Walk Into Nothingness
What happens when you imagine that the world will simply continue without you?
How do you experience the city, the cars, passers-by, shops and growing trees when you yourself become increasingly still?
The last walk
In Buddhist monasteries, people learn through meditation to look at life from the perspective of their own mortality. Robert Steijn has turned this meditative practice into a ritual. Together, you will walk around the city, as though you were taking this walk for the last time. This is followed by a mental departure from your body, without any further emotional identification with the transience of existence. The ritual occurs according to a precisely executed series of movements. The result is non-dramatic, restful and meditative. The second source of inspiration is the feathered snake Quetzalcoatl. Robert Steijn has spent several years researching the cult of this Aztec god in Mexico-City.
• Choreographer and performer Robert Steijn has been making intimate choreographic duets for the past five years. He has collaborated with artists such as Ricardo Rubio and Angela Schubot. As a creator, he has appeared at Kaaitheater with Frans Poelstra, and as a performer with Maria Hassabi. As the co-organizer of the artists’ encounter facing the smell of death, he explores how art can relate to the persistent violence in Mexican society.
> iedereen kan aan het ritueel deelnemen
> meditatie-ervaring is niet vereist
> wel goede schoenen
In onze Westerse cultuur wordt dood en sterven doorgaans bekeken vanuit angst en ontkenning. Tijdens Our Daily Death keren we de medaille om. We nodigen kunstenaars en wetenschappers uit die de dood beschouwen als deel van ons dagelijkse leven. Hoe kunnen we de symbolen en rituelen verbonden aan rouw herdenken, zodat ze meer in het leven staan? Zodat in de toekomst deze thema’s niet enkel aan bod komen in de periode in aanloop naar Allerheiligen en Allerzielen, maar elke dag?