Ephemerality of Rituals

Natural Ceremonies for Performative Landscapes

9 min readSep 19

Publication on Maetherea’s Performative Landscape by Giorgia Mazzetti

In dividing continuous duration into distinct periods, rituals distinguish two temporal conditions: a ‘becoming’ part and a series of intervals within it. Differences in frequency, duration and relationship between ceremonies evoke time as the direct matter of the rituals, becoming its physicality.

Rituals need a deep emotional participation, without which it ceases to exist. Moment after moment, gesture after gesture, there is also a need for an aesthetic component in rites, which differs in different cultures, times and environments.

Ritual evolves in time, or space-time, so as not to lose meaning. Ritual is part of a well-defined process of chronotopes, ideal and metaphysical units of space and time. Or perhaps it is the chronotope itself that, with its four dimensions, seeks a rituality that can be identified in coordinates.

Glossary

ritual
/ˈrɪtʃʊəl/

A religious or solemn ceremony consists of actions performed according to a prescribed order.
A prescribed order for performing a ritual ceremony, especially one characteristic of a particular religion or Church.
A series of actions or types of behaviour regularly and invariably followed by someone.

Chronotope
Χρόνοτοπια

Albert Einstein defines the chronotope as the four-dimensional space resulting from the sum of the three spatial variations plus time.
Michail Bachtin suggest it as the relationship between the space-time coordinates that shape a literary text.
Hakim Bey projects its essence in the concept of temporally autonomous zones, unambiguous events of social interaction confined to a specific space for a limited period.