Zahra
Fuladvand

During my experiences with the relationship between audiences and performance in an unconventional environment, I gradually understood that there is an invisible string that interconnects all my art practices and me. The ritual aspects of our everyday life were this invisible line between my art pieces and me. From my point of view, the ritual returns us to the centre of who we are. In times of transition, loss, disconnection, and loneliness, ritual offers transformative power. It can provide a language for expression and offer emotional support. Unfortunately, in our modern times, the ritual has lost its original function in human life.
I wanted to bring some of these ancient, thousand-year-old ritual gestures into my performance. I created this language of expression in my complex exam performance based on the Iranian funeral ceremony. “Darkness Before Birth and After Death”

Some of the images of this performance were photographed as a Series of post-documentary photos by Dr. Csanadi Gabor. Besides that, there is a documentary video of the process of photography of the performance shot by Manuel F. Conteras. This photo series and a documentary video were exhibited in the HÁROM HÉT Gallery on September 25, 2020. “After Death” has the same roots as the previous performance but with new branches that started to grow.

I worked with the community of Iranians who are living in Budapest. Being part of a community and working together around a common concept is the first step to getting close to the origins of a ritual ceremony. Representing the form of a few small ritual gestures that still have a function in our culture and our life, the “After Death” performance is the outcome of our gatherings and meetings every Saturday evening for almost 3 months.

The similarity between the Tower of Silence and the Calvary building and its relation with the ritual activities of the Iranian community:

The architectural structure of the Calvary building has a similarity with the structure of the Tower of Silence. Both of them are round towers with a flat circular shape top. In both structures, visitors should embark on a journey climbing up the stairs until they reach to the top. Beside the structure, Mount Calvary evokes the site of Christ´s death on the cross in Jerusalem.