In the work ‘Possibility of a Relation’, the artist Jatun Risba traces in the air and in the space an alchemic matrix for the webs of conviviality to come. A transparent one square meter film – symbolizing the burden of the rising cost of living, including real estate – is attached to the gallery floor with blue tape. This blue-edged square is both a sanctuary of hopes for the future and the threatening abyss of the ocean with its rising sea-levels and the memories of many who died trying to cross it. The artist enacts a poetic performative action with a white wooden board and a spirit bottle containing the artist’s menstrual blood. A poetic spell is written on the piece of wood, representing the body of a ship traversing the Atlantic ocean in a staged minimundus, a world in miniature. Its echo – “possibility of a relation” – is underlined with the artist’s menstrual blood, which is the blood of life and inner cleansing. Through a nonagressive offering of inner substances, the performance creates a portal where time is suspended. In ritual time, past, present and future coexist, so that magic and trans-generational healing can occur. The material traces of the performance become part of the installation. The artwork is informed by and deals with the Transatlantic Slave Trade past in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands. By devising a life-enhancing rite of passage with the use of cruelty-free menstrual blood, the artist detours Zeeland’s past of violence against humanity on one hand and the magical use of blood in Voodoo rituals, gained through animal sacrifice, on the other. This is a recording of the prototype performance 'Possibility of a Relation' that occured on th 8th of June 2023 at the CBK Zeeland in Middelburg, NL. (Source: Jatun Risba)
Production: Jatun Risba, 2024
This video extract documents the Be-coming Tree: Tipperary performance for camera by Jatun Risba during their research Artist in Residence period at Instant Dissidence in Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Ireland in January 2024. The performance is a re-inaction o...
Production: Jatun Risba, 2024
‘Poetics of Colour nu.1’ is an art intervention by Jatun Risba inspired by an ongoing research about the Atlantic Slave Trade History and Vodou & Winti rituals connected to the region of Zeeland, NL. The track in the video is a poetic inte...
Production: OPENS para-academic forum, Jatun Risba, Jireh Koh, 2024
Ganachakra was a transmedia performance and esoteric ritual - a gathering of human and nonhuman kin for healing, revelry, and transcendence. The audience was invited to drink libations, make merry, and enjoy performances by Jatun Risba (SVN) and Jireh Koh...
Production: Jatun Risba, Simon Macuh, 2024
"Ultimately, there is no other. The other is part of us and I will engulf it fully and tenderly." The Intimacy of Otherness is a durational transmedia multisensory performance lecture in progress about radical self-healing from Multiple Sclerosis (2012-19)...
Production: Jatun Risba, Studio Alta, 2024
"Ultimately, there is no other. The other is part of us and I will engulf it fully and tenderly." The Intimacy of Otherness is a durational transmedia multisensory performance lecture in progress about radical self-healing from Multiple Sclerosis (2012-19)...
Production: Jatun Risba, 2023
Shot in the vicinity of the coal-fired power plant Cerano in Puglia, Italy, the video enerRrgy depicts a somatic perturbation in vicinity of the clash between naturally available sources of power (sun, tides, movement) and extractive industries of energy....
Production: Jatun Risba, 2023
Live sound composition and improvisation in an old-fashioned ceramic studio. The use of ritual objects (mala, bell) and the androgynous Baron Samedi outfit are inspired by spirit possession rituals (voodoo & winti) connected with theTransatlantic Slav...
Production: Jatun Risba, 2023
The video essay "Worship in Spirit and Fire" was filmed during an independent field research about ancestral ceremonies, dances and Zār spirit possession rituals conducted by artist Jatun Risba in central Ethiopia in the beginning of 2015. The fieldwork...
Production: Jatun Risba, 2023
The video essay "Worship of Earth and Togetherness" is the outcome of an independent field research on work songs, folk troubadours (azmari) and traditional social customs, rituals and festive events conducted by artist Jatun Risba in central Ethiopia in...
Production: Jatun Risba, 2023
"Merkato" is the 3rd video essay filmed by artist Jatun Risba during a field research in central Ethiopia in the beginning of 2015. It offers an insight into the social choreographies and the material culture of the Merkato marketplace in Addis Ababa. Mer...