A mime is a terrible thing to waste.
Marcel MarceauRead
I have designed my style pantomimes as white ink drawings on black backgrounds, so that man's destiny appears as a thread lost in an endless labyrinth. I have tried to shed some gleams of light on the shadow of man startled by his anguish.
Interpretation
Marcel Marceau's quote emphasizes the complexity of human existence and the search for meaning amidst struggle.
In this quote, Marcel Marceau reflects on the intricacies of life, likening it to a labyrinth where individuals often feel lost. His use of imagery—white drawings on black backgrounds—symbolizes the contrast between light and darkness in human experience, suggesting that while there is anguish, there is also a possibility of hope and clarity amidst confusion.
In practice
An art exhibition could feature this quote to enhance the theme of the complexity of life.
A mime is a terrible thing to waste.
In a clown, we see what we do that makes us laugh and cry. I kept the white face, the tradition of the Pierrot. My clown became a romantic and stylized figure. I wanted to be an abstract and concrete figure, a symbol of humanity.
Mime makes the invisible, visible and the visible, invisible.
I am a company in myself. My repertoire has become a bible for all mimes in the world.
When you're in a play, 50 percent is the genius of the actor, 50 percent is the genius of the author. When a mime is not perfect, you see nothing.
Music and silence combine strongly because music is done with silence, and silence is full of music.
My drawings are the result of my sculpture.
Music is never stationary; successive forms and styles are only like so many resting-places - like tents pitched and taken down again on the road to the Ideal.
Fashion comes and goes but style lasts forever
I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.
The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world. In this long vigil he often has to vary his methods of stimulation; but in this long vigil he is also himself striving against a continual tendency to sleep.
Adornment is never anything except a reflection of the heart.
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