Pneuma Lamentare

Andreea Vladut / Christa Wall

/audio-video installation/ 29’52’’/ 8.1 audio channels/ 2021

Pneuma Lamentare is an audio-video installation that recomposes a mourning ritual as a performative act of vulnerability. It features a composition designed for 8 speakers and a projection at its center delivering the non-linguistic features of the ritual of grief.

Video, 30’
Directed by: Andreea Vlăduț
Choreography: Christa Wall
Performer: Christa Wall
Camera operators: Florine Mougel, Bon Alog
Light Technicians: Sara Piñeros, Sheida Ramhormozi
Sound Technician: Julia del Rio

Video realised with the help of Förderungs Stipendium Linz

Sound
Sound Design: Christa Wall, Andreea Vladut
Electronics: Andreea Vlăduț
Voice: Christa Wall

Project presented during From Tears to Ideas Exhibition funded by Austrian Cultural Forum within #newTogether program

TRAILER 01
TRAILER 02
TRAILER 03
VIDEO

SOUND 4.1 Channel

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Field Research

Ioana Mutu, Teodora Manolache, Dorel Langă, Morunglav’s Taraf

The Field Research contains a series of interviews and laments of one taraf (Taraful din Morunglav), one fiddler (Dorel Langă), and two professional mourners (Teodora Manolache and Ioana Mutu). Taraful din Morunglav and Dorel Langă played the repertoire of a funeral rite specific to Morunglav’s village and talked about all the important aspects of it through the eyes of fiddlers.

Teodora Manolache and Ioana Mutu recalled many stories about themself, their family, Andreea’s family, and they expressed their grief so intensely through laments. Teodora Manolache performed a lament for her mother and one for her cousin. Ioana Mutu performed a lament for her husband, parents, neighbor, and brother. They sang versified laments, improvised laments, using specific elements such as: announcing the moment of passing, praising the deceased, the pain felt by the entire family, signaling the dead relatives from beyond to come to embrace the deceased, etc.

Audio

project realised for From Tears to Ideas Exhibition funded by the Austrian Cultural Forum within #newTogether program


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Pneuma Lamentare - HOLY HYDRA

Andreea Vladut / Christa Wall

/ audio-visual performance / 16 min / 2020

Pneuma Lamentare is a performative approach of the biography of Andreea Vladut’s grandmother (Evoneta Babarelu) as a professional mourner and the role of women as moirologists in different social and political contexts through history.

The work unveils the patriarchal social codes of mourning and proposes an empowering feminist appropriation of the mourning ritual.

Mourning is deeply rooted in the funeral ritual and it follows certain rules, but at its core it is a spontaneous expression of pain.

Sound

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The Biography of a professional mourner

Andreea Vladut /  Evoneta Babarelu

sound - video installation / 2019
/ TV box / 107 x 50 x 50 cm /
/ book / 63 x 21 cm

The profession of mourning, weiling, groaning, sobbing is an almost forgotten procession. It is an ancient tradition, originated from China and Middle East, practices extended in ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and Rome. Nowadays it is an nearly lost tradition, still practiced in some parts of the world. In patriarchal cultures, the laments are performed by women, so called moirologists, because they tend to deliver an eulogy and to comfort the family of the deceased. The act assumes showing vulnerability, which was not acceptable for a man to reveal emotions. As the leaders of the family men are supposed to be strong. But for women the act was a way of verbalisation of the pain itself and of their own sufferings. Mourning is deeply rooted in the funeral ritual and it follows certain rules, but at its core it is a spontaneous expression of pain.

The main character of the biography of a professional mourner is my grandmother, known in the villages she lived in and appreciated for the flame in her voice while performing the act of mourning.

Evoneta Babarelu reckoned this profession beyond tradition and more as an act of grieving for her sorrow during a war and a totalitarian regime. She learnt the whole lamentation ritual from her mother, also a practicant of this profession.

Audio-video installation presented at VALIE EXPORT Center Linz within  BIOGRAFIE STAPELBAR MIT UND OHNE DECKEL Group Exhibition, 2019

Links relevant for the project
HOLYHYDRA 2020
Pixelache 2021
From Tears to Ideas - A dialogue
From Tears to Ideas - Radio Fro forgotten procession. Nowadays it is a nearly lost tradition originated from China and the Middle East. The practice extended in Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, a tradition that lasted for centuries and can still be found in some parts of the world. Mostly performed by women, so called moirologists, because they tend to deliver a eulogy and to comfort the family of the deceased. The act assumes showing vulnerability, which was not acceptable for a man to reveal emotions. As the leaders of the family men are supposed to be strong. But for women the act was a way of verbalisation of the pain itself and of their own sufferings. Mourning is deeply rooted in the funeral ritual and it follows certain rules, but at its core it is a spontaneous expression of pain.