Zahra Fuladvand

“After Death”
the Ritual Environmental
Performance
DLA masterpiece show

22/5/2022 at 19:00

1062,Budapest, Bajza utca 41,
Epreskert, Hungarian university of Fine Arts, Calvary Building
Supervisor: Judit Csanadi

I was standing on the roof of the Calvary building located in Epreskert. It was a beautiful sunny day in September 2017, I could feel the sunshine on my skin and the light wind swirling around me. That was my first encounter with this building. I went around the circle of the rooftop observing the buildings of the university departments, statues, trees even the cars and streets surrounding me. I could feel the whole sky above me and this ancient building underneath me. I could imagine people coming up the stairs to see a performance on this rooftop. I keep asking myself: what is the history behind the Calvary building in
Epreskert? How has its function changed from a sacred to an art exhibition place? Is this the right unconventional place to relate me and my thoughts to the audience?

I started to experience the unconventional environment in Budapest in my art practices during my study at DLA. This journey explores the relationship between audience and performance in non-theatrical environments - performance in metro line 3 in Budapest (“The Mirror”, 2019), street performance in front of my previous building (“280 Days” 2020), as well as the video art entitled (“14 Days”, 2019) shot in the hospital room, and (“3 Angles”) video performance shot in an old factory abandoned space, Artus studio.

Gradually, I 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 center 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 time, 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”. “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 rooftop of the Calvary building is where the audiences will meet the ritual performative gestures that come from the Iranian funeral ceremony. The similarity between the structure of the Calvary building and the Tower of silence makes me sure that the Calvary building is the right place for this performance.
The Tower of Silence also known as a Dakhma, is a circular raised structure built by Zoroastrians1 for excarnation. This complex was built to hold the particular Zoroastrians' funeral of the dead.

You are invited to join to this ritual performative ceremony to celebrate our existence, our life and our relationship to each othrer.

Supervisor: Judit Csanadi

Artistic dramaturgy: Samira Sinai

An Environment Designer Artist: Erekle Chinchilakashvili

Performers: Enkhtaivan Ochirbat, Zita Mayer, Lili Mayer, Anna Kecskés

Iranian community creators: Samira Sinai, Ahmad Shekari, Akram Asrani, Arghavan Shekari, Helia Chaichi, Obaidullah Shinwari, Abouzar Soltani, Zahra Fuladvand,

Musicians: Ashkan Ghanbari, Lukacs Laszlo

Costume designer: Arghavan Shekari

Poster designer: Tra Nguyen

Photographers: Csanadi Gabor, Mona Monsefi,

Camera: Manuel F Contreras

¹ Zoroastrianism or Mazdayasna is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest continuously-practiced organized faiths, based on the
teachings of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster