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People die, they do, and it is sad
Mostly, anyway. We are sad about it. My grandmother died. I bought a red rose and threw it down on the lid of her coffin at the bottom of her grave. Afterwards we had coffee and cake.
This performance starts specifically inside a small chapel at the Church of Our Lady. Pointed vaulted ceilings decorated with pink, violet and orange along the edges. An altar. Wall paintings. 6 people. Stories about death.
Next we go out into the monastery courtyard. It is dark. We all get a black umbrella (as is appropriate for funerals) and walk around the courtyard and into the main church.
The atmosphere is sacred. (Yes!) We sit in the booths and the 6 people tell several stories, all the way up to the altar. We move, and it moves us. Finally, large parts of the audience are invited up to the altar. Those who told about the dead disappear, and then the audience stands next in line.
We do not get out of here without feeling the sadness that people die. And in the end we die ourselves, but without crying about it. That job is for the others to take.
Death is really annoying
I love talking about death. It makes me happy. Like, rather the others than me? Is that wrong? Maybe. The audience around me is moved, and many cry. I don't.
Then my brother died, and I dressed him in his last set of clothes, put him in the coffin. Then Jan died. Shot his head off with a hunting rifle (the day after I told him about life's beauty). Then Anni died, in Fitness World, of an aneurysm, and I read about it on Facebook. Then a craftsman in Vamdrup died, thrown out through the windshield of his van, bleeding from his ears while I held his head and the ambulance howled in the distance on its way towards us. Then my business associate died, and I bought him flowers. Then my mother died, I carried her from the church to the cemetery and lowered her into the grave. Then...
It's obviously something we have to get used to. Very annoying.
They live as if death doesn't matter, right now
Thank you for the experience Andreas Constantinou, it was good. As a nice period to your other works in the series "The Grief Work Series", where in "Death is Not the End" you create a work of art out of everyday deaths, told by those who survived.
Next we step out into Aarhus, out of the church. It is All Saints' Eve. The city is filled with horror and fear, and young girls in hot pants, bare legs and stilettos. They laugh and are happy in the warm October night, as if death has no meaning for them yet.
Cool.
Death is Not the End, performance by Andreas Constantinou
Collabrorative Artist Tone Haldrup Lorenzen
Performers Mathilde Klint, Camilo Giraldo, Christian From, Zoe Mills, Katrine Olsen, Nanni Lorenzen
Lighting design Jeppe Cohrt
Musical composition Marlou Vriens
Internship Nadja World
Produced by HimHerAndIt Productions.
Ambiorn Happy, Kulturnyt.net
★★★★★★
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