Rites of Memory/ Rites of Healing

Debora Barrera Pontillo

RITE: (a usually religious ceremony with) a set of fixed words and action. a set of fixed words and actions, esp. as part of a religious ceremony the marriage rite
A rite of passage is a particular event that represents the beginning of an important, new stage in your life.

MEMORY: applies both to the power of remembering and to what is remembered. The act or an instance of remembering. Retaining and recalling past experience; recollection or remembrance.

REMEMBRANCE: applies to the act of remembering or the fact of being remembered   The act or process of remembering. Something serving to celebrate or honor the memory of a person or event; a memorial.

MEMORIAL: A memorial is an object served as a memory of something, usually a person or people who have died or an event. A monument to the memory of someone or something, which is sometimes an event or a group effort

HEALING: to make or become healthy or whole again  spiritual healing; the activity of making a person healthy without using medicines or other physical methods, sometimes as part of a religious ceremony

Performance Description : Globally, across culture, across time we have made marks, brought objects, laid our bodies over and made monument/memorial/shrine/ to remember/ to not forget/ places where “something” happened/ where someone lived and died. A place where tragedy beyond comprehension occurs/ed.  This performance hopes to create a dynamic site of memory and a dynamic site for healing. I hope to make/mark places of healing.  I am working with concepts of  memorial/shrine/ritual space/ social memory/consecrated space /ancestors/ healing. And as Ravi Shankar states “The unbearable beauty of grief”. I hope to offer a space for personal and collective sharing/remembering/mourning and hope.