bit frustrated he assures, because there should
have been so much to be told yet.
But in these circumstances he can dream of an own film yet, a tragic
comical work, poetic, about a station-master - a silent movie, if it's
possible in black and white.
[The scene shall be a shut down railway station in Ticino
and an empty railway station with a lost station-master].
"So
I said to my producer: You see, Kaurismäki
comes here,
makes the mute and has a great success with it, think
about it a little bit."
The film "Dimitri - Clown": Dimitri, family,
elephants, and a dream of a film
Film from Friedrich Kappeler - with Dimitri; Switzerland 2004, 80 min.,
dialect,
K/8, documentary, start in the cinemas: 2004-11-11;
from:
http://www.riffraff.ch/index.html?/Programm/Filme/Film0370.html
(translation by Michael Palomino).
In his first film after the hit with the public "Mani Matter - why are
you so sad?" [orig.: MANI MATTER - WARUM
|
Dimitri with his wife Gunda and 5 children.
|
SYT DIR SO TRUURIG?] the Swiss
stage director Friedrich Kappeler
gives an insight to us about the poetic universe of the man Dimitri.
DIMITRI - CLOWN tells us the story of Dimitri and his stories, shows us
how Dimitri lives, lets us take part on his development and work, on
his models, on his thoughts, on his musicality, on his imagination of
poetry and circus as an entire work of art. And Dimitri proofs with it
that he is an awoken contemporary though.
Very important for Dimitri is his family, his wife Gunda and the five children. The
film shows what the children are doing, how they had there youth and
which relation they have to their parents today. Add to this the
passionate relationship between Dimitri and the elephants is shown.
And at the end there is a big dream of Dimitri: The dream of the own
cinema as his model Chaplin could
have it. That's why in DIMITRI - CLOWN we meet not only an angel or a
devil he wears on his face but also a tragic and comical station-master
lost on his position becoming an art of film clown.
Dimitri: With 70 years furthermore active and full of
ideas
from: SwissInfo: Dimitri's 70th birthday and 35 years theater (orig.:
Dimitri fête ses 70 ans et les 35 ans de son
théâtre),
2005-09-17; from:
http://www.swissinfo.org/sfr/swissinfo.html?
siteSect=105&sid=6094619; (translation by Michael Palomino).
The 18th September
Dimitri will celebrate his 70th birthday. The famous
"sad
clown" will become a honorary citizen of th
Dimitri with the guitar as a "sad clown" / "clown
triste".
|
|
e village Verscio in Ticino
where is his
theater, his school and his Dimitri museum "Museo Comico".
Three
festival days are
intended.
Dimitri was born in Ascona (TI)
on 18th September 1935 with his proper
name Dimitri Jakob Müller in
an artist's family. His
father was a sculptor, his mother made fabric
sculptures.
Dimitry knew with seven years already that he will make other people
laugh. But his official name has
been Jakob
Dimitri for years.
In the beginning of the 70ies he is arranging oneself with his wife Gunda in the village Verscio. The pair has five children.
Three of them, David,
Masha and Nina, make an artist career. Mathias is a designer and Ivan is working for the Red Cross.
With 70 years the Ticino clown can also celebrate other jubilees: 35
years for his theater, 30 years for his school, and 5 years for his
"Museo Comico" [comedy museum].
Samuel Becket: "The last band"
40 years ago the Swiss writer
Max Frisch wrote that Dimitri
would be an
"important clown".
A quotation from Max Frisch:
|
Max Frisch, portrait
|
"Look at him, I say, it's really a clown. What is a real clown? This I
don't know, but look at him: He can already do many things and always
more and more things, and then he feels well in his soul when he is
succeeding in doing even more things, even the unbelievable. One enjoys
it like a child who is detecting all malice of all things and - it's a
wonder - does not fall. In every moment I'm attentive, but then always
somebody was laughing as if he were alone, not like a laugh about a
joke, but as a laugh like a child; this was I and the clown's name is
Dimitri."
(aus:
http://www.riffraff.ch/index.html?/Programm/Filme/Film0370.html)
Despite of his age the reputation of Dimitri is not going down. He
shows his capabilities on stage
amongst
others in the play of
Samuel
Becket "
Krapp's last tape".
The
opening night has been on 6th July in Verscio already.
"I'm happy that I can play with 70 years yet and that I can present
myself on stage yet", Dimitri tells during a meal. As "Krapp" in
"Krapp's last tape" the clownesque
and the tragi comical of the role is
attracting him.
Numerous projects
This man who was pupil of
Marcel
Marceau, the greatest mime on the world, who visited him by the
way, this man will have performances above all in Zurich and in Basel,
but he will be seen on posters also in Germany.
Though the home port of Dimitri will be
Verscio forever, a village of 982
souls near
Locarno which name
has become famous in the scene of the theater amateurs in Switzerland
and Europe. In 1970 the clown and his wife founded a theater there, in
1975 a school, in 1978 their
Compagnia, and in 2000 a comical museum "
Museo Comico".
Dimitri and Gunda.
"I have almost finished my work" says Dimitri, "but I have always new
ideas!" There are plentiful projects in the clown's head whereas his
hairstyle is always compared with the one of the foreign minister
Micheline Calmy-Rey. The
70 year old man wants to realize a "comical
poetic" film yet, and a jester's park,
more he is not saying.
Similarities?
|
 |
 |
Dimitri
portrait with a smile
|
Micheline
Calmy-Rey, federal council of Switzerland
and foreign minister of Switzerland
|
Human by nature
During the conversation he thinks on another scene: Doing as if he
would fall asleep and would leave the world for doing good things.
Simply like this. The spectators would leave the hall and think "he has
really died" and all would make jokes about it.
Behind his mask as a clown is a man: human by nature, who is
often occupied with the idea of death believing in reincarnation. In
his social engagement he was always on the side of the disadvantaged
people, on the side of asylum seekers and of the homeless persons.
-----
Dimitri in an interview: Cosmopolitan, the smile,
pacifist and helper
from: SwissInfo: Dimitri: The smile as a talent (orig.: Dimitri: Das
Lächeln als Talent), 2004 in occasion to the film "Dimitri
- Clown"; http://www.swissinfo.org/sfr/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=5419747;
subheadings for orientation in [squared brackets] by Michael
Palomino.
|
Dimitri with guitar playing a song without mask.
|
Dimitri as a mime, Dimitri as a clown. An
encounter to begin the new year with a smile. Swissinfo met the artist
in
Verscio near
Locarno on the occasion of the
presentation of the Italian edition of his autobiography.
[Dimitri in the teatrino - his attitude to life as a
cosmopolitan and his always understandable art]
Dimitri comes with his red scarf and his guitar and welcomes us in his
teatrino - shortly before the presentation of his Italian edition of
his biography before being sold to the public.
swissinfo: People say often you are a Swiss German artist who has
changed to Ticino. What do you feel when you hear this?
Dimitri: I feel myself as a cosmopolitan and therefore I am not
committed to a special language. My birthplace is
Ascona, my ancestors
come from
Russia and
Switzerland,
and I speak German and Italian. I
feel
international.
swissinfo: What is your position as a man and artist between the
national cultures?
Dimitri: Scene with a
deck chair.
|
|
D.: My art has it's base on the non verbal expression, on the body
language, on humor and on music, so that's a kind of universal
language. It is understood in all regions of the world. So I don't feel
to be committed to a certain culture. I feel as a cosmopolitan.
swissinfo: The circus Knie made you famous. Do you feel guilty for it?
Though you write in your book that the circus public would never go to
theater?
D.: What concerns this aspect there should not be any ambiguity from
the beginning. The circus public is also welcome in the theater. Though
often it's a public which is less interested in intellectual contents
but is enjoying more the popular spectacle. Thanks to my three seasons
in
circus Knie I could get known to a
greater public and so I could lure
the people into my
theater.
[The smile and the joy of life on earth]
|
Dimitri portrait with
smile in his autobiography.
|
swissinfo: Your smile is your figurehead. How it resulted like this,
and how could you get known with it?
D.: I cannot say how my smile has resulted. Perhaps it's a present from
the gods, from nature or from my mother. And it was probably my fate
giving the talent for it. But this is not enough. One has to develop
the smile and to keep it living. One has to utilize it, to foster
it and to use it in a positive way.
swissinfo: What do you think, do people in Switzerland laugh enough?
D.: Yes. I really believe that the public always is in the mood for
laughing simply because they love it. I also believe that this is
similar on the whole world. People simply like to laugh. But when we
compare Switzerland for example with a country of Southern America we
see that the South Americans laugh even more instead of the poverty and
of the more difficult circumstances of life than the Swiss. They have
a joyance which we as Swiss do not know whereas we feel better
than they do.
swissinfo: Which place has love and humor in your life?
D.: Along my estimation humor and love belong together. Because when in
the humor or in the gag is no affection for the other part so the whole
will not function. Or it's functioning but the effect of laugh is
another one, a bad laugh, a sarcastic, almost an evil laugh... I am
exaggerating now a little bit, but something like this also exists in
any case. One has to - so I think - always to laugh by heart. I
want to hit the heart and the spirit of the people. From their voices
should come a pure smile or laugh. As it is the one of the children,
innocent and benevolent.
[Mime and word - Marcel Marceau]
swissinfo: You even are a great mime, too. Which relationship has got a
mime to the words?
Pantomime of Marcel Marceau, frightened gesture.
|
|
D.: One says that mimes when they began to speak never stop speaking...
in some kind how I am doing it with you at the moment. But all jokes
aside. My great master
Marcel Marceau
teached me that the facial
expression can give a kind of expression which is much more intensive,
stronger, more impressionable and more emotional. He always said to me
that the great feelings of the human beings would be better expressed
without any word. That's the case for love, hatred, pain and joy.
[Dimitri: Pacifist and helper for the weaks]
swissinfo: What are you angry about? Also in the aspects of feelings
and behavior?
D.: I hardly bear hatred, aggressiveness, dissimulation, war, absence
from dialogue and from understanding. And I do not bear the absence of
respect and of tolerance towards people who are otherwise than we are
either.
swissinfo: You always were an active man, an irreplaceable companion of
chaplain
Cornelius Koch, a
lawyer
of fugitives and disadvantaged people. How you rate the human policy of
Switzerland of today?
D.: The useless wars which are mantling our world make me very sad.
They hit me personally and are shown in the fate of women, men,
children and of whole nations. That's why me as an artist I would like
to make a little contribution by signing petitions, protests and
manifests and demonstrate for it publicly. That's why I helped also
Cornelius Koch as much as I could, the chaplain of the fugitives.
Dimitri poster against
discrimination of handicapped people for the
vote of 2003:
Text:
"People's vote of 18th of May 2003. Dimitri is a clown and an artist
ans detects artificial barriers always again - also for not handicapped
people. YES for free access, YES to the initiative about handicapped
people." |
 |
[Peace work: "The sea consists of nothing but drops"]
swissinfo: How do you estimate the role and the work of the
intellectuals for the civil society in this country?
A drop of peace
|
|
D.: I think that the artists and the intellectuals in Switzerland are
active enough. Surely their voice is only a drop falling into the sea.
But the sea consists of nothing
but drops. For example I think of the
Geneva initiative. There the civil society is campaigning for the
reopening of the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. This
is a project that federal council
Micheline
Calmy-Rey is promoting.
swissinfo: You mentioned Calmy-Rey. Many people
see something common in the smile of you both...
D.: Yes, that's right. There are light similarities. It's not only the
kind of the smile, but also the hairstyle. When we met on the Locarno
film festival we had a very good conversation and furthermore we
understood each other at best.
swissinfo, Françoise Gehring
(Translation from Italian: Alexander Künzle)
