Roots

Performance work of Buba Čvorić

Cappadocia, Turkey | 2008 | Duration: 4 h

…12 o’clock. We found a place and sat opposite from one another. For some reason, in some form of a ‘silent agreement’, we always do this – look at each other for a while and then we start. We started. And even though we did not have an audience, I felt that the entire past of that particular place was present. It seemed as if every cave around us had a couple of eyes that were looking at us. We started to dig a hole in front of us. The soil was very dry and it was almost impossible to dig without some tools. We used our hands and the small stones that we found. While we were digging my energy changed. At one moment I had a lot of energy, but at another moment, I was so slow. Later I found my own rhythm, slowly repeating the same movement. Digging was such hard work, but I’d never doubt that we would reach each other.

  After 3 or 4 hours I touched Buba’s hand. At this moment I felt so calm, so safe. We lied down and held hands under the ground. Our bodies were as still as a statues. Our hands were connected. The soil was pressing our hands. Bugs were walking over my face. We were looking to each other. I felt the smell of dry soil in my nose while I was breathing. The sun’s rays were too strong and because of that I felt like I was melting. With ‘silent agreement’ we decided to finish. I never know how we do this, but it is most of the time related to eye contact. We get up, look at each other’s eyes for a few minutes, just like at the beginning, and we walk in the same direction.

Did we grasp our fears, our roots? When the subject of ritual transformed into performance art, I wondered about this.

This journey was made to relive our past, and to recover our future.

Photo by Hidenori Mitsue