Rite of Passage
Sound Sculpture / Publication
Master´s Thesis Raumstrategien – Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin
2023 Berlin, Germany.
Rite of Passage: A crossroad where we come together.
This is an intent to understand and be transformed by crossing the threshold of the Rite of Passage. Surrendering to the ceremony re-lived in my head as I write – writing and understanding the present moment and present words as a Rite of Passage itself, walking through it WITH ancestors, writers, professors, colleagues, encounters and above all with rhythms and echoes. This written space is a territory for questions, more than answers. In the infinity of Rites of Passage and different kinds of celebration that cultures use to accompany, mark and enhance moments of transition and transformation. I choose to move within the terrain near to my heritage and lived experiences. A terrain that is characterized by being itself a liminal space where different heritages dwell, where generational silences are present and the answers to those silences are many times found in the way the heart feels when experiencing a certain rhythm. So, hoping to find a rhythm in a foreign tongue, all this is an intent to share in words, a feeling and knowledge gained from music and collective dances linked to the last two years of unlearning, questioning and finding a community with which to think. My wish too, is to connect these moments of collective celebration and transition to the dance floor. I see this as a space where bodies come together to enjoy rhythms, to listen together, and to enhance knowledge of dance and its epistemologies; I like to think of it as a way to shrink time and encounter ancestors within the present reality in a moment of collective communion. I see the dance floor and the Rite of Passage as sonic spaces where storytelling takes place and where liminal spaces unfold.
Accompanied by Dr. Prof. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Lerato Shadi & Nasan Tur.
If you are interested in reading all the text you can write a message to hola@amuletomanuela.com
This research started in 2022 with the sound sculpture Rito de Paso
¿How to afford the time for mourning in a society that imposes and demands productivity? ¿how to grieve when one is physically far away?
Rite of passage is my way of taking the time, doing it and honoring it. Not only the grief of dear people to me but also the mourning of many.
Honoring the time for transitions, in a global scale it is a time of mourning of a society that is killing itself and that is on a constant process of ruination; a society that needs to be radically transformed.
The songs and melodies that compose the audio piece are mostly from the Colombian Caribbean in the pacific region, where part of my ancestry comes from. In the Afro-Colombian communities, by singing one takes seven days for mourning and accompanying the process of the one leaving this life. It is mostly done by women. In the context of the Colombian conflict, the songs singed in the ceremonies are also testimonies and acts of resistance, a celebration of life and a ratification of the dignity. A constant call for liberation.
Music and sounds taken from:
Musica funeraria, rituales adultos, mortuorios pueblo kichwa. Ronaldo Yepez
Alabaos en Andagoya, Chocó Colombia
Alabao – Elena Ninestroza
Alabado del pacífico colombiano (timbiquí), Inés Granja
Chigualo – Rosa Wila. Rituales funerarios de Colombia
A tumaco lo quemaron, Grupo Naidy
Perlas del Pacífico, La Juga Grande
