Throughout the rainy evening of June 13, 2012, a clown tormented passers-by on the banks of the Rhine in Basel, Switzerland. He snuck up behind them and stole their hats, he lurched at them with eyes wide, he kissed their cheeks and smeared their faces with his white makeup. Behind him, two men in striped suits and top hats strode around on stilts, talking to members of the public, while to the side dancers traced arcs in the air with large silver tubes of aluminum foil that they wore around their torsos, like living Slinkies.
