The Silent Clapping of Their Hands

 

Claudio Madia, 60 years old, was a TV presenter in Italy during the 1990s of one of the most famous children’s programs of the time: L’albero Azzurro. 
In his life he was also a wanderer, deckhand, graphic designer, wader and acrobat for the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, writer of seven books for children and founder of the Small Circus School in Milan. 

He never stopped precisely.

 

All these experiences have one thing in common: the continuous search for an audience. Claudio has always had the need to have his say to someone. The end of the job at the Rai television studios, the economic crisis that hit Italy after the 90s and the separation from his wife that forced him to leave the Small Circus School, severely affected him, leaving him alone and with a house he didn’t know what to do with it. 
From there the idea of transforming it into a circus at home (the Circincà), where every Friday evening, for 7 months of the year, with some acrobat friends, he organizes shows to make ends meet.
 In 2020 his world suffered another trauma, the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced him to close the doors of his Circincà, as he was unable to get an audience in, and left him into substantial debt. Once again, he did not give up and began the construction of a space for free artistic expression on a ground ready for building in the center of Milan. 

 

Mostly he spends his days at home dreaming alone in his circus. Sometimes this routine is interrupted by the presence of his four sons who come to find him, but as he himself says: “this house is my most important companion”.

 

“Il silenzioso battito delle loro mani” (The silent clapping of their hands) is a story of resilience. 

Claudio is pure resilience.

Any traumatic event in his life has always passed him in a positive way.
 

Nothing has ever stopped him. Nothing has ever stopped his dreams.

As real as his home.