An Artist Talks Forum Sprirituality , Beliefs and Rituals, 05.03.2011, Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin

It was a nice sunny day and we had guests: Dhiraj Roy a Hindhou Singer, Svetlana Singer from the US, Udo Wiegand actor, Pauline Payen video artist, Nicolas Puyjalon performer, Urszula actress and Alain Ledezma visual artist performer and musician.

Alain, Orvar artist name, began to explain how he works with the performances and his relationship to rituals. There is a historical reason to his interest since his country has strong roots in primitive practises and beliefs, related to the nature and its powers.
He tries to develop a personal approach and mixes different influences and cultures in his projects He need s to feel the energy of elements that represent life and nature to elaborate his performance and often does them with live experimental music: He is in a mystical dimension and wants to produce more music in the future.
www.wix.com/oorvar/orvar

Dhiraj Roy has already collaborated with sabia Khan in the performance No Man's Land, where he sings live inside the staircase of the Kunsthaus Tacheles. He studied singing at the university and has developed his beliefs throught the practise of the voice. He is a peace maker and participates often inter religious meetings , has been able to sing in Churchs, Mosqs and Temples.

He has discovered that occidental people are very open to his religion and finds many ressemblances in scriptures and writings from his religion and the Bible , for example. He gave us the great pleasure of his voice and sang for us.

Svetlana was visiting a studio and came to see, if she can work in the Kunsthaus Tacheles. She started to experiment working with meditation (chi) and has learnt a special kind of Asian meditation that she teaches now in her workshops. (see interview)

She searches new ways to develop her work and her body and mind together, to improve her capacities to perform, and find herself. She is both an actress and a singer. She is in an identity quest and explores possibilities that come her way.

She has recently pushed her research towards the ethnies of Gypsies from Roumania, and believes she is discovering maybe, a road to her roots.

Sabia Khan is the mediator and experienced the practise of rituals within performances. She has used several techniques, such as the buddhist mantra of the lotus sutra, Reiki and the Muslim prayers, to use as a guide the energy experienced to help the development of her performances. She recently performed, an Egyptian ritual named: "The ritual of the opening of the mouth", that was done to allow a dead person to start his new life, in the Egyptian belief.
Also, available to watch, the performance "No man's land", where both Udo Wiegand and Dhiraj Roy had participated. It took place in the Kunsthaus Tacheles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlLdLbTTF6Q

Udo Wiegand is not using this kind of technique or energy but seems very open to acknowledging their use and maybe experimenting in Workshops. He uses his voice as a tool of course and has invited Svetlana to use the Theater Ixes for her work. Check the Ixes website for future workshops on meditating techniques.
www.ixes-berlin.webs.com

Video artist Pauline Payen shares her belief, but admits, not to use it on a professional level. She keeps it appart from her work. Although the themes she may be interested in, could have a meditative dimension, and the looped scenarios could almost be seen as little rituals, particularly the crashing of the eggs, in her video work named "l´éloges des absents se fait sans flatterie". The piece was recently show in the space 140 Skalitzer.
http://lecumedesjours.over-blog.org

Nicolas Puyjalon is a perfomance artist living in Berlin. He explained that he does usually not work with themes of beliefs and rituals.  But he remembers, that he can have certain rituals built around little objects. He wears a necklace to bring himself luck, and sees sometimes, that these built beliefs  have an influence on his behaviour and work. They determine his mood and sometimes are a trigger to open his strength while performing.
contemporaryperformance.org/profile/puyjalonnicolas