work-free-time / Dávid Somló

Ritual Study #3: Faith in Symbols, Freedom in Restrictions

     
1. 600 HUF (registration ticket)
Trafó pass ia valid, discounts are not applicable.
#community #rituals #pause

Lecture workshop / free school only in Hungarian.

Part of the transdisciplinary focus work-free-time.

How can we form part of a community even if the others are strangers? From January to May interdisciplinary artist Dávid Somló invites us to a five-session free school: a participatory research, or as he calls it ‘lecture workshop’ that explores the nature of ritual in our everyday lives. In the third episode of the series, on March 15, we examine the symbolic and restrictive nature of ritual forms. The sessions can be visited individually, but the free school can also be followed as a whole.

Is it important to believe in ritual forms, or does it suffice to practice them with attention and presence? How do we construct our own personal system of symbols? Can we use forms from other cultures through our own experience? Can the rules and constraints of rituals lead to experiencing freedom?

About the series:
How do rituals create a community without communication? What happens to our attention and perception of time when we no longer have methods for pausing or closure?

In his five-session lecture workshop series, Dávid Somló explores what remains—or what is missing—from community rituals in the accelerated everyday life of contemporary society. The artistic and theoretical starting point for this shared reflection is Byung-Chul Han's book The Disappearance of Rituals, while its practical form is inspired by elements of Somló's participatory art practice. The sessions unfold between thought-provoking theoretical discussions, participatory exercises, and impulses from invited guests (artists, researchers and others) on the topic.

Dávid Somló is a performance maker and sound artist based in Budapest, focusing on spatial-relational practices. Using simple elements, structures, and instructions, he composes performative experiences that evoke connectedness with one’s attention, body, surroundings, and the people around them. His works require active participation to varying degrees aiming to create frameworks where there are no right or wrong decisions, allowing the actions of the audience to manifest in a deeply personal and human way. The success of his recent project The Smallest Passage–where participants balanced an ordinary twig on the tiniest point of their knuckle–was the point of departure for the Ritual Study series.
In collaboratin with: András Cseh, Csilla File 
Coproduced by: Trafó House of Contemporary Arts 
Supported by: Placcc Festival, National Cultural Fund

NKA - Nemzeti Kulturális Alap
PLACCC Fesztivál
TRAFÓ KORTÁRS MŰVÉSZETEK HÁZA
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  • Closed on Mondays.

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