As an anthropologist, I have long been interested in death and memory, but the pandemic accelerated this interest. In the autumn of 2021, when my mother died of Covid, death became a very personal matter to me. For months after she passed away, I was in a limbo zone, where my old self felt dead, but I still didn't have the strength to reinvent myself. I felt the need to give a name to this state and to find rituals that would help me alchemize all the feelings, thoughts, sadness, and guilt, but also the small victories and liberations.  In the spring of 2022, we sold the house that hosted four generations of my family over almost 100 years. The process of emptying the house was a full-time job. Together with my siblings, we excavated the 100 square meters, helped by cousins, close friends, and even strangers, unearthing small treasures and a lot of ballast - trash and objects that had served our family, now useless. It was an emotional roller coaster – we laughed, we cried, we got angry, we tried my great-grandmother's fantastic hats and dresses, imagining we would be invited to the Queen's funeral, we filled hundreds of plastic bags, we carried, emptied, washed, recycled, sold, donated and gave away items from the house in an attempt to find a new life for them. We spoke honestly like we never did, we comforted each other, we remembered things, and got scared of how differently we remembered some things. We rebelled against all the injustices of our childhood. We read the diaries and letters of our mother, grandparents, and great-grandparents, wondering who those people to whom we owe so much and who cost us so many hours in therapy were. We drank coffee from their sophisticated cups, we looked in their mirrors.  While mourning my mother and emptying the house, I invented an artistic practice to prevent myself from going crazy. I was making photo collages with objects found in the house. I called my series of collages: Waiting for my Future Self. Every day, I stayed in my pain, I stayed in my practice. And then one day a sentence appeared in my mind with great force: Every Death is a Gate. I understood that death is both an end and a beginning. Death is a natural moment of life. To some, it offers relief, to others, is a chance for a transformation.   The project I built around the idea that Every Death is a Gate, involved a series of performances in which participants were proposed a community grieving ritual mediated by art. Participants were invited to perform a series of ritualistic-artistic gestures that come to complete the work of grief they were already going through. Unlike traditional rituals associated with death, this one was open, without fixed rules, and without judgment, a ritual that everyone can personalize. The experience was built in layers, using photography, collages, video, text, music, clothes, and household objects, but also practices that simultaneously activate the senses and emotions – such as kneading the coliva [memorial wheat cake] or changing the soil for flowers. All these elements created a space of empathy, where in the end people opened up and began to talk about those who are no longer here, but also about their own fears related to death. In every death, there are two people: the one who dies and the one who remains. And the one who remains is also going through a symbolic death, which transforms him. In griefing, objects are charged with even greater significance than they normally have. Keeping objects that remind us of those who have died gives us hope that the separation is not irreparable. Smells, textures, shapes, and colors trigger memories and help us to archive in a way the relationship with the man who is no more. Every Death Is A Gate proposes an exercise of self-reflection, it is a safe space where every person can think about the objects, thoughts, feelings, and memories from the past that he (still) needs for the construction of the new self.  Making use of text, photos, video, sounds, and objects we aim to inspire people to grieve consciously and to look for the meaning of life in death.   

The project was created with a community of psychologists and anthropologists 

Team:

Project initiator and performer: Rucsandra Pop;

Curator: Iuliana Dumitru;

Video: Irina Botea Bucan and Jon Dean;

Soundscape creator: Gabriela Alexe;

Communication: Raluca Moșescu-Bumbac, Laura-Maria Ilie, Diana Petruț;

Directing consultant: Ioana Flora; Art director: Alec Pop.

Psychotherapists: Elena Iorga, Gabriela Olteanu, Andreea Găzdaru, Nora Neghină, Lorena Sofia Mardale, Victor Fluieraș, Oana Bulmez, Claudia Crișan, Dana Anghel, Alina Tomșa Bogdanffy, Camelia Clem, Florența Simion, Ancuța Maria Gurza, Ciprian Angheluță. 

Partners: FABER Timișoara, Centrul Multicultural al Universității Transilvania din Brașov, Facultatea de Litere din cadrul Universității Transilvania din Brașov, Fundația Hera, Zeppelin, ISCOADA, ARTHUB. 

Plus photo and video

Interviuri: https://www.radioromaniacultural.ro/emisiuni/orasul-vorbeste/orice-moarte-e-o-poarta-cum-ne-transforma-doliul-id43736.htmlPodcast academia Concordiahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds1IORp_Ym8
Finanțator – comunitate și AFCN