An Extreme Ritual

I've just returned from Bristol, England, where I've been attending 'Extreme Rituals: A Schimpfluch Carnival'. This weekend of noise and performance devoted to the legacy of the Swiss performance group Schimpfluch was a truly magnificent event: energising and, to use a grossly over-used word (which I very seldom use!), inspiring. It will be a long time before Rudolf Eb.er's performance, in particular, fades from my mind...

It also saw my collaboration with Vicky Langan take off in an unexpected direction, as she invited me to partner with her on stage in the characteristically raw and intense performance she had devised for the festival. This visceral exploration of  people's need to emotionally (and sometimes phsyically) devour one another proved to be among the most extreme of the weekend's 'rituals', and both Vicky and I are still nursing aches and bruises from it. A privileged experience...