Rites of Separation - project description
The central ideea of my project consists in recreating the emotional experience associated with the rites of separation (first stage in a rite of passage). These rituals are ceremonies wich serve to remove the individual from normal social life, thus dissolving existing social ties and status, so that through the rite of passage he can reach a new existential and social stage. They are staged as a symbolic death; the individual “dies” in the present to be reborn in a new existential stage. The emotional element is essential for the functionality of these rites because they operate by disturbing the individual psyche (introducing an imbalance), therefore forcing the passing from one existential stage to another. My project insists on this emotional shock, central to this ceremonies, trying to recreate it, to induce a learning experience to the observer. Constructed with this emotional shock as the central element, the project works simultaneously with the individual works of art (engraved logs) and with the design of the exhibitional space. The two are conceived to be interdependent, the works of art forming the unstable floor of a space with a deceptively configuration obtained by optical effects designed to create an emotional imbalance for the observer. To produce a more acute imbalance the space affects multiple sensory levels with optical, tactile and sound effects. The idea is to offer the visitor, not a didactic presentation of the rites of separation, but a learning experience, provoking him the emotional shock wich is the key of the rites of passage functionality.
The central ideea of my project consists in recreating the emotional experience associated with the rites of separation (first stage in a rite of passage). These rituals are ceremonies wich serve to remove the individual from normal social life, thus dissolving existing social ties and status, so that through the rite of passage he can reach a new existential and social stage. They are staged as a symbolic death; the individual “dies” in the present to be reborn in a new existential stage. The emotional element is essential for the functionality of these rites because they operate by disturbing the individual psyche (introducing an imbalance), therefore forcing the passing from one existential stage to another. My project insists on this emotional shock, central to this ceremonies, trying to recreate it, to induce a learning experience to the observer. Constructed with this emotional shock as the central element, the project works simultaneously with the individual works of art (engraved logs) and with the design of the exhibitional space. The two are conceived to be interdependent, the works of art forming the unstable floor of a space with a deceptively configuration obtained by optical effects designed to create an emotional imbalance for the observer. To produce a more acute imbalance the space affects multiple sensory levels with optical, tactile and sound effects. The idea is to offer the visitor, not a didactic presentation of the rites of separation, but a learning experience, provoking him the emotional shock wich is the key of the rites of passage functionality.
