Fifth Dot: Farewell death, my old friend

Fifth ; Farewell death, my old friend

The research about death led me to life and questions about freedom. Yet, I still felt that I needed to gain a deeper understanding of death. My favourite way of learning is by experiencing. I wanted to face the fears that led me to choose this path of research. To have a tangible sensation of death. I asked Branka Zgonjanin, a friend and performer, to help me rehearse my demise. We invited my dear ones to attend my funeral and resurrection.

"In shamanic practices, death is seen as a powerful tool to for transformation, same like in alchemy. Yafit Taranto wants to die to release herself from her fear and her old self. With this performance-ritual I propose another view on death. What if death is a lack of ones’ self-importance? What if surrounded by arms of death we learn how to marvel a gem of true life? What if death is a blacksmith of our new transformation witch-prop and fastforward of our human evolution?

What if Yafit dies happily and rebirths herself (w)holy? What kind of life awaits?"

(Yafit's Obituary, Branka Zgonjanin)

During the ritual performance, I was buried in the ground for twentyone minutes. I went through a process of mentally melting into the earth, letting my identity dissolve through meditation. I must admit that though being very frightened beforehand, the physical sensations were rather pleasant. I felt very quiet and peaceful surrounded by earth on a sunny day. The burial and resurrection symbolize finishing the phase of researching death and entering into a new phase of exploration.

My intention is to become a ceremonial/performance host, giving workshops revolving around death and dying. These workshops can give people a chance to get acquainted with death. I feel that this is a project in itself that I want to develop slowly over the course of a year, before opening it to the public.