saltimbanque: masculine and feminine noun  – “travelling entertainer”, “street entertainer”. French saltimbanque, and Italian saltimbanco, from saltare ‘jump’ and banco ‘bench, platform, stage’.

‘An image of the artist as “entertainer” reflecting on the harsh realities of street life and the tawdry poverty of his few possessions. Away from the ‘lights’ the performer sits contemplating the cost of attachment to a spirit of artistic melancholy stretching to Picasso, to Dickens, to Watteau, to the Comedia del’arte and beyond. What is the nature of this romance and why is it bound to a fatalistic outcome? Meanwhile, old friends move on, change is ever present and tomorrow is a new beginning…’

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