Jon Jimenez - The other talents of the ULMA Group
|SPREADING HAPPINESS WITH A RED NOSE
Participating as a clown in a joint initiative has enabled Jon to look through the naïve eyes of a child. The maintenance technician is part of the ExpressYourClown Group, an association that seeks to bring a smile to children and adults through social activities.
“Being a clown has helped me to remove the transcendence to things. It gives me permission to be wrong, because from a clown’s point of view there are no mistakes, only a different and non-conventional way of being (perhaps crazy...) and doing and solving problems,” were the words with which Jon Jimenez, ULMA Forklift Trucks worker, defined the small internal revolution he experienced through the ExpressYourClown Group to which he belongs.
It all started when the maintenance technician began taking clown courses in Vitoria; while clowning around with other companions he decided to orchestrate an initiative to convey the magic.
“I noticed that it filled me up, I came out of the dynamics and went back to playing like a child, without being judged,” says Jon, explaining how it was during this training process that the idea came about to organise a group or association to channel artistic impulses towards a social aspect.
Thus the ExpressYourClown initiative was born; a group of clowns that organises charity activities with the aim of bringing about smiles where they are most needed.
Art does not seek to create artists, it seeks to create people
Composed of twenty people from fields as diverse as psychology, journalism, hospitality and construction, the association organises activities such as Hospital Clown.
This initiative, described by Jon as “the most prominent and exciting” of all those organised, involves spending one day a week in the paediatric ward of the Txagorritxu Hospital in the Basque capital, where he visits children and transforms health concerns into a fantasy universe for a few minutes.
Jon believes the impact of this activity on his life is essential: “Being a clown makes me look at life through the eyes of a child. There is the possibility of taking a problem, turning it around and getting a smile.”
This activity also adds value to your profession. “As I work in a technical service I am continuously obliged to change plans and obtain resources. There is a clear similarity with the clown who is always in trouble and uses his wits to find a solution, the silliest and... the most effective”.
ExpressYourClown never stops and is preparing an ambitious initiative that aims to extend the art of being a clown to beyond the Basque Country.
The Guatemala Express project involves a two-week stay during the month of August organising group dynamic activities with students, teachers and parents in the Guatemalan town of Santiago de Atitlán.
The aim is to convey the educational and teaching potential of the performing arts, but also its value as a tool to for showing emotions and improving communication.
“Art does not seek to create artists, it seeks to create people”, concluded Jon.
