DDLA • Diego de Los Andes

An ancestral lake. A Hollywood myth. A human crisis. I’m bringing theater to the middle of it. THE CRACK PIPER OF MACARTHUR PARK One show only. FREE. Your ticket: food, water, socks, clothes, syringes, etc… (anything that helps someone in struggle) June 20 ~ 6 PM 6th & Alvarado / MacArthur Park #AgitationTheatre

Another year, and this discipline continues to grow… Every day I see more artists at traffic lights, taking action in the world. They are not waiting for permission or understanding ~ This is pure action. I am inspired and honored to belong to the collective memory of this city, to exist within the dreams/nightmares of those who inhabit LA. I have shifted my medium. I no longer go to the street every day. Now I only perform rituals. My art is a force of nature that creates… This ritual took place during the days when ICE was terrorizing brown, spanish-speaking communities. My statement was direct… I am not afraid. You are not afraid! Do what must be done without fear ~ 📸: @snaccmanjones 🙏🏽🔥

Commedia, justice, and my voice… what is the world that is coming? So many cameras, so many photos, so many reels, actor and witness, a clown without white creams on his face, a long nose to hide his own indifference. What is the world that is coming? Maybe one in which we are all happy surrounded by a million cameras, by the ultra-super surveillance that encloses us. What is the world that is coming? A world without poems, without art, or a world with beauty on every corner? I choose to be an actant in the poetry of the protesting masses. I am not protesting I am working, wearing down my voice. Institutional performance does not attract me. The street holds other things. I have another life: poetry, voice, and silence. The silence of the landscape and the voice of the disappeared. I love you, city of Los Angeles. Here, I have been a worker of the arts. #publicart #humanrights #streetclown #losangeles

Ideas behind the @live_laugh_lube_ painting SE INVISIBLE with performer and artist Diego de los Andes and artist Mieke Marple—as we cover everything from bodies to the invisible forces behind larger movements. Diego de Los Andes @ddla.art is a multidisciplinary conceptual artist and cultural worker based in Los Angeles. His practice spans public art, street performance, theater, visual art, and writing, merging experimentation with social engagement. Rooted in the street as both stage and site, his work emerges from a deep commitment to revealing beauty within marginality. Through crosswalk juggling, clowning, and theater, he has reached audiences in the millions, contributing to the recognition of the street crosswalk juggler as a vital form of public art in the United States. He trained in Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed and Commedia dell’Arte, developing a performance language grounded in embodiment, improvisation, and collective dialogue. Alongside his performance work, he maintains a studio practice in sculpture and mixed media. He is also the creator of Love Letter Los Angeles on KPFK 90.7 FM. Mieke Marple @miekemarple is an artist and writer in LA. She created the project “Live Laugh Lube," in which she collaborates with clowns and comedians, because she hated Instagram and wanted to shift the energy. She has exhibited internationally, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb and MoCA CT, and written for publications like The Huffington Post and McSweeney's. Much thanks to @felixedebecker of @happytogetherstudios who helped create this video 🙏🏼

(𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘦𝘮 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘺… 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴, 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴) Life is less heavy when you look at your makeup and you decide it is time to remove it when the show is over and the oil is out Life is less heavy when you see through the eyes of a clown Life is less heavy when you see her eyes When you do not feed your life with what is happening in another time what time those times of cowardly indifference when people are treated like trash Life is less heavy when you do not look back when the movement of the brush paints only what you can do right now Life is less heavy when I stop thinking about my life being heavier It is not Heavier is for a kid in Sudan Heavier is for a refugee from (Insert here any city from a third third third world country, for example: ? ) Heavier is for a child incarcerated by the government of the United States of the land of blah blah blah Life is not heavy when you see through an almost full glass of water Life is not heavy when in a world on fire you try to make someone laugh Please laugh A small laugh from behind I wish to be a Miss Universe and ask for the peace of the world and in my beauty be trusted I wish to be a Hollywood superstar and in my presence not be another voice of freedom but liberty I wish not to be a wish but to be a to be like the verb a verb a reverberation of liberation the opposite of the liberation of reverberation It is a weird time to write poetry It is a weird time as always It is a poetic time to write poems It is always weird to be a clown <Link in bio>

Lately, I’ve been taking drawing lessons and discovered a world within my art practice that I hadn’t seen before, it arrived as a gift, aligned with my practice as a worker of the arts. 🕷️ Through these exercises, I’ve learned to draw within time intervals and I love the freedom the method demands. Redundant maybe but very clear for my practice so I try to do the same with literature. 🐜 This poem was written in one minute and is part of the performance I want to channel here (#instagram). This social network doesn’t ban my posts, but it does hide them a lot, including the stories the algorithm doesn’t make my work visible, and that’s fine ~ It’s part of being authentic, you can see it clearly if you look at my reels and recent collaborations. But I’m tired of this platform and the “reality” we are living in. Art should heal the world, not sell it. Art heals my life every day and that’s why I remain here, as proof of action… 🐛 Thanks for reading. I invite you to my Substack 🙏🏽 What I value most are the plays I’ve written. (Maybe my work can support yours, not from a moral or authoritarian place, but from one human being sharing his soul with the nature inside us) Together we are America 🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟🦟 #hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Up Up Up with Our Voices to protect the Golden Honmoon from DC Demons 😈 #weareamerica #hopecore #manifesting #manifestation #simpsonsmemes #simpsonspredictions #kpopdemonhunters #golden Concept: Mieke Marple Director: Félixe de Becker Prophet: Dan Greaney Psychic: Mieke Marple Street Clown: Diego de Los Andes VFX: Ben Moses Smith *special thanks to Andrew McClintock

These photos are for my friend project @snaccmanjones and given all the circumstances, all I can think about are the ghosts I’ve met throughout the time I’ve worked on the streets honest hardworking people who live day to day and cannot afford to get sick because they survive one day at a time, going out to sell flowers, coconut water, clean windshields and more… All that remains for me now is memory, and I wonder what became of their lives. I hope that something of my life stayed with them, above all, the idea of not being afraid, of not being afraid to fail. That has been part of my body of work: the shamanic attempt as a way of surviving life in the city… To those ghosts who live in my memory: freedom.

🤡🎪 THE GREAT CIRCUS OF THE MASTER OF THE WORLD🎪🤡 🗓️ THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18 ~ 9PM 📍@thestraytheater 4319 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90029 ✍️: For the past eight years, a street clown in Los Angeles has lived between red lights and police sirens, performing in the shadows of the city, pretending to be an illegal alien... Yet behind the satire and the traffic lies a deeper truth: he is a trickster who commands the most powerful puppets in existence, the so-called leaders of the world. In this theatrical fever dream, the clown becomes both master and servant, pulling the strings of those who define our ordinary lives. The Great Circus of the Master of the World invites the audience into a ritual of reflection, a surreal collision of power, obedience, and spiritual restoration, staged with the pulse of lived experience and the soul of the absurd.

There’s an inner struggle within us that will always, in the end, lead to peace. As the creative human beings that we are, this ritual I will conduct is meant to help us find peace among ourselves... Come and join me this Saturday to enjoy the gifts of the street and the connection between creatives seeking peace in a world facing geopolitical re-structuring (disconnected from the internet and surrendered to mystery) around 1 pm until late on some corner of Sunset Boulevard... I will also be giving away, for free, the manifesto of my way of making theatre, born from ten years of research in street performance, which I call Agitation Theatre.

Hey friends! I’ve been bringing street theater to life for years—turning red lights into stages and everyday traffic into moments of joy. Street performance is real, it’s alive, and it’s for everyone. And guess what? It’s growing—because of you. Tell me—where are you stuck in traffic? Drop your intersection below and I’ll show up with my new bestie (he wears a suit, I bring the fun) to turn your stoplight into a surprise show. 🎪 Want to be part of the movement? Grab some merch, wear the magic, and keep the spirit alive. Link in bio. 🎥: @happytogetherstudios Big love and laughter—Muack! 💛 #StreetClown #ClownAboveAll #ArtAsResistance #UndocumentedClown #TrafficTheater #GuerrillaPerformance #DIYTheater #ClowningIsPolitical #JugglingTruth #TheStreetIsMyStage #OutsiderPerformance #PoliticalSatire #ClownWithAMission #SupportStreetArtists #PerformingAgainstTheSystem #AntiArtMovement #ArtWithoutWalls #NeoClown #LatinoArtistInLA #MigrationAndArt #RedLightStage #PublicArtMatters #UninvitedArt #NoBordersJustArt #WeirdArtClub #PoeticDisobedience #ArtInPrecarity #BuyArtFromClowns #MerchDrop #LinkInBio

I’ve had these plays sitting in my documents folder for years. Some were produced, some were commissioned but never found a home, and others just refused to die inside my imagination. Today, I’m releasing them—not as a polished collection, but as an act of magic and determination. These stories weren’t made to wait. They were written in the margins of streetlights, in the noise of exile, in moments when I didn’t know if I’d make it through the month. Maybe one day I’ll get them published, maybe not. But for now, they’re alive, and they’re up on my Substack. You can read them for free. Link’s in my bio ~