Paradise Lost is an action at the crossroads of social art, ritual, and performance. The community of participants will be invited to experience the process of mourning, not only related to the death of loved ones, but also mourning for the lost connection with nature and the wild world.
In a world that has separated humans from the earth, water, and animals, the longing for wholeness and a living dialogue with the environment is a deeply hidden yet fundamental wound. Paradise Lost will become a space where one can consciously connect with this longing, allowing oneself to mourn the loss, which will not be an act of despair, but of love.
The performance will consist of three stages inspired by rites of passage and archaic forms present in the oral cultures of Eastern Europe:
- Word
An introduction involving a joint reading of Wisława Szymborska’s poetry (The End and the Beginning), which will facilitate reflection on passing away, renewal, and spiritual presence of what has been lost. - Conversation
A sharing circle – the participants will be invited to share their experience of a loss, mourning, and severed tied with nature, the world, and themselves. The aim is to break the taboo surrounding death and to create a community of compassion. - Ritual of body and voice
The final part of the performance will be inspired by shamanic and folk rituals of Eastern and Northern Europe: lamentations, trance voices, rhythmic movement, breath work, and repetitive sounds. The ritual may include work with a shamanic drum, rattles, natural sounds, and collective voice (throat singing, moans, lamentations, murmurs, wails).
The aim of the activity is to restore art to its original function, i.e. creating rituals of meaning, communal experience, emotional truth, and spiritual rootedness. Paradise Lost is neither therapy nor spectacle, but an act of contemporary artistic shamanism that combines body, voice, and presence with the mystery of life.
moderator: Eva Lis
registration: joanna.tekla@arsenal.art.pl
