15/01/2026
Our Erasmus+ project CLOWNnection took place from 1st to 12th September in Vayrac and was a joyful success!
Together with our dream team (Bruno, Julia, Ilaria, and Pauline), we welcomed 26 youth workers from France, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, and Latvia. We explored the art of clowning as a way to connect, communicate, and bring authenticity into youth work.
The setting: surrounded by the wild, beautiful nature of the Dordogne river, ancient trees, and silent old caves tucked into the hill behind us. This environment was perfect for our experience, because it helped us to get grounded, to slow down and align to our pace, as it was a constant invitation back to the present moment (thank you, dear chickens!).
And presence was the essence of our work: exploring clowning as a deep practice of simply being here. It meant not projecting into the future or staying trapped by past fears, but truly being present with the body, with our own emotions, and with each other.
This is a truth well-known to youth workers: presence is everything.
We also explored visual language in the same spirit. Letting go of adult fears like “I don’t know how to draw” (or the hidden belief that we should draw like Leonardo da Vinci) and moving towards something much more useful:
“What I draw is good enough to support the message I want to communicate.”
We drew, mapped, and marked experiences as they were: not perfect, who cares really?! But honest, alive, and meaningful.
It wasn’t easy, because literally we are constantly pushed to aim for perfection, as if it existed! And perfection is not a message we want to pass on to young people, it only leads to feeling never enough.
So we trained something else:
✨ practice over perfection
✨ authenticity over performance
✨ presence over control
We dared to embrace our oddness. We created many “discarded” attempts. And slowly, we discovered a few pearls hidden inside them.
Because, not a spoiler: if we don’t try, we don’t find anything.
Luckily, our chef Gustaw prepared delicious meals, and we often shared outdoors looking at the river. These moments were essential for reflection and nourishment. Food integrated our learning rhythm, confirming that hydration and care is fundamental, not secondary, when engaging in intensive collective work.
Clowning and visual facilitation finally met through a closing event of “conférence gesticulée”! A living, embodied way to merge contents, visual languages, performing, and storytelling.
Two disciplines that may seem far apart, yet are both deeply rooted in listening, presence, and letting things flow.
Two weeks of living and learning together, where we could envision new approaches to show up as youth workers. While we acknowledge the doubts, limitations, and difficult emotions inherent in "on the field work," we now are equipped with new skills we can use to better support the youth we serve: the playful wisdom of the clown and the clarity of visual facilitation.
We also created a collective oracle of drawings and keywords: a map of the clown’s wisdom!
You can have a look here: https://shorturl.at/zF7gN or
download it here: https://shorturl.at/8nQsh
A practical booklet with activities, reflections, and visual tools is on its way.
More soon 🤡🖍️🌿
