ritual skin by Rasa Weber from germany

Ritual Skin
- contemporary mourning practice

/ “Everywhere chased and censored, death demands its place everywhere.”
- Jean Baudrillard

/ In the course of time we have successfully liberated ourselves from stiff forms of tradition. Meanwhile something fundamentally human got lost along the way. Death and mourning are completely banned from an everyday perception. We bury our deaths on the cemetery and try to hide our loss. Could a contemporary ritual actually support us throughout the process of mourning? Wouldn´t it be revealing to have a visible sign for our mental state? The project ‘Ritual skin’ uncovers what is otherwise banned to a subconscious level. There is a basic need for mourning in public, and this need has to be poured into a form.
When we are going through the process of loss we are gradually trying to detach from a person. The mourning clothes "Ritual Skin” tries to propose a ritual form for the process of mourning. Over time we can go through states of solitude, depression or anger and slowly we reach a more distant position. Starting with a drastic interpretation of a modern form of ritual clothing, "Ritual skin" describes the process by three aspect:
/ Dissolving: the first shock of loss is a sudden and very emotional moment. A thin layer of textile dissolves just by beweeping the ones we have lost.
/ The peeling: there is a very conscious and deliberate aspect in detaching from a person. Step by step we are peeling away a skin of leather from our shoulders.
/ The monument: in the end a monument in the form of warm wooden shell is decently remaining, as we can never overcome a loved person.

/ In the best case “Ritual Skin” can be seen as starting point to implement a new form of ritual consciousness.

/ Design: Nel Verbeke and Rasa Weber | February 2013 | Design Academy Eindhoven