Here a trial of a water ritual score (rough - transitions/logistics/flow not worked out yet:) for a local Salzburg audience, assuming that we are in the same room with Tomaz (which is unclear).
Imagine the audience is divided in two groups from the beginning. We are in a big hall (Blackbox without seats of risers.
The audience would first have been invited to dance along following patterns of dots in the floor, so everyone or hopefully many people would be in the middle of the dance floor, moving together.
At the end of this they would be seeing a home-video or live-feed style projection of us/some people including us gathering buckets full of water at the river Saalach.
There will be lots of big buckets of water on either side of the big hall (where the groups of audience would have been respectively and requested to go back to the side they were last on).
Steps of the ritual (parallel on bot sides, with different instructions in one step):
Step 1 - Handwash: There is a large bucket/Tub of river water with a scoop set up, as well as an empty bucket/tub. Audience instructions:
Handwash
Take the scoop and scoop out water out from the one bucket/tub
Go over to the second bucket/Tub and let the water run over your hands into the emptier tub (NOTE: Mid-November- water cold!)
Step 2 - bottling: There is a row of buckets with water and empty little bottles that can be closed.
Audience instructions:
Fill one of the little bottles with water.
Step 3: Memory. Stand in the center of the room and hold the bottle. Remember 3 situations: MAYBE HERE GROUP "RAVE" Has one or two different questions.
1) people trying to cross a national border (for different reasons) are prevented from crossing
2) a moment when you were not allowed to cross an external border (political/social)
3) a particularly beautiful moment of spending time at a river (preferably Saalach or Salzach)
For each of the above memories find one word that captures the memory.
Go to one of the tables in the room, write your three words on a piece of paper and attach it to the bottle.
Step 4 - Exchange: find another audience member and give them the bottle.
For the person receiving the bottle: go to one of the two standing mikes in the room, and read the other person's three words into the microphone.
Imagine the audience is divided in two groups from the beginning. We are in a big hall (Blackbox without seats of risers.
The audience would first have been invited to dance along following patterns of dots in the floor, so everyone or hopefully many people would be in the middle of the dance floor, moving together.
At the end of this they would be seeing a home-video or live-feed style projection of us/some people including us gathering buckets full of water at the river Saalach.
There will be lots of big buckets of water on either side of the big hall (where the groups of audience would have been respectively and requested to go back to the side they were last on).
Steps of the ritual (parallel on bot sides, with different instructions in one step):
Step 1 - Handwash: There is a large bucket/Tub of river water with a scoop set up, as well as an empty bucket/tub. Audience instructions:
Handwash
Take the scoop and scoop out water out from the one bucket/tub
Go over to the second bucket/Tub and let the water run over your hands into the emptier tub (NOTE: Mid-November- water cold!)
Step 2 - bottling: There is a row of buckets with water and empty little bottles that can be closed.
Audience instructions:
Fill one of the little bottles with water.
Step 3: Memory. Stand in the center of the room and hold the bottle. Remember 3 situations: MAYBE HERE GROUP "RAVE" Has one or two different questions.
1) people trying to cross a national border (for different reasons) are prevented from crossing
2) a moment when you were not allowed to cross an external border (political/social)
3) a particularly beautiful moment of spending time at a river (preferably Saalach or Salzach)
For each of the above memories find one word that captures the memory.
Go to one of the tables in the room, write your three words on a piece of paper and attach it to the bottle.
Step 4 - Exchange: find another audience member and give them the bottle.
For the person receiving the bottle: go to one of the two standing mikes in the room, and read the other person's three words into the microphone.
I love the way you've translated the notion of exchange, taking on bits of each other, from Tomaz's story about pre-rave preparations including exchanging clothes. I note that the questions you ask in "Step 3: Memory" set up a contrast between a negative experience of borders and the beauty of the Salaach. This aligns with my conceptual understanding of "Back to the Beautiful," yet I wonder at the lack of inclusion of any successful border crossings whatsoever. From my perspective here in California, where some of the most vulnerable are the undocumented, it also struck me that forced crossings (deportations) are every bit as violent as crossings that are not allowed.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it might be nice for the person receiving the bottle to hear the full stories, rather than only read three words?
My other questions are mostly logistical: it seems like there might be a lot of waiting (to speak at the mic, to wash one's hands)...is that desirable? Will the water spill when carrying the scoop of water from one bucket to another to wash one's hands? What is the significance of bottling the water? What happens to the bottles at the end?
I enjoy the connection of seeing videos of people gathering buckets of water at the river to the current buckets of cold water that the audience is washing their hands in and creating little bottles out of.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that #2 allows folks to think of a social or political border, that way it allows multiple interpretations and also a way in for those that have not experienced trouble with political borders.
The three questions sound appropriate, though it might take me a while to think of something for each.
The process of distilling down to one word and then reading each other's words is compelling. I wonder if some folks could volunteer to share one of their own stories in its entirety?
This looks great! I love the connection of having the live style projection at the same time. I love the integration of the dots and how they will move people through both projects. If there is a way to integrate more of each of the stories if people feel comfortable sharing. I think the juxtaposition between peaceful stories of crossing and different degrees of violent stories of crossing. Do you think people will have non-peaceful stories?
ReplyDelete