The Side Show (La Parade) 1865 - 1867

Editor: This is Honoré Daumier’s "The Side Show (La Parade)" from the mid-1860s, created using pen, ink, pencil, and paper. The figures feel so transient, and almost ghostly. What is it that you see in this piece? Curator: Daumier, especially through works like this, critiqued the spectacle of entertainment in 19th-century Paris. Look at these performers – they are selling illusions, promises of excitement to a crowd rendered as an anonymous mass. What commentary might Daumier be offering on the relationship between the performers, as representatives of capitalism, and their audiences? Editor: It seems like you are pointing to how the 'entertainment' is exploitative. How so? Curator: The artist calls attention to the constructed nature of performance. The figures appear disengaged, separated from each other. Are they really offering anything of substance to the public? The people in the crowd seem unaware or perhaps unbothered by it, content with the facade. How can we apply that idea to current entertainment trends? Editor: So you see this work as Daumier shining a light on how these performances mask a certain emptiness. He is urging us to be more critical of the shows we consume. Curator: Exactly. The work urges us to consider the economic and social exchanges at play, prompting a critical viewing of how entertainment functions within society. Think about celebrity culture, for example, or even the rise of social media influencers today. Daumier’s work provides a lens for analysing such phenomena, highlighting power dynamics, manufactured authenticity, and questions of genuine connection. Editor: That's a perspective I had not considered. It goes far beyond simply depicting a sideshow scene. I'll definitely look at entertainment differently from now on. Curator: It is these types of discussions and interrogations that give these works their real weight. We gain a critical understanding of not only this piece but of our world, then and now.