For humanity, death constitutes the ultimate expression of the unknown. No human knows, and no one can know what happens when we die. In this project, a group of Swedish and Haitian artists together focus on how death is seen in Haiti. In the voodoo cosmology, death is viewed in a completely different way, than in our Western ontology. The Haitians believe that everything in the world is spirited. They also believe that death is not the end, but a transformation into another dimension. In the project, we allow the audience to reflect on death, but also to face death seen through an unknown Haitian perspective.
Six artists therefore create an interactive journey into the underworld. The journey is a gesamtkunstwerk where images, virtual 3D worlds, stage technology and music are controlled by dying microbes in real time. We let microbes die under a microscope and their process of dying is analysed by a computer. The digital signals then control all artistic expression in the presentation. This means that the audience sees, hears and experiences death in real time in completely new ways. The audience can perceive death in a more tangible and less abstract way. On the journey back from the underworld, the process is reversed and frozen or dried microbes are brought back alive. This time the digital signals also control all artistic expression in the presentation. This means that the audience sees, hears and experiences resurrection in real time in new ways.
The project is initiated and carried out by our sister organisation MKP and is a continuation of the Vision Forum project Ghetto Gucci which was created in Haiti in 2019 and shown at documenta fifteen in Kassel and at Weld in Stockholm in 2022. It is supported by Kulturbryggan in Stockholm. Photo: Frank Sperling.