secretos ritos

Arrosamena art studio

Interdisciplinary visual, rituals and new media.

Experimental workshops

Alvaro Arrosamena organized and directed Secretos Ritos Workshops, including installations and rituals performed during the years 2002 to 2006 7Dreamstudio Goteborg and extended the investigation about politeíst cults, panteist and naturalist rituals in different locations inThailand, Laos, Nepal, Brazil and Uruguay.

Exploring the aesthetic of spiritual practices and magic rituals, discriminated by dominant established Christian religion and the positivist trends in western culture, analyzing the problematic of otherness for people who practiced rituals such as Candombé, Umbanda and Quimbanda originally practiced by African slaves and later by its descendents in Brazil, Uruguay, Cuba and Haiti among other Latin American countries.

Historically prohibited or censured, ignored or discriminated by the good side that was pushing the question of difference and recognizing that the privileged and powerful may have experienced their identities as unitary and coherent and on the other side, questioned, accused and censured native cultures and marginalized or punished people who practiced these cultural and spiritual activities.

The intention of this project is to keep a place to study and represent this kind of ritualistic practices and recuperate respect and tolerance for these full color ancient cults. I am focusing the creation of original and inspirited ritual objects and wear. I use them in performed rituals and choreography with participation of performers, musicians and adherents of the original cultures.

Rituals

Workshops and multiple media

In Music, Drama and Dance the learner has been exposed to rituals and ceremonies. Since early times, objects of art or artifacts have been used during rituals. Artifacts are objects that have been made by man like weapons, tools, clothing, jewelry, masks and containers for food or water. Artifacts provide important clues to the unraveling of human evolution, ecological conditions as well as prehistoric civilizations. Some of the oldest artifacts that have been found are stone implements that date as far back as three million years.

Therefore, artifacts are man-made objects which were made in the past, but have been retained and can be seen as representative of certain cultures. Up to 50 000 years ago, this form of art was used during rituals and ceremonies, where for example the spirits were asked to ensure success in hunting expeditions. That which we regard, as antique artifacts today, were objects used every day for their survival. Artifacts were not regarded as a form of art by the people who made them.

Today people consciously or unconsciously communicate through symbols. Even in using language, a word does not always have a direct connection with the object or idea that it represents, but is a symbol of it. Similarly, rituals are inseparable from the culture in which they are used. A ritual can be described as a planned or improvised representation, which transfers everyday events to another context. The force of a ritual lies in the repetition thereof. When a ritual is planned consciously, it is called a ceremony. All cultures and ethnic groups have ceremonies. Ceremonies are often described as social interventions and are connected to drama.

Over the years, certain rituals become a confirmation of the social values of communities. The four areas of focus in everyone's life, independent of the community or cultural group, are BIRTH, PUBERTY, MARRIAGE and DEATH.

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Secretos ritos

Ritual at art school

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Cleaning ritual at "institution" exhibition

Valand konst skola, Gothenburg, Sweden 2002

The place

The school as a building, the doors and windows, stairs and corridors. The unanimated structure in a specific place. The institution, books, activities and the people that are working and studying. Living our illusions and frustrations. The projection of arts in our life.

The school as an ethereal territory where our own energies coincide with other more complex and powerful ones, affecting the peoples lives and behaviour, creating an energy hole. This is the ethereal energy I choose in this opportunity, creating a spiritual cleaning ritual, inspired by the Candomblé Caboclos cosmology. Caboclos is the fusíon of the ancestral African religion Candomblé Nagó, spiritualism and pantheistic rituals from indigenous people.

"At the time of disintegration, the luxury of Elejibou becomes confusion. And the desperation of the members of the house brings an irreconcilable vacuum of emptiness"

The Ritual

The reason of the ritual is to clean the building from the anguish energies like "pombas girias and mortos menhnos" and stop the action of the energy hole. The pombas girias anguish activity lessens the possibilities of mutual agreement betwen people who are working and studying in the house.

The dead energy of mortos menhnos entities destroys the harmony of the ethereal territory and people are always in danger of losing control of their destinies.

The Ritual is divided into three parts, the first part or "Despacho de Exú" begins in the last hour of Oxalás day,where we keep contact with the Orixás or ancestral divinities. The second part “The Incorporation" begins in the first hour of Jemanyas and Ogúms day. This is the time the mediums incorporate four Orixás, we choose Oxosse, Xangó, Oxalá and Omulú for specifics reasons.

The last part of the "Cleaning" is specifically dedicated to clean the ethereal territory from the anguish entities. In a state of trance the mediums work with the four natural elements, air and fire to attract them into the material state, earth and water to give them a new place out of the house....

From the catalogue "institution"

exhibition at Valand konst skola, Gothenburg, Sweden 2002