This is a remix of Babli's and my water rituals, taking into account some of the themes (especially feet, fences, ritual and words (I didn't find a place for dots because I feel lines is closer to borders though I could imagine how this could be a different thing with dots and instructions on or under the dots)
AT ENTRANCE invite folks to remove shoes (optional - would folks do this?)
Projection: One of Meena’s loops of water running down and reverse up a wall at or near entrance.
Step 1 - Ritual footwash There is a large bucket/Tub of river water with a scoop set up, as well as an empty bucket/tub. (or we can keep this handwash if you think folks wouldn’t do it, especially cause it’s cold mid-november)
Audience instructions:
Foot wash
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 each of your feet into the emptier tub
Remembering and honoring: Our bodies are about 60 percent water!
Step 2 - bottling: There is a row of buckets with water and empty little bottles that can be closed.
Audience instructions:
Bottling
Fill one of the little bottles with water.
About 71 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water.
Step 3: Memory/label. ]
Audience instructions:
Memories
Hold the bottle. Remember 2 situations:
1) A memory of you or others trying to cross a fence, border, or river
and
2) a particularly beautiful moment of spending time at a river (preferably Saalach or Salzach)
For each of the memories find one word that captures the memory.
Go to one of the tables in the room and write your two words on a piece of paper and attach it to the bottle.
(NOTE: tables should be in various places so that the lines in next section start in different places too)
Step 4 - Lines (Note 1: this direction may be on portable slips of paper that audience members can take with them and follow the parts as you need. Note 2: On the ground inside are curved intersecting lines - could be of
tape or chalk or washable paint etc)
Audience instructions:
Exchange
Take this slip of paper and your bottle. Find a line on the ground and follow it with your feet. If you come across another person on the same tape path, make a pattern with your feet together and your bottles. Then exchange names, bottles, and river stories. And continue on your journey. Repeat if you come across other people until you get to the end of the line.
Step 5: - Bridges (note: this direction would be at the end of first line they followed and once again on a slip of paper they can take with them)
Audience instructions:
Bridges
Take this slip of paper and your current bottle. Walk between or over the lines on the floor (never on them) If you come across another person, you may create a bridge by connecting your bodies (may be hands, shoulders, backs, feet, elbows) so that someone else may go under it, or if you come across someone else’s bridge you may find a way under it. Continue until you have made or gone under at least 4 bridges or until you wish to stop walking between and over the lines.
Step 6: (perhaps this part is in the final theatrical happening? )
Audience instructions:
Sharing
go to one of the two standing mikes in the room, and read the words on your current bottle into the microphone. You may also share any part of the story you remember that is associated with those words.
Questions:
1. how much of this would you imagine folks really doing? I imagine it with feet since that is one of the words, but hand washing is definitely easier if we want to do that instead? Also, if people prefer not to touch, do you think I worded it in such a way that would give them an out?
2. what do you think folks will get out of this experience?
3. how can we bring in the theme of back to the beautiful even more to it? how can this encourage hidden stories/histories to emerge?
4. Do we need to simplify even more? if so, what do you think the most essential elements are?
5. Any other thoughts, ideas?
This is great! I like how you've brought in the idea of exchange from Tomaz's explorations (clothes for him, stories and bottles for us). Do you imagine that the instructions for the first couple steps are given verbally, or are they written instructions that people follow? Do you imagine that for Step 3, people would tell the stories of bottles that were not theirs after the first exchange? Also, are the bridges that people make with their bodies used as a way to cross the lines/borders, or are they created anywhere in the space?
ReplyDelete1. Perhaps it's better to ask Babli, since she probably knows this audience better than me. I like how washing the feet will connect to walking and journeying, but I agree that the handwash would be much easier logistically, and some people are uncomfortable being barefoot (also the floor is stone, and I imagine the river water will be cold).
2. A sense of physical activation and connection, sharing stories, hopefully ritual consecration.
3. Perhaps there's a way to reframe the prompts to further emphasize hidden histories, beauty, and migration. For instance, "a memory of you, family members, or others trying to cross a fence, border, or river. Perhaps this is a story that you've always kept secret, or one that your family refuses to talk about openly."
The connection between the % of water that covers the earth surface and the explicit use of Saalach water feels a little unclear to me -- maybe there's an additional note about this and underlining that this body of water forms the Austria-Germany border (though I’m assuming most audience will both know this and have a lived relationship to its beauty and status as border)?
4. I do think that if there are multiple stories and bottle exchanges, that this could easily take up 20-30 minutes. I hate to lose the experience of people actually exchanging stories, but perhaps it could be simplified by having audience members make a simple gesture that goes with each of the two words that they come up with. When they encounter another person, they teach their partner the word and gesture (and vice versa). That also seems more repeatable than paraphrasing someone else’s story (and losing its specificity with each repetition) multiple times. And though I love the metaphor of building bridges to cross borders together, it might be okay to cut Step 5 if shortening is a priority.
I am curious how the different objects (tubs, buckets, lines) will be set up throughout the space. I’m also curious about how the ritual might relate to the other elements of the installation (videos, live performance) in time. Does it open the event? Or is there a possibility of splitting up this ritual so that there are various moments of audience activation/engagement throughout, and the pre-choreographed work inflects their experience of each step of the ritual?