Harvest Ritual

Sep 14, 2017
1 min read

Artists from Scotland, Germany and Italy come together to explore themes of ritual and harvest cultivating in an outdoor forest performance.

Crossing IV members Alessandra Roberti, Heiko Klandt, Andrea Di Palma and myself joined puppeteer Franziska Merkel for an artist residency in a German forest near Cologne. Bringing together texts and songs from different cultures we explored themes of place and identity. Asking ourselves - what brings people together and how are bonds formed? Are rituals created or passed on? What is a ritual?

Throughout our residency rituals organically began to form. Harvesting food became part of our daily routine, so did exercise, singing and working with the land. Everyday we worked collectively and individually to explore the different ways of creating art with nature. This resulted in a series of installations, music, land art, discussion and performance. Our daily rituals helped to establish purpose and build momentum for our final piece.

We made masks and costumes from different types of grasses, leaves, twigs and flowers. Each day our work would look a little different thus taking on a new form of life.

On the 30th of August members of the public were warmly invited to our temporary art exhibition and performance. We also hosted an Artist Talk, sold mini jars of Jam in a wheel barrow and to mark the end of our residency lit a huge bonfire.