NOWHERE / NOW WHERE / NOW HERE

Viareggio, Italy 2017 / poem by Diego Bertelli / music by Ryan Ferreira

Commissioned by BAU Contenitore di Cultura Contemporanea, Italy

In an exhibit based on the concept of circular design, this performance illuminates the invisible “circle” of the Buddhist concept of samsara— the continuous cycle of life, death, and rebirth. In reenacting the ancestral ritual of funeral paper 金紙 or “spirit money” or “ghost money,” a message is sent into the afterlife through burning ghost money with the text “nowhere / now where/ now here” and invites users to consider their own messages and legacy-making.

This ritual exists at the intersection of grief, confrontations of our own mortality, and meaning-making.