Outset Israel supported the performance of the duo A2 (artists Alit Kreiz and Antonietta Mirto), The Future of Death/Part VI Jerusalem that was a 10-day creative workshop residency exploring the inter-relationship between living and dying, culminating in two 50 minutes public performances in which 40 people gradually buried each other with earth. Through A2 movement and artistic guidance, a chain of people gradually buried each other with earth creating a poetical landscape of human massacre. A meditative performance based on a repetitive action, which was, however never the same. A person entered the space, lied down. A second person entered with earth, buried the first and lies down.
A fourth buried the third, lied down... audience members could join. Our whole life we think we are our body, some of the time we think we are our mind. Is it perhaps at the time of our death that we discover who we really are? Is living in denial of death or in terror of it, is creating a society fixated on short-term results, without much thought for the consequences of its actions? Through cramming our lives with compulsive activity are we avoiding the fear of death or are we merely promoting the fear of life?
The Future of Death was an evolving body of work that took root during a three month residency at Parc de la Villette, Paris. During that time A2 spent a month with the terminally ill in palliative care to research and examine the changes of heart made (if any) on the verge of death and how this knowledge can be put into practice in our lives now. The performances in Israel took place in Jaffa 23, a not-for-profit space of Bezalel Academy of Art.
