Clownology of Chaos (Indonesia, Yogyakarta)

In Yogyakarta , costumed parades such as the Jogja Street Carnival or the Sekaten Festival adopt the codes of topeng , a traditional Indonesian masked theater. Grotesque masks , saturated costumes and burlesque choreographies serve here to subvert social norms . This expressive exaggeration allows for the caricature of authority figures , playing on laughter and provocation , in a society marked by restraint. The mask , liberating, allows all deviations: it becomes a tool of social criticism as much as a vector of popular creativity . This controlled, ephemeral chaos acts as a collective ritual where the symbolic order can momentarily waver—without clashing, but with force.