Minnesritualen / memorialritual

Minnesritualen / Memorial Ritual is a performance with 5 women to contribute to the acknowledgement of the first 8 women killed as trollkona/ witch in Småland, Sweden between 1550-1626. For the first time their names and the brutality executed on their bodies are brought to acknowledgement outside of hidden history statistics. We want to give them the burial they never had. We are wearing a sort of apron / tabard to comment/ bringing forth the female body normally placed in the home or as peasant-the free labourer, as a servant to society. Instead of this enforced free labourer we use painted protective markings as to emphasize the female bodies and their power of togetherness. The handblown glass represent their last breath, shaped by mine & the glassblowers lungs made at The Glassfactory in Småland, Boda (part of the Crystal Kingdom). The performance was a quiet action carrying the glass breaths. With the slow movement we created a tidal wave around the circle. With rhythmic breathing and one/two tone sounds from the different glass 'breaths' we gave air to their last breaths. Performed at the opening Nov 22nd 2019- Växjö Konsthall, Sweden Performers Katrin Jonsson, Anna-Karin Andersson, Kristina Geisler Nilsson, Julia-Desiree